One of the most famous insults in political history, levelled at the Tories by Aneurin Bevan in the late 1940s, was recalled in The Spectator on 19 November. The Tories in turn mocked Bevan by setting up Vermin Clubs and wearing vermin badges, as Alistair Lexden pointed out in a letter published in the magazine on 3 December.
Sir: The foundation of Vermin Clubs became a very popular Tory pastime in 1949 (‘The Spectator’s Notes’, 19 November). Many constituencies had them. The badges—sold for party funds—adorned lapels at the party conference that year. (One of them, which ended up in Ulster, is in my collection of memorabilia*.) Churchill, who hated Bevan, did not share the general enthusiasm; he pressed for action against his old adversary in the courts. But nothing could dampen the ardour of the party’s shock troops: the Young Conservatives. They shouted Attlee down with cries of ‘Vermin’ at a meeting in Leicester at the 1950 election.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords
*and is shown in the accompanying photograph