Debrett's relevance T his year, in what the publishers call 'a
revolution at Debrett', Debrett's Peerage is subsumed in a book called Debrett's Handbook. The main innovation is 'an extremely relevant and contemporary "who's who" ' with a 'totally unique nature'. Some of this totally unique and ex- tremely relevant flavour is conveyed in the advance publicity put out by Debrett. 'DO YOU KNOW WHO IS:..?', it asks, among other questions, 'Nephew of the translator of Proust, retired solicitor and former Bailie of Holyrood', 'Baronet and water-diviner', 'The new chairman of Marks and Spencers', 'A retired judge who shoots revolvers': 'THE HANDBOOK HAS THE ANSWERS:' — David Scott Moncrieff, Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk, Bt, Lord Rayner and His Honour Bernard Lewis. With a foreword by the omnipresent Lord Tonypandy and a preface by Sir lain Moncreiffe of that Ilk, the new Handbook is clearly designed to cash in on the idea that genealogy is terribly amusing. The truth, unfortunately, is that it is only faintly amusing, and not funny at all when those who are supposed to take it seriously try to play along with the joke themselves. A peerage is an important work of reference, which is why a number of customers are prepared to pay £39.95 for Debrett. 'It is not just another dry, dull reference book ... ', say the publishers. But it should be.
ir Geoffrey Howe's statement to the OHouse of Commons on Tuesday con- tained two notable euphemisms. He said that officials of the Libyan People's Bureau visited the Foreign Office in the night to say that the Libyans 'would not be responsible for the consequences' of the demonstration the next day. This was a way of saying that they would be responsible for some very nasty consequences indeed. Sir Geoffrey also said that, in any review of the scanning of diplomatic bags, 'We have to decide in these cases how best to protect British in- terests, in particular the security of our essential communications'. Sir Geoffrey was trying to say that we have to make sure that we are not detected when we bring spying equipment into other people's countries.
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