Word: rab
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Nothing perhaps pleased Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler and his Conservatives so much as the designation: "Chancellor of the Continuing Boom." Britain's boom and its attendant pleasures-the highest standard of living ever, the end of all rationing, a 50% increase of production over prewar years-was the largest single reason for the Tory sweep in the May general elections. After six years of war and half a dozen more of stiff austerity, all this seemed too good to be true...
...Last week Rab Butler rose in the House of Commons, and to the discomfiture of his party and the pleasure of the Laborites, announced that the boom had gone too far. Britons were buying too many of their own goods, exporting too few to maintain the island's economic balance. One immediate result: 1955's first half saw Britain's chronic trade deficit rise by a walloping $767 million over the same period a year...
...restrict the spending spree, Rab Butler slapped restrictions on installment buying of autos, large appliances, etc., warned banks to clamp down on loans, appealed to private businessmen to postpone capital spending that would not boost exports...
Party Rites. Father Janos' cellmate proves to be Hungary's No. 2 Communist, Leslie Rab, a character clearly modeled on onetime Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Rajk, who was purged in 1949 as a Titoist. Rab is the great sinner unknowingly on his way to penance. For the second half of the novel, the good Christian and the still-loyal Communist stage a fascinating intellectual wrestling match for each other's minds and souls. Rab scoffs at the existence of God and His goodness: "Did God create man for misery, for eternal struggle, in order to enjoy...
...trial both men confess, Rab as a last pious rite to the party, Father Janos to save his friends and fellow priests from further torture. But before he mounts the gallows, Rab, feeling "an absolute void within me,"' kneels before Father Janos and asks "to die in the peace of faith." Author Kovács sometimes mashes a thumb with his literary chisel, but when he hits the historic mark, the apocalyptic tableau of hammer and sickle v. the cross stands out in bold, fresh relief...