Plus: Stephen O’Brien triumphant. What not to wear while canvassing. Commons catering, KFC-style. And: Kensington – that snake-pit of ambitious thrusters.
Plus: Comforting Oborne in the Aegean. Rampant rabbits in the Lords. Lidders Agonistes. McVey’s moment. And: How two Labour MPs banged away in the rifle club.
Plus: John Randall’s Serbian restaurant. Soames goes AWOL. Cash goes ballistic. And: Did Letwin and Redwood write the briefs for Page 3?
Including the latest from the rolling future leadership hustings at the Pale, Male and stale Dining Club.
Aladdin: Gloria de Piero. Widow Twanky: Chris Bryant. Abananzer: Peter Mandelson. Genie of the Lamp, Michael Gove. Princess Lotus Blossom: Gavin Williamson…
Of course our efforts at Rochester weren’t helped by the glitches in the new CCHQ computer “Darth Vader”.
There is still some fallout from the Away Day. The cabaret is always toe-curlingly embarrassing – and this year’s was no exception.
Plus: Determined, Bewildered, Despondent, Ecstatic…IDS adapts his Work Programme categories for Conservative MPs
A senior backbench Conservative e-mails the Minister of State at the Department for International Development.
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Lists of how Conservative MPs vote on "moral" issues have a perennial fascination (since they tend to divide more evenly than Labour ones.) Some vote for reasons of principle alone; others, particularly senior ones, want to show a bit of ankle to the party's right or the liberal media […]
by Paul Goodman Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) and Julian Lewis (New Forest East) entered the Commons together as New Forest neighbours in 1997. Both were on the right of the Party; both were rumbustious Parliamentarians; both were greeted with werewolf howls from Labour backbenchers; both served on the Conservative front bench. But their ways […]