Elephantine sagacity
WARD Hunt and his island are on the map, and not before time. The intrepid baronet Sir Ranulph Fiennes, defeated in his attempt to walk to the North Pole on his frost-bitten toes, has been rescued and brought back to his base, off the north shore of Canada — on Ward Hunt Island. It must have been one of Disraeli's impe- rial gestures, India for his sovereign, an island for his Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ward Hunt is a standing rebuke to the girthist attacks on the present Chancellor, resented by so many of us on his behalf. Like Nigel Lawson, Ward Hunt was a Financial Secretary to the Treasury who won his promotion. Unlike Mr Lawson, he weighed 21 stone. Disraeli described him to the Queen: 'He is more than six feet four inches in stature, but does not look so tall, from his proportionate breadth. Like St Peter's, no one is aware of his dimen- sions. But he has the sagacity of the elephant as well as the form.' What an admirable quality in a Chancellor is elephantine sagacity! When Sir Ranulph next goes exploring, he must look out for a suitable island which can be annexed to the British Crown and called Lawson Island.
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