Scoop of the Week With a fine impartiality, we have
asked an MP from the Government benches, Desmond Donnelly, to succeed a member from the Oppo- sition benches, Charles Curran, as our commen- tator on the press for the next few weeks. And, talking of the press, I feel impelled to take this opportunity to award the SPECTATOR scoop-of- thc-week prize to Miss Nora Beloff, for her ex- clusive disclosure last Sunday of the real reason for the Prime Minister's invitation to Mr. Heath to take sherry with Sir Hugh Beadle at 10 Down- ing Street. `The purpose of the invitation,' she. revealed, 'as outlined over the telephone to the principal guests, was that the three parties should pay collective homage to the Queen's represen- tative.'
What a pretty thought. Except, of course, that Sir Hugh Beadle isn't the Queen's representative, that if the Leader of the Opposition wishes to pay homage to Her Majesty (and this is going to shock Nora) he doesn't have to visit No. 10 to do so, and that the whole Rhodesian affair is rather more than a prolonged Buck House gar- den party.
On another page Miss Beloff curiously described this paper as being 'now somewhat repentant' about the publication of Angus Maude's article a fortnight ago. As a measure of our repentance we have this wees invited Mr. Maude to write again.
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