Mrs Crackenthorpe's Diary
2 min read
It’s been another whirlwind few weeks in Westminster, with a war raging in Europe and peers heroically finding time to debate the pressing matter of electric vehicle charging points for the third time in as many months. Yet the divas of Westminster have still found time for high drama. Read on...
Mrs C adores Westminster beef in all its varieties, and in the week of International Women’s Day she heard all is far from well among the sisterhood. The wife of a Tory backbencher has delivered a poignant aria to your diarist. She is far from impressed with a request apparently made to her husband by a certain Baroness – vociferously denied by the lady in question – that she be “put on a leash”.
Speaking of IWD, Mrs C couldn’t help but laugh at the catastrophe that unfolded when Tory women MPs were assembled for a squad snap. “It was like herding cats,” Mrs C is reliably informed. Owing to a mix-up, some MPs met in Westminster Hall while others gathered elsewhere, and the whole debacle took so long the Tory power women missed several speeches at an event celebrating their existence. “This is what happens when men run things,” a former minister quips.
No one – least of all Mrs C – could fail to be moved by the video address Ukraine’s president delivered to Parliament this month. Quite literally, in the case of scores of peers on their way to see history being made, who filed in a somewhat ponderous line to the Peers’ Gallery. They held up parliamentary traffic in a manner rather akin to ducklings crossing, according to one waggish MP, who proposes an underpass be installed.
Naturally, there was one question on the minds of attendees at Speaker Lindsay Hoyle’s latest press soiree: would he mention the £37,000 portrait of his predecessor adorning the stately room in which the event was held? Dear Lindsay did not, I’m afraid, but that didn’t stop Lobby legend Brendan Carlin from taking a swing. Surprised by Sir L’s demand for an impromptu speech, he remarked: “Afterwards, Lindsay has promised that we’ll get the step ladder and some screwdrivers [and] we’ll be taking down the Bercow portrait.” Guffaws all round.
MrsCrackenthorpe@protonmail.com
PoliticsHome Newsletters
Get the inside track on what MPs and Peers are talking about. Sign up to The House's morning email for the latest insight and reaction from Parliamentarians, policy-makers and organisations.
