THE PRESS
Haley's Comment
By JOHN WELLS
The f is weak
because one mild and balmy Dulwich dawn when dew-hung daffs stood glist'ning on the lawn and doves were warbling in the vernal wood Sir William Haley saw that it was good; -
because beneath his mild, majestic gaze Old England rose from out the golden haze: yeomen in smocks broadcast the heavy grain: he missed them, and he also missed his train;
because the Southern Region, always late, was running early: in the end, irate, he had to stand with trackmen black with grease, and only .` finished half of War and Peace;
because he is disturbed: can they have no regrets? sit there and yawn, play cards for cigarettes? while Merrie England, this fair land, their home, goes down like Lyonesse beneath the foam because these idle oaves in dungarees envious for years of their employers' ease have now dis- covered they can do the same: for all have sinned, but some must take the blame: because they know his mood, his minions stare: he sits now at his massive desk, cold, bare: the awful Judge, all England in the dock : Sir William Haley, ticking like a clock; because he's thinking: England, Power, the £: quick-paper, pen-the writing, black and round scrawls out across the page: the f is weak be- cause, because, because ... the wild eyes creak; because of all that passion, rage and spleen: woe unto them, the lightning flashes green : the prophet roars, the flaming thunder cracks, the snaggled lash flails at their squirming backs; because unhampered by the heavy facts of economic subtleties and pacts the pious captain's voice rings wild and free, for as a boy Sir William was at sea;
because the sacred columns of The Times re- sound like sonorous cathedral chimes the mes- sage carries far: 'the f is weak': the f obediently staggers, Tories shriek;
because they feel that Haley's on their side and from the depths of Surrey, far and wide, all those behind the Times begin to bray, de- manding leadership, a King, or MRA;
because the King prefers in recent days the might of pen-the sword can cut both ways-
both he and Rothermere cry parrot doom: only the experts fall about the room; because as Haley's Comment streaks the sky those who love fireworks point at it and sigh: 'if only other men could write like this' and rumble down the road to the abyss;
If the British people had the ears to see and the eyes to hear, this is what the general elec- tion would be about.
Previous page
