FOR YEARS disciples of Alistair Forbes have looked for his
political commentary in the same place in the Sunday Dispatch: at the bottom of .the left-hand middle page—the only thing in the paper worth reading, except, occasionally, for Patrick Campbell. During the Suez crisis some of ohs wondered, as we collected our Sunday news- papers, whether Mr. Forbes's column would still be there; for the Rotherthere press (after waver- ing on the day of the ultimatum) fell in behind the Suez Movement, whereas Mr. Forbes spoke out strongly and frequently against it. Surprisingly, he rode out this crisis; and two Sundays ago he actually received promotion : he was moved to the top of the page, the column's headline being accompanied not merely by a portrait of himself 'but also by a reference to him as 'Britain's Most Pungent Political Commentator.' This typographi- cal eminence was achieved, however, at the cost of cutting (without warning Mr. Forbes) no fewer than 600 words out of his article criticising the Government's defence programme, and reducing it in places to nonsense. Inevitably Mr. Forbes made some pretty pungent complaints about this treatment, as a result of which his pungency will be felt no more—not at least by readers of the Sunday Dispatch. Mr. Forbes has been fired.
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