Page 8
University Daily Kansas
Thursday, Nov. 7, 1963
British Press Reconsiders; Accepts Lord Home
LONDON — (UPI) — Second thoughts have been coming thick and fast on the sort of man who is Britain's new Prime Minister.
Three years ago when then Premier Harold Macmillan plucked him from quiet obscurity in the House of Lord to be foreign minister, the outcry in the nation's press was horrendous.
LORD HOME, as he was then and remained until he renounced a bagful of ancient titles to become Sir Alec Douglas-Home and make himself eligible for the House of Commons, took it all in quiet stride as, indeed, he continued to do and continues still.
One of the more famous headline taunts in July, 1960, was the Daily Mail's. "The faceless Earl" was what the Mail called him, adding that he had "all the talents except the ones that make a top man."
If Lord Home had any private opinion on the name-calling it may have been voiced by his wife who tartly told the Sunday Times on July 31, 1960: "As far as I'm concerned he is able enough for any post in the government, even prime minister!"
The prophetic insight of a loyal wife found no echo, either in the Sunday Times or anywhere else. The best the Times could think to state on that occasion was that "unfortunately not everyone shared Lady Home's enthusiasm."
TRYING TO HEAD off the formal appointment, the tabloid Daily Mirror, classed as an independent newspaper and with the largest circulation in Britain, waxed indignant as only British editorialists can.
"No! No! No! was the Mirror's shocked front page greeting of the news. And in an open letter to Macmillan it said:
"You still have time to stop making a fool of yourself—and a bigger fool of his Lordship." Then on its main news page, in an article headed "Oh, Lord!," the Mirror said if Macmillan stuck to his "ludicrous selection," he would be "guilty of the most reckless political appointment since the Roman emperor Caligula made his favorite horse a consul." (That comparison, incidentally, was dragged out and used again when Douglas-Home became premier).
THE ULTRA-conservative Daily
Express was scarcely less shocked that July than the Daily Mirror, the Mail and other popular publications. It gave over its famed William Hickey gossip column to suggesting that Home's playwright brother, William, might find in the selection "meat for another political comedy."
THE LABORITE Daily Herald never recanted and presumably never will. Nor the Communist Daily Worker. But the conservative and liberal press has been taking another look, building a solid face on the faceless earl.
Hardly a voice could be found to say a good word for the new foreign secretary in 1960.
Approving voices were nearly as scarce in 1963 when it began to look as though he might come through October's bitter political struggle as prime minister—but the British press cannot be accused of not recognizing a fait accompli when it sees one.
against Home in 1960, reported after Douglas-Home became prime minister something it missed the first time 'round on the Scottish Nobleman; that in the House of Lords "the labor peers were well aware of his abilities in debating and diplomacy."
The liberal Sunday Observer, confessing to its readers that its voice was in "the storm of indignation"
Further, the Observer said, Foreign Secretary Douglas-Home had kept "a firm hand at the foreign office," "got on well with the Americans," and helped by his "positive assets" to improve East-West relations.
under-estimating Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home. That is something a few people . . . have already done to their cost."
"Home has an instinct for leadership. The Tories have an instinct for the right leader. If past form is any guide, Home will surprise his friends and confound his critics as certainly in his new role as he has done in all his others."
THE EVENING NEWS and Star flip-flopped as far as anyone. It gave big display to a special report on the new prime minister by M.P. Charles Curran, who wrote:
Even the Daily Mirror was busy
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