They once called his "the most famous sulk" in British political history. It survived his loss of the Conservative leadership to Lady Thatcher, and hers in turn to Mr John Major. He was never one to disappoint, and it seems it continues to the present day.
Sir Edward Heath, of course, didn't set out to actually sink William Hague yesterday - merely to damn him with the faintest praise.
On Sunday the headlines proclaimed Sir Edward's verdict on the Tory Party he ceased to lead in 1975. Mr Hague's Conservatives needed a second defeat to force them back to the hallowed "centre ground" of British politics. Those thinking Britain's best-loved political curmudgeon relished the prospect were, it appeared, mistaken. "I don't think a defeat is a good thing," avowed Sir Edward to a plainly sceptical John Humphreys on the BBC.
The point he had been trying to make, rather, was that history was against young William and that it was "asking a great deal" of the would-be second Pitt to win the election.
"In the post-war world," observed the retiring Father of the Commons, "no party leader has been able to regain his position in one go. Churchill couldn't do it and others couldn't do it and it is asking a great deal of the present leader to regain power in one go."
Well, obviously if even Churchill couldn't do it . . . But no, he hadn't actually called his leader "a laughing stock" in the Spectator the other week.
The doctrinaire approach of the dominant right wing, for example, didn't satisfy voters expecting policies to cater for the current demand for unprecedented spending on health. And while a lot of the current gap between Labour and the Conservatives could undoubtedly be closed, said Sir Edward, it required the party to show itself "concerned with all sides of the electorate and not just one section of it."
He almost sounded as if he couldn't think how to be more helpful. He even acknowledged that Mr Hague "has got some very strong qualities of determination and perseverance." And if there was any doubting his loyalty, well: "I never make judgments about our leaders, but he's there and we support him and do our utmost with him to make progress in the election."
Humphreys appeared unconvinced this was entirely unequivocal, so he tried one of those trick questions. Who would make the best prime minister then? Tony Blair or William Hague? But Sir Edward isn't so easily flushed out. "I don't make judgments like that," he declared.