"No Englishman likes to hear his Party abused; and this is right. Every Englishman likes to hear both parties abused, and this is righter still."

There was a time when I was afraid of mentioning politics on this page. But that was when I did not know anything about politics; when I was, in short, a good Party man- nay, in real peril of becoming a politician. I have long since found out the perfectly simple principle upon which ordinary Englishmen permit the discussion of politics. No Englishman likes to hear his Party abused; and this is right. Every Englishman likes to hear both parties abused, and this is righter still. If the pot calls the kettle black, the pot will (very naturally) get into hot water. But, if we all agree that they are both black, then England is calm, and even optimistic. Somehow the two blacks make a white. I will confess that I do not think they make a white; but I think they may turn out to be the troubled grey of morning. Or to revert to the older and homelier and therefore much truer metaphor, if the pot and kettle call each other black and prove each other black, it might just possibly lead to the kitchen-maid cleaning both of them.

-March 2, 1912, Illustrated London News