In February 1948, Harold Nicolson stood (unsuccessfully) in the Croydon by-election. "After a meeting last night a man entered into conversation with me," he wrote to his son. "'By the way,' he said, 'do your family object to you standing for Labour?' 'Well, my mother said I had betrayed my country.' He was a Press Association man, and all the papers this morning have been ringing Mummy up. Oh my God!"