What's the Percentage?
hear that the Liberals are at work on some really spectacular recruiting stunts. Certainly there are sonic smart operators among the leaders of the party. During one of the earlier Liberal revivals a close friend of mine was in- vited to lunch by one of them. Over coffee and brandy the host came to the point. He said first that he had been impressed by some articles my friend had written in his paper, and then that he himself had been invited to write (for what fee he did not specify) a weekly article in a Sunday paper with a huge circulation. His proposition was that the journalist should write the articles and take twenty per cent. of the proceeds, while he collected the fat balance for writing his name at the top. Even for a hard-up journalist (who was, admittedly, still young and innocent enough to be slightly shocked by the ghosting business) this was a bit much. For myself, I admire the quality of the brass in the neck that has held up that head so long among the top Whigs who run the party. No wonder, with such laissez-faire still alive, that Hugh Gaitskell is deeply suspicious of any Lib-Lab negotiations. What's in it for them, eh?
Previous page
