Early christmas cheer
Thursday October 26th: This has been quite a week. There is no point in pretending. It is ending on a more disappointing note than I had hoped. But I always knew that the chances of winning in the Speakership election were fairly remote and so at least we have not had to contend with shock or surprise. Colleagues, on both sides of the House, have been extremely kind, and, as with everything, there are consolations. Tonight I do not have to withdraw from the recording of Parliamentary Questions, the quiz show which pits me against Roy Hattersley. This evening Tony Howard is my companion and Neil Kinnock Roy Hattersley's - the dream ticket reunited! But you will have to wait until the broadcasts to find out who won each of the rounds. Suffice it to say that none of us goes home too disappointed.
Friday October 27th: Back to the constituency and to the annual supper given by my rural branches - always with a non-political guest speaker. This year we have Paul Wood, the BBC's Balkans correspondent. I first met Paul when he helped in my office whilst he was a student at the LSE and I have watched with mounting admiration as his career has developed. He has probably had more exciting moments in the last few years than almost anyone else and he tells of it all with an easy diffident charm that quite captures his audience.
Saturday October 28th: To Lichfield, through lashing rain, for the Cathedral Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Jean Sutton, wife of our Bishop, who died after a long courageous struggle against Alzheimer's a few weeks ago. The Cathedral is packed and the feeling of sadness is palpable - but so is the joy and thanksgiving too.
Sunday October 29th: After the 8am service I have to break the Fifth Commandment and spend almost the entire day at my desk.
Monday October 30th: I had thought that I might, for once, use the train. There are no trains. The gale that has blown all night has damaged the roof we had replaced in the summer. There are slates embedded in the garden and the lead flashing has been dislodged in places. A huge bough was torn off our willow tree. Another tree is down in the paddock. All around there is flooding as I set off for London. After two hours I have done 10 miles.
Tuesday October 31st: In spite of all the problems of roads and rail a group of constituents from the Dyslexia Awareness Campaign have made it, and so have most of my Staffordshire colleagues and we have a meeting with them, listening to their often disturbing stories. My assistant takes the group across to the Department of Education for discussions with officials and we go to the Home Office for a session with the Chief Constable and Charles Clarke to discuss Staffordshire's policing needs and problems.
In the evening to The Athenaeum for the publication of the book on our Collections. I am about to give up the chairmanship of the Works of Art Committee here in the House, after nearly 14 years - and have taken on the chairmanship of the Club's Art Committee.
Wednesday November 1st: Discussion with visiting Italian parliamentarians finds me in staunch alliance with John Burnett and most of our visitors who believe that PR is not a formula for stable government. In the evening the Italian Ambassador gives a splendid dinner.
Thursday November 2nd: Day of meetings and desk work in preparation for a weekend off. We were not able to take our September holiday this year and feel in need of a weekend break. We had planned to take the Eurostar to Lille, but the forecasts are so dire, and the need to be in London on the 6th so essential, that we have decided that we will have three days “holiday” here.
Friday November 3rd: A fairly leisurely morning and then to our first stop - Hamley's. What an extraordinary cornucopia of toys and games it is - spreading over five or six floors. We have only two very young grand-daughters but we still manage to spend an hour and a half (and a not inconsiderable sum) acquiring what we hope will be appreciated Christmas treats. We stagger into a taxi and go back to deposit our packages in the office before heading off again for more Christmas shopping. We have never been so early and it is a great delight to choose gifts away from crowds. We break off for an early lunch and then, after more shopping, to the Antiquarian Book Fair for a couple of hours of indulgence. I make two modest purchases - a small beautifully bound edition of Macauley's Lays and a first edition of Southey's Waterloo - not a great poem but an interesting period piece. It is amazing what you can still pick up for £20-30.
In the evening a dinner at the magnificent Rhodes in the Square restaurant - a real gastronomic treat. We forget Lille.
Saturday November 4th: At the National Gallery by 9.50am for the new Impressionist Exhibition - Impressions. We've certainly beaten the crowds and have a richly satisfying visit. The audio guide to the exhibition is extremely well done. Then a short walk round the corner to the NPG for Painting the Century - an amazing collection of 101 portraits from the aged Queen Victoria to Andy Warhol - and beyond. I cannot pretend that more than about 20 are to my taste and words like “challenging” and “fascinating” have to be employed. What the exhibition does reflect is what a tortured century we have lived through - hardly one where we were at ease with ourselves, to coin a phrase.
We lunch in the roof-top restaurant with its splendid panoramic views down Whitehall and then make our way to Covent Garden for the British Food Fair, where Mary buys the Christmas venison.
In the evening to the Savoy Theatre for the Mikado. Some things never pall and for me Gilbert and Sullivan's operas are among them. The first thing I ever saw on the stage was the Mikado - at The Theatre Royal, Cleethorpes (performed by the local Operatic Society) in 1948. I have loved it ever since. We have supper afterwards and then home well pleased with our day.
Sunday November 5th: Mary is nursing a bit of a cold and so I go to the Chapel Royal on my own. They sing a Haydn Mass and then a motet by Hooper, possibly composed to commemorate the deliverance from the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, and almost certainly not sung since the middle of the 17th century. We treat ourselves to a splendid lunch and then have an evening at home - and watch The Naked Spur. I always had a fondness for Westerns.
Monday November 6th: After a memorably enjoyable weekend it is away before 7.30am to get a good morning in at the desk before 90 of my constituents arrive for a lunch for our Patrons Club to mark my 30 years in the House. We have already done this once, in the constituency, but the leader of the party is our guest of honour this time. He gives a scintillatingly witty speech which I would write about at greater length were it not for a convention of this column that one must not be party political - and the Editor, above all, should never break that convention.
Afterwards the party divides into three - one group goes to the Gallery, one to the London Eye and a third to the Cabinet War Rooms before facing another wet and difficult journey back to Staffordshire.
In the evening I go to The Athenaeum for a dinner to mark the publication of the book on the Collection. Mercifully there is no vote so I can stay and enjoy it.
Tuesday November 7th: Breakfast with Neil Cossons, new chairman of English Heritage. He has been an outstanding success as director at Ironbridge, Greenwich and the Science Museum and I think he will be brilliant in his new job too. Then back to the desk to do this diary, after our weekly editorial meeting of the magazine.
