Monday 6th December

I drove back last night when fog was forecast – and so yet another Sunday in the country spoiled. An enormous mountain of mail awaiting my return, in spite of the fact that I spent most of Saturday at the desk. And, of course, there is the Christmas Card mountain too.

After Questions to Lambeth Palace for the Annual Advent Carol Service for Parliamentarians. This was an innovation of Archbishop Carey some five or six years ago and his successor continues the tradition. Some wonderful singing from a small but remarkable choir – not bad from the Congregation either. Several of those who sang in last week’s Verdi Requiem are present.

We have drinks and canapés in the famous Guard Room and then for me it’s off to a dinner with a friend at the Garrick, where, as always, I admire those extraordinary pictures.

Tuesday 7th December

In just after seven as we have our Editorial Meeting at 8:30. A fair amount of desk work and then to Committee Room 14 to listen to a very imposing and impressive President Mushareff of Pakistan, over here for talks with the Prime Minister.

I hardly ever leave London when the House is sitting but today I go to King’s Cross to catch the train for Hull to speak to the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society. The Society was founded 180 years ago and every year has 16 meetings between mid October and mid March. The speaker puts on a black tie and so do the members of the Committee. The meeting itself begins at 7:30 precisely and because someone in around 1848 took issue with the speaker it was decreed that no speaker would be troubled by questions in future – and the decree still stands. So I walk to the podium to speak for exactly an hour to the 400 or so assembled members and then I am not allowed to loiter or chat but escorted into a dining room for an excellent dinner hosted by the President.

Wednesday 8th December

Up early to have breakfast with David Drewery, the Vice Chancellor of the University, and many many years ago, a pupil of mine at St James’s Choir School in Grimsby. A journey in a horrible little train to Doncaster and then in a much better one to London. But it takes an hour by taxi from King’s Cross.

In the afternoon a meeting of the History of Parliament Trust Executive and then a meeting of the Ecclesiastical Committee, on which I have sat for the last 34 years. Afterwards a particularly pleasant duty. Oliver Heald’s talented young artist daughter has painted a perceptive and affectionate portrait of her father and I have been asked to unveil it. So family and friends and tutors and colleagues gather in the Octagonal U Room in Portcullis House for a glass of champagne. Victoria, who is 15, has produced a portrait that would do credit to an artist twice her age.

After collecting one of my wife’s Christmas treats I have supper with a friend who faces the prospect of redundancy.

Thursday 9th December

It is House Magazine day – or rather the day of our Coming Year in Parliament Conference and I have to Chair it. We begin at 9:45 with admirable presentations by Professor Vernon Bogdanor and James Blitz of the Financial Times. In the afternoon Peter Hain, Oliver Heald and Paul Tyler perform and then Sir Andrew Turnball, Cabinet Secretary. It is a very full but stimulating day and the 300 or so civil servants and others who attend all seem to find it both helpful and fascinating. There is only time for a very quick dash back to the flat to change before I arrive at Marlborough House to preside at the Annual Responsible Capitalism Award. Our guest of honour and presenter this year is The Lord Chief Justice who makes an elegant and witty speech and is responded to by our winner Morris Tabaksblat from the Netherlands, a former Chairman of Unilever and now a Chairman of Reed Elsevier. Ralf Dahrendorf, Chairman of our Judges, gives a masterly exposition of the ideals of responsible capitalism and the history of the Award over the last 5 years and to mark this Fifth Anniversary we give a Special SME Award to Alan and Irene Allen from Norfolk, nominated by their MP, Norman Lamb. The awards and the ceremony over we have a convivial dinner in the Great Dining Room at Marlborough House.

Friday 10th December

The House is not sitting but I come into the office to deal with the paperwork and then go to the lunch, given by Michael Jay in Lancaster House for Pertti Salolainen who is retiring after 8 years as Finnish Ambassador. Before that he was Deputy Prime Minister. Some of us wonder whether John Prescott would like to go to Finland as Ambassador. Both Michael Jay and Pertti make charming speeches and then it’s back to meet a group from David Linley’s workshops to show them round the Palace, in particular to let them see the wonderful Pugin furniture. There isn’t time to go home and change before I greet the guests at the Annual Churchill Dinner. It is more than 15 years ago now since I started to host a dinner for the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust – that inspiring living memorial to Churchill which grants Fellowships to people of all ages and all disciplines to travel and pursue their particular aims. Tonight among the nearly 80 Fellows present are artists, a ballerina, engineers, social workers, doctors – even an accountant who travelled abroad to study money laundering. Lady Soames, Churchill’s daughter, is there and so is Winston, our former colleague. Our speaker is Sir John Boyd, Master of Churchill College – the other living memorial.

Saturday 11th December

It is a London weekend, because of last night’s dinner and so Mary and I queue at the National Gallery just before 9:45 to be among the first to get in to the Raphael exhibition. It is magical to see these extraordinary paintings and drawings without many people around but the queue is long and wide when we leave.

Some Christmas shopping and then, on a glorious crisp day we have lunch at Inn in the Park. We sit on the terrace looking out on the lake. Some more gentle shopping in the afternoon and a visit to the Antique Fair in Chelsea Town Hall.

Sunday 12th December

We have a gentle start, give my brother lunch at the Ritz and then go to Inigo Jones Queen’s Chapel for the Chapel’s Royal’s Annual Carol Service – and have tea with Richard and Rose Luce in the RAC afterwards. What a splendid way to round off a special day.

Monday 13th December

Another special occasion. Karen Neale, an exceptionally talented young artist, who won her Churchill Fellowship to travel around the World drawing World Heritage Sites has produced an amazing body of work and I have arranged to have an exhibition in the Upper Waiting Hall. It is opened by Lady Soames and the watercolours are much admired by everyone there. In the afternoon the annual meeting of the Bosnian Group then a meeting of the House of Commons Commission. Then briefly to the Cabinet War Rooms with the All Party Heritage group before departing for the Royal Lancaster Hotel for a dinner in honour of the President of Azerbaijan. I find myself sitting next to his wife and so Bruce George, who is also on the top table, and I make an immediate and impromptu decision to pair – rather necessary as I have to make a speech as well: something I had not been warmed about. But all seems to go well.

Tuesday 14th December

A morning of work and then I host a lunch for the Machinery Users Association, a body created to advise industry on the rating of industrial machinery and premises well over a century ago and one that has always had a Parliamentary advisor. I have been theirs for over 30 years. Mark Mardell makes a very witty speech – without being unkind, or too revealing, about politicians

Meetings in the afternoon, including the Joint Committee on Security and then, briefly, carols in Portcullis House – spiritedly sung by the Parliamentary Choir – before a delightful dinner given by Mr Speaker to mark the Serjeant at Arms retirement.

Wednesday 15th December

In early to St Margaret’s for our monthly service then breakfast with Cardinal Cormack Murphy O’Connor, Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster who gives a gentle and thoughtful talk, laced with Irish wit. Question Time is particularly boisterous but, for only the second time this year, I manage to be called during Prime Minister’s Questions and get a mildly encouraging answer. I give lunch to the Chinese Ambassador and we talk about all manner of things. I have absolutely no doubt that by the end of the century China will be the dominant World power and it is crucial that we have close cordial relations. In the evening to St Margaret’s again, this time for the Parliamentary Carol Service in aid of the Westminster Medical Foundation. The music is sublime buy why, oh why, the Lessons have to be read from that banal flat-footed modern translation of the Bible when all of us know the lilting cadences of the Christmas Story as told in The King James version defies belief. But, in site of the pedestrian prose of the bus queue it is the music that lingers in the memory. The Christmas Season has well and truly begun.

Thursday 16th December

Today we are to have a Statement on the reorganisation of the army and I must be there to speak up for the Staffords. Tonight we have the second annual Christmas dinner for the Conservative Parliamentary Party which I have been arranging over the last six months. Let us hope the crackers go with a bang!