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History, you know, does offer Catholic politicians a deathless riposte to awkward questions about their ability to participate in public life. In 1906 a Liberal candidate was giving an address to electors in the Manchester suburbs when someone in the audience shouted “Papist!” at him. He coolly took an item from his pocket and said: “Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible I go to Mass every day. This is a rosary. As far as possible I kneel down and tell these beads each night. If that offends you, then I pray God may spare me the indignity of representing you in Parliament.” The crowd cheered rapturously, and the speaker was, in due course, elected.

He was the poet, critic, and historian Hilaire Belloc, remembered now most clearly for being a fellow-traveller and friend of G.K. Chesterton. And the incident, as Andrew Scheer’s advisers know well, really happened.

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Unfortunately, it is probably not of much practical use to Scheer as a political strategy: if anything the story emphasizes the depth of the predicament he finds himself in as a Conservative leader facing scrutiny for his beliefs. Belloc was facing an audience in Salford, where there must have been many Catholic voters attracted to Mancunian industry. He could assume with safety that those in the audience who were not Catholics were mostly fellow Christians: his message to the crowd was that he worshipped the same God they did by means of different formalities.