* Brief problem?
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Did I detect a hint that Mrs. Barbara Castle had noticed CM's headline "Barbara abandons her brief" (Feb. 23), when she addressed 400 members and their ladies at the annual dinner of the Institute of Transport in London on Friday?
Replying to the toast to the ladies which had been proposed by the president, Mr. S. A. Finals, Mrs. Castle said that the Civil Service were an efficient lot. But writing short, light-hearted speeches was not really their line. So she had no option but to meet her host's request to be brief because, on her own admission, she was "briefless".
However, it is 50 years since women got the vote and so it was perhaps timely that she forecast that one year we might have lady chairmen of British Railways and Ports Authority, with Sir Reginald Wilson brought back from active retirement to respond to a toast to the men at some future IoT dinner!
Come to think of it, writing one's own speeches could be a "thought for the morrow". First steps to a spot of freelance writing and alternative income should the need arise in less golden years?