20 DECEMBER 1963, Page 11

Michael boot

He has' survived the shattering crash that injured him and his wife. Soon he will be thundering again from Tribune. He brings passion into a grey age of politics. He has a biting original wit. He rasps in public and is• gentle in private. He is a humanist. He is also, 1 suppose, a Socialist : but if he is then 90 per cent of the Parliamentary Labour Party are not. He will always storm into and out of his chosen party, the despair of Chief Whips and the delight of his friends. It is wholly appropriate that he is both the Member for. Ebbw Vale and Aneurin Bevan's biographer.

QUOODLE