Toping and Niagara
Sir: Peter Paterson complains (Harold was a toper too', 9 January) that in a Mail on Sunday article I did not say at what time in the evening of 14 March 1968 I answered, in the Press Gallery bar, a call from a No. 10 Downing Street telephonist search- ing for a drunken George Brown. And there's me thinking I had done well to remember the date!
But he is too enthusiastic in defence of Brown when he seeks to excuse him by say- ing there was a 'distinct possibility' (no evi- dence offered) that Wilson was the worse for drink that night, too.
It is true that in his latter years Wilson took to the brandy. But I only saw him real- ly squiffy on one or two occasions, roughly as often as I saw George Brown completely sober. To compare Wilson's drinking to Brown's is to liken a dripping tap to Nia- gara Falls.
Joe Haines 1 South Frith, London Road, Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Previous page
