Word: butler
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Maudling popped out from the Treasury, just across the street from No. 10; Butler, a grim rider in a black Daimler, was momentarily roused from introspection by the cheers of the crowd; Hailsham, reportedly the hardest-dying, refused to say anything about anything. They came and went, as the sun set and the TV lights rose, then came and went again. Lord Privy Seal Edward Heath went on BBC television to praise Home's "integrity, clarity, judgment and perseverance" and to hope "that all our colleagues will be able to serve with him." Selwyn Lloyd insisted "he will make...
That night R. A. Butler faced his decision. He and his tearful wife Mollie returned to their suite at the ornate, Edwardian St. Ermin's Hotel. Some time between a Scotch nightcap and dawn, Politician Butler surveyed the situation with all his political acumen and concluded that he simply did not have sufficient support inside the party to carry through the rebellion. He also knew, as he told friends later, that either decision, to fight on or to quit, would be criticized, but he decided to give up rather than seriously damage the Tory Party...
Next morning, arriving on the steps of No. 10, Home had a bright wish: "I hope everyone on this fine Saturday morning can forget about politics, except me." Not a chance. Back came Butler to surrender. Then, at last, the hour of glory: Home's appearance on the doorstep, his smiling announcement that he was off to see the Queen, the quiet talk with Elizabeth in the Buckingham Palace audience chamber as sun softened the palace gardens and a military band played for the changing of the guard in the forecourt. Had he been able to form a government...
Outwardly at least came the inevitable closing of the ranks. This week Home announced his new Cabinet containing the solid Tories, including Butler (named Foreign Secretary), Hailsham and Maudling (in their old jobs) and Heath (named President of the Board of Trade). Missing: Iain Macleod, co-chairman of the Tory Party, one of the rebels who could not reconcile himself to the way Home was chosen...
...Labor Party is already in full cry. Describing the Tory selection process as viciously undemocratic, the Laborite Daily Mirror wrote: "Butler has been betrayed, Maudling insulted, Macleod ignored, Heath treated with contempt and Hailsham giggled out of court by the jester in hospital." Deriding the Tories' "aristocratic cabal," Harold Wilson last week took aim and declared scornfully: "In this ruthlessly competitive, scientific, technical, industrial age, a week of intrigues has produced a result based on family and hereditary connections. The leader has emerged-an elegant anachronism...