Word: freuded
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Politics, as Clement Raphael Freud might put it, suffers from too many amateur comedians. Clay, as he is popularly known, is a pro. He is also the newest member of Britain's House of Commons. His spectacular upset victory in a by-election last month, combined with that of another Liberal on the same day, has set pundits pondering the possibility of a Liberal Party resurgence (TIME, Aug. 13). But for those who care less about which party is up or down than how entertainingly the game is played, the feat of Clay promises much more: a revival...
...grandson of Sigmund, Freud has long tickled Britons with his acerbic, urbane humor in print and on television talk shows. Though the contest in the Cambridgeshire constituency of Ely marked his debut in politics, he quickly found the field fertile for his brand of fun. When his Conservative opponent showed a lack of familiarity with rural Ely, Freud labeled him the "identikit candidate." Freud then arranged for somebody to ask the Tory during a TV debate whether he approved of giving funds to MAGPAS. "Oh, yes," chirruped the candidate, a young London stockbroker. "Indeed, yes, an admirable idea. Splendid, splendid...
...Freudian quips and tricks can be gently disarming. When a woman voter complained to him about the style of new development houses being constructed, Freud replied: "Madam, for you we shall build an old house." He customarily ended campaign speeches by pulling out his pocket watch and looking at it mournfully. "This was my grandfather's watch." Pause. "He sold it to me on his deathbed." As for his contribution to the House of Commons, Freud says, unconvincingly: "It is not my ambition to liven up the debate in Parliament." But, he adds, with a look as baleful...
Humor has not monopolized Freud's life. Now 49, he is or has been a gentleman jockey, a race-car driver, an apprentice chef at the Dorchester Hotel, a cabaret owner, a trustee of London's Playboy Club and the author of a singularly uncharming children's book about a boy named Grimble whose parents forget things like birthdays and breakfasts. As a journalist, he has written for the lofty Financial Times and the lusty News of the World, as well as others in between...
...victories of Austick in Ripon and Freud in Ely occurred in well-to-do farming areas formerly considered among the safest Tory seats. To increase their advantage, the Tories called the by-elections so soon after the deaths of the Tory incumbents that one of the bereaved families complained about unseemly haste. In Ripon, the Liberals did not have a phone at their campaign headquarters until two weeks before the vote. In Ely, Freud recalls, "there were 400 sq. mi. of trees already plastered with Conservative posters while I was still waiting to get estimates from my printer...