Lord Home's Aspidistra Club
Sir: There was one paragraph in Lord Home's autobiography which Mr Powell, either out of chivalry or out of carelessness, overlooked. This was Lord Home's confession that in his 'varsity days he had belonged to an aspidistra club, a club with the singleminded purpose of destroying every aspidistra it could find. The aspidistra is, of course, the symbol of the respectable, aspiring working class. Keep the Aspidistra Flying was the title of George Orwell's book on the subject.
True, young men are often guilty of indiscretions, but such deep-rooted snobbery is seldom outgrown. So I cannot see how Miles Hudson can credit Lord Home with 'Christian humility'. Nor with 'wisdom'. Was it not reported in the Sunday Times several years back that the Lord never reads a newspaper, with the exception of some local Scottish paper?
0. Matthews 71 Cranbourne Road, Northwood Hills, Middlesex
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