Monday, June 24, 2019

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Tipping a knickerbocker glory over Oswald Mosley

And you thought that pouring milkshakes over fascists was a modern idea.

Friday

A journalist rings to ask what I think of this modern tactic of pouring milkshakes over far-right politicians. I reply that the milkshake is an American import we could well do without and that if one is going to dispose of it then tipping it over a passing Fascist seems as good a way as any.

Warming to my theme, I recall that I was once obliged to sit next to Oswald Mosley at dinner. Things were distinctly frosty between us from the get-go and when he made a disobliging remark about Herbert Samuel I tipped my knickerbocker glory over his head.

This soon became a fashion, and many of the fellows who stopped Mosley’s gallop at Cable Street were armed with the things, though if I am honest their tendency to melt made them an unreliable weapon.

Mind you, as I told the Manchester Guardian at the time, if it had been one of Cook’s trifles I should not have wasted it on a specimen like Mosley.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Previously in Lord Bonkers' Diary

2 comments:

Frank Little said...

Is not a Knickerbocker Glory an earlier American import, named for the family which used to run New York? Did the noble lord not have a syllabub to hand?

Jonathan Calder said...

I have learnt over the years not to criticise him, but you have a point. I may give the pudding initial capitals when he is not looking.