Lord Bonkers 30 years ago: Christmas Eve at St Asquith's

Liberator used to appear eight times a year, which meant that some months saw an issue and others did not. As there was no January Liberator in 1991, it was February that saw Lord Bonkers looking back on Christmas at the Hall.

Incidentally, Liberator is now a free online publication, appearing every two months.

Christmas Eve

To St Asquith's for the Festival of Lessons and Carols. I am sure that I speak for many when I say that I do not regard the festive season as truly having begun until I have heard the tremulous voice of a choirboy singing the opening verse of "Lloyd George Knew My Father".

With the afternoon sunshine illuminating the window depicting The Annunciation of Sir Archibald Sinclair, the old place has never looked finer, but the expense of maintaining the fabric remains a fearful burden.

Once we would meet the cost by the occasional sale of a stalwart member of the Church Ladies' Circle in the slave markets of the Levant; it is a mark of the success of Liberal social legislation that today we must rely upon the humble round of rummage sales and beetle drives.

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