Will Waspe's Whispers
If Noel Picarda Kemp fails to clinch adoption as the Tory candidate to oppose Jeremy Thorpe next time round at North Devon (the local executive meet next Friday), it won't be the fault of the Times Diary. Its Will they Picarda?' piece was, I thought, rather more encouraging than their Will Keigwin?' piece about his rival for the candidacy. What could be fatally damaging to Kemp's chances, however (apart from the fact that Keigwin is an anti-Market man), is any propensity he may have for telling jokes in the vicinity of the constituency Association's members.
Pace the Times's commendations ('a brilliantly funny speaker' and 'something of Thorpe's flair and wit '), Kemp has never really made it as a humorist. As simply Noel Picarda (he added the Kemp in deference to the electorate's supposed prejudice against foreign names), his career as a cabaret entertainer, for instance, seemed to sink without trace after some embarrassingly unfunny appearances at a City eating-house, the Poor Millionaire. Of course, the North Devonians may be a considerably more unsophisticated crowd. We shall see.
Bunny gold
Speaking of cabaret (a dying section of show business in London, if not in the clubs of the North), I am glad to hear that the Playboy Club in Park Lane will be reintroducing it in January. They're opening a new room — in the basement and with, of course, a separate entrance from the main premises to comply with the gaming laws.
It used to be pleasant to drop in late at the Playboy (despite its name and despite the Bunnies, which combined to convey an impression that the place would be full of Peter-Arno-cartoon oglers, which, in fact, it rarely was), but when the law made it a choice between the provision of entertainment and the goldmine gaming tables, cabaret was speedily abandoned. I might have better understood this avaricious choice if the Playboy had been struggling financially. When Playboy Enterprises 'goes public' in November, I shall be surprised if the total value of the Hefner empire falls much short of E100,000,000.
Craft to ashes
The Crafts Council of Great Britain still waits to see whether it will be participating in any grants that are going from Lord Eccles. Meanwhile it is looking after its own fortunes in a spanking new galleryshop in Waterloo Place, Lower Regent Street, opened last week by Yehudi Menuhin. The occasion was made cheerier by the speech of well-wisher Arthur Dickson Wright. The eminent surgeon claimed that he, too, was a craftsman but that, unfortunately, most of his best work eventually went up in smoke at Golders Green.
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