Black Sheep
From Volume 2, Number 1, January 1993 issue of The
"Quote... Unquote" Newsletter
Peter Black, who is always referred to as the ‘doyen of TV
critics’ in Britain, and why not?...challenged me to trace the
true source of the most famous parliamentary jibe of recent
years. In a speech to the House of Commons on 14 June 1978 Denis
Healey, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, on being attacked by Sir
Geoffrey Howe in a debate over his budget proposals, said: ‘That
part of his speech was rather like being savaged by a dead
sheep.’
Black growls on: ‘Healey is a dab hand at passing off other men’s
wit as his own and gets away with it because nearly all
journalists are illiterate when it comes to classics. I have a
hazy idea that the dead sheep metaphor was used first by Disraeli
[Wasn’t everything? – Ed.] Anyway, it’s one of the more obvious
cracks.’
Well, I have indeed monitored thinking on this profound matter
for a number of years now. In 1983, encountering the old bruiser
in some TV studio hospitality room, I broached the subject
without much result. In 1987, Alan Watkinds of the
Observer, a noted ‘dead sheep’ worrier, suggested that Sir
Roy Welensky of Central African Federation fame, had earlier
likened an attack by Ian Macleod to being bitten by a
sheep. We had to wait until 1989 and the publication of Healey’s
memoirs to be told that ‘the phrase came to me while I was
actually on my feet: it was an adaptation of Churchill’s remark
that an attack by Attlee was “like being savaged by a pet lamb.”
Such banter can often enliven a dull afternoon.‘ I have not
encountered anyone else who remembers the Churchill version, but
he was noted for his Attlee jokes (and busily denied that he had
ever said most of them). In 1990, the victim of Healey’s phrase,
Geoffey Howe, also claimed that it wasn’t original (&slquo;It came from
a play,&srquo; he said sheepishly.)
On being told all this, Peter Black said, ‘I was pleased to have
your confirmation of horrible Healey as a second hand wit...As
99% of journalists are unread, he gained his reputation as a
master spirit of the age.’ I am sure all this must make Lord
Healey (as indeed he is now) shudder in the sheep shelter of the
Upper Chamber (where he now lives with Lord Howe).
Copyright © 1993 by Nigel Rees
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