PEOPLE AND THINGS
By HAROLD NICOLSON
ALTHOUGH not by all means a Conservative (since I am also a Socialist and a Liberal), yet I have a pro- found admiration for the Conservative party. It seems astonishing to me that something so venerable, so stolid in its way, so large, should display such apt dexterity. There are moments when I hold my breath in amazement, as when one watches a huge sea-lion catch (without the slightest change of expression) a ping-pong ball upon its nose. Expert Conservatives (such as Captain Margesson and Sir Kingsley Wood) appear to take all this for granted; they watch the performance with a wearied and blasé air ; it is only when the ball misses the sea-lion or the sea-lion misses the ball that they allow themselves a soft click of irritation. Amateur Conservatives, such as I am, cannot achieve this Olympian impassivity; we sit there, like children at a panto- mime, nervously entranced.
Previous page
