In praise of … loons | Editorial  

Grassroots Tories this week were compared to an aquatic bird famed for its clumsiness – but was that fair on the bird?

Until this week, the loon has lived a life of relative anonymity (except in Minnesota, where it is a state emblem). But reports that someone close to David Cameron had likened his party faithful to the bird that dives like a bullet but whose efforts to walk on land are invariably comical – it takes its name from an old Nordic word for clumsy – have propelled it into the spotlight. And what a bird it is, in all its yellow-, red- and black-throated varieties. Folded across its back, its wing feathers lie in patterns of jewel-like intricacy. It swims faster than a fish and it has a call of haunting spookiness which echoes round the lakes of North America at dusk, something that Tory party activists might well adopt if they really wanted to put the frighteners on the party leadership. Oh, and the male is prepared to fight to the death over his patch of water, then grab his victim's widow. Definitely time for more natural history at No 10.