Sunday 29 March 2009

King-Halls

Reports of a 107-year old in a BMW M3 going round Brands Hatch stirred childhood memories. Dulcibella King-Hall is surely a younger sister of the late Commander Stephen King-Hall (Baron King-Hall of Headley). He was a naval hero (though he modestly disclaimed that description), an independent MP, founder of the Hansard Society which still exists to promote parliamentary democracy, and a regular contributor of current affairs talks on the BBC Home Service's "Children's Hour". He would no doubt be dismayed that there is no equivalent in the mass media today.

His philosophy, some of which must have rubbed off on his listeners in the 1940s and 1950s, can be seen in this speech. Over sixty years on, none of his concerns have been satisfactorily disposed of, although it must have seemed, in those more optimistic days as the Second World War was turning, that a better world was being created.

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