Stick from Carrot
Sir: I had feared my account of George Walden's mental acrobatics on Maastricht (`The turning of the Tories', 13 June) might draw a drop of blood; little did I expect to draw (as Tony Hancock might have put it) a whole armful (Letters, 20 June). Still, I am glad to see good old George responding with the charm, reason and good grace that have made him so popular among his fel-
low MPs at Westminster, and have caused brother journalists on the Daily Telegraph to take him so completely to their hearts.
Regular readers of that great newspaper will be aware that George is not hired to pronounce because of the entertaining ele- gance of his style, nor for his wit. He is hired because he is always right. So when a soupcon of fallibility creeps into his world view, it is little wonder he becomes edgy. If such lack of omniscience becomes a habit he may have to seek work on a paper that cheerfully recognises that the gods will give us faults to make us men (like The Spectator); he may even have to become a Minister of the Crown again.
Incidentally, neither the excellent library of the House of Commons nor that of the Daily Telegraph can furnish me with further evidence of George's alleged consistency on this question; which is why I did not quote him more widely in my original arti- cle. As always, I sought only to be fair.
Come on George — put down thy Kafka! Take up thy Ovid! Fas et ab hoste doceri! Simon Heifer
Press Gallery, House of Commons, London SW1
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