Lunch with Dizzy

My walk today took me up to Hughenden Manor, as it often does. The cafe was closed but they were serving light lunches in Dizzy's Tearoom, so I stopped there for soup and sandwich while I looked at the Punch cartoons on the walls and the portrait of the man himself.
Whether or not you agree with his politics, I feel there's a lot to admire about Disraeli. He overcame prejudice about his Jewish origins to 'climb to the top of the greasy pole', as he put it. He was a one-nation Tory who was acutely conscious of the divisions in his society and the need to bridge them. And he was a witty, intelligent and perceptive commentator on the world he lived in, who said amongst other things: 'Silence is the mother of truth.'