Alec Douglas-Home, RIP

ALEC Douglas-Home, who died on October 9, exemplified a style of politics and an ideal of public service that have vanished from politics in Britain as elsewhere. Indeed, they had all but disappeared by the time he became Prime Minister in 1963, a position he held more briefly than any other incumbent of Downing Street this century, except Bonar Law. Combined with his aristocratic appearance and demeanor—he had renounced an earldom in order to become Prime Minister—his old-fashioned style of politics made him a favorite target of a new generation of journalists to whom he appeared a ludicrous figure, one better suited to the grouse moor than the hustings.

Despite his alleged shortcomings (and a famous ignorance of economics) he took a demoralized party from certain catastrophe to within range of victory in

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Gerald Frost

ALEC Douglas-Home, who died on October 9, exemplified a style of politics and an ideal of public service that have vanished from politics in Britain as elsewhere. Indeed, they had all but disappeared by the time he became Prime Minister in 1963, a position he held more briefly than any other incumbent of Downing Street this century, except Bonar Law. Combined with his aristocratic appearance and demeanor—he had renounced an earldom in order to become Prime Minister—his old-fashioned style of politics made him a favorite target of a new generation of journalists to whom he appeared a ludicrous figure, one better suited to the grouse moor than the hustings.

Despite his alleged shortcomings (and a famous ignorance of economics) he took a demoralized party from certain catastrophe to within range of victory in