ON a general election visit to Glasgow in September 1974, Lord Hailsham, the former Lord Chancellor, attacked Enoch Powell, spoke of the consequences of a break-up of the UK, fed pigeons in George Square, and prompted a line in this paper’s election diary.

Of Powell, who was contesting South Down for the Ulster Unionists, he said: “Enoch has now crossed the water. He has found a new constituency and a new cause to betray and they have a new leader to desert.” He said the countries of Britain seemed to have lost the visions which had made them a forward-looking people. They were now torn by divisions. He supported devolution provided it didn’t break up the UK - an event that would leave the people “poor, inefficient, parochial, and despised in the world.” If only we had come to terms with devolution at the time of the Gladstone Home Rule bill, he added.

Read more: Herald Diary

Hailsham, snorted our diary, “was insisting that had we only listened to Gladstone and the good sense of that Prime Minister’s views on devolution and home rule, we would now have none of this silly nationalist nonsense. A pity that Gladstone was about the most famous Liberal ever ...A pity that it was Gladstone who began the Liberal Party tradition of federalism, which the present lot are so painfully reminding us has been central to party policy since Asquith first appeared.Otherwise, quite a good performance, Lord Hailsham.”