6 OCTOBER 1967, Page 3

Age of dissent

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS'

When he was one and twenty, I heard a Liberal say, Scrap want and war and marriage And love will find a way.

Scrap work and whips and leaders, And Liberal youth will win. With some five hundred standing A dozen might get in.

When he was one and twenty, I heard him say once more, A Liberal of forty Is generally a bore.

He said it loud and plenty, And now he's forty-two, And other Liberals say it And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.