3 APRIL 1971, Page 5

Common talk and treacle pud

Overheard in Turpin's restaurant, Hamp- stead, where they do a special Sunday roast- beef and treacle pud kind of English lunch, Norman St John-Stevas saying with his usual confidence to his young companion, 'We'll be in• the Common Market within three years'. Hampstead is, of course, the Cliveden of the Marketeers' set; but even so, St John- Stevas's ill-judged confidence greatly dis- pleased one old dear, who muttered away into her gravy.