And Another Thing | 28 June 2008

In the early 1960s, Harold Macmillan used to say: ‘The three big interests any prime minister should beware of taking on are the Brigade of Guards, the National Union of Mineworkers and the Roman Catholic Church.’ The maxim was true enough in those days but 50 years later makes little sense. The Brigade still has a certain leverage, I concede, at the War House, more so than Gunners, Sappers, Greenjackets, etc., but is of no consequence outside strictly army affairs. When did you last see a Tory MP or the chairman of a big quoted company wearing a Brigade tie? The power of the NUM was destroyed by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, and Arthur Scargill, the man who helped her do it by his obstinate stupidity, is forgotten. As for the papists, they have lost all their recent pitched battles under the leadership of Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, a splendid-looking man who radiates great charm, but is all painted lath and plaster.