 A nice chap and a polite peer . But Caligula 's appointment of his horse as a consul was an act of prudent statesmanship compared with this gesture of sickbed levity by Mr. Macmillan . ... Alec ( not Smart Alec – just Alec ) is playing chess with a Cabinet containing at least four members of greater stature , brain @-@ power , personality and potential than himself . Butler has been betrayed , Maudling insulted , Macleod ignored , Heath treated with contempt , and Hailsham giggled out of court by the jester in hospital . 
