18 APRIL 1992, Page 25

Cautionary tales

IT WAS a good election for Hilaire Belloc and his Cautionary Tales. John Major must have read the tale of Jim, who ran away from his nurse and was eaten by a lion. The electorate drew Belloc's moral:

Always keep a-hold of nurse, For fear of finding something worse.

• As for the hapless Neil Kinnock, his fate was foretold, almost word for word, in the tale of Lord Lundy:

We had intended you to be The next Prime Minister but three; The stocks were sold, the press was squared, The middle class was quite prepared, But as it is — my language fails: Go home and govern Old South Wales!