30 SEPTEMBER 1955, Page 7

WHEN, during the election campaign earlier this year, Mr. Aneurin

Bevan referred to the Conservatives as `Gadarene swine,' he was indignantly reproved by many Conservatives and Conservative newspapers. I could never understand why, since `Gadarene swine' is a perfectly respectable metaphor. I now find, in Mr. Robert Blake's biography of the Conservative Prime Minister, Bonar Law, which qppears next week, that Bonar Law, soon after he was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1911, referred to the Liberals as `Gadatene swine.' Bonar Law's Presbyterian background and the fact that his biography has been sponsored by Lord Beaverbrook would seem to acquit Mr. Bevan of accusation § of bad taste.