Winston Churchill

ABOUT BOOKS
RULES OF THE OTHER CLUB
These are the original Rules, though some have altered. Rule 3 was immediately and frequently
violated. As for Rule 6, "the Club is not immune from inflation; and these figures
are variable"— but imagine what £2 bought for dinner in 1911. Rule 7 had the clear
purpose of altering no vote in Parliament. Although Rule 11 remains unchanged, there
has been no Executive Committee since 1970 and its powers are exercised by the honorary
secretaries. The Rules are read aloud at every meeting and graduate Members have long
known them by heart:
1. The Club shall be called the Other Club.
2. The object of The Other Club is to dine.
3. The Club shall consist of no more than fifty Members and not more than
twenty-four Members of the House of Commons.
4. So long as this number is not exceeded, any Member may propose a Candidate
for election to the Committee, and the Committee may circulate the
name of any other Candidate or Candidates (but not singly) to the Club
for election at such time as they think fit.
5. The Club shall dine on alternate Thursdays at 8.15 punctually, when Parliament
is in session.
6. There shall be an entrance fee of £5 and an annual subscription of £7 10s. £2
shall be charged for each dinner.
7. The Members of the House of Commons shall be paired from 8 o'clock until
10.30 p.m. unless they arrange to the contrary through the co-secretaries.
8. The Executive Committee shall setde all outstanding questions widi plenary powers.
9. There shall be no appeal from the decision of the Executive Committee.
10. The names of the Executive Committee shall be wrapped in impenetrable
mystery.
11. The Members of the Executive Committee shall nominate the Secretary, who
shall receive no remuneration and shall be liable for all unforeseen obligations.
12. Nothing in the rules or intercourse of the Club shall interfere with the rancour
or asperity of party politics.
a sort of Coalition Liberal. But now, at
last, Sir Colin has found a subject worthy
of a former Times leader-writer.
How like matadors do his characters bestride
their political ring. Modestly he
keeps on denying that his Other Club is
merely a group of Churchillian sycophants;
but the great man, together
with that Smith among Smiths, are here
as Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger.
Their coruscating wit shines
through these pages of history. Here's
Churchill replying to a speech by
Smuts: "I have known him long, very
long; I remember the first time I saw
him. It was in the Colonial Office in
1906." (Factually, remarks a footnote,
this happens to be wrong.) Smith—
who once, when a judge called him offensive,
said, "As a matter of fact we
both are; the difference is that I'm trying
to be and you can't help it"—is
given personal credit for The Other
Club's twelfth and final rule: "nothing
in the rules or intercourse of the Club
shall interfere with the rancour or asperity
of party politics." It was once said
of a famous England cricketer that
there was only one bigger head in the
North: Birkenhead.
Where Sir Colin most excels is
in his character-drawing. With how
deft a twitch of the pen does he describe
Lord Goddard, who was "as
forthright about hooligans as about
port." (Coote can't have been an ignorant
tippler himself, in the great days.
The Club ran short of brandy during
the War: "After considerable research, I
discovered an excellent 1875, a passable
1904, and an undated concoction with
a kick like a mule. Churchill unhesitatingly
chose the mule.")
Like a sack of marbles on a hot
tin roof the names drop. There was
"Lord Tweedmuir, better known"
"Winston in the Pinafore Room," sketched by
a Member. (WSC: "All babies look like me.")
(surely not?) "as John Buchan, who
wrote tremendous adventure stories...
with the pen of an angel," and Alfred
Munnings, "whose portrayal of horses
was divine." Don't think, though, that
the club isn't democratic. "One of the
distinctions which his command in Iraq
won for Sir John Salmond was a membership
of The Other Club." J. H.
Thomas, railwayman turned Cabinet
Minister, was a member, too, even if
"he was rather inclined to call mere acquaintances
'real pals.'"
Rejections? "The only candidate
I recall being repulsed was Sir
Samuel Hoare, who shared with Sir
John Simon an extraordinary capacity
for getting himself disliked, coupled
with a fervent desire to get himself
beloved. But he probably did not know
that he had been a candidate." Only
two Prime Ministers, Baldwin and
MacDonald, were not Members. Neither
was ever proposed. Harold Wilson,
though elected, never attended: "He is
an agreeable table companion. He was
not kept out, nor did he deliberately
stay out."
Oswald Mosley joined, proposed
by Churchill and the Hon. Esmond
Harmsworth. The profession of
letters has been decently represented,
not least by the author and by P. G.
Wodehouse, who wrote to Sir Colin: "It
must have been at my first dinner that I
sat next to F. E. Smith. Conversation
was a bit sticky at first, but when I
asked him why he didn't get his Rugger
Blue in 1893, he never stopped talking
and we got on splendidly."
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FINEST HOUR IOI /47