He tries again. But still it is not enough. The home secretary sucks his pen. And then, with a cry of triumph, he finds the words that he wants. These woolly, Hampstead liberals, he writes.
Local liberals flinch.
But their chagrin is nothing to that of Hampstead reactionaries, some of them rabid, who find themselves tagged again with this filthy slur. Yet still they are lashed with the l-word. They are not alone in their suffering. Other towns too writhe under placeist attack. It used to be Cheltenham, a town alleged to consist entirely of Indian army officers, all imperiously demanding tiffin at one o'clock.