Saturday, May 09, 2009

On the trail of the crooked spire - an evening in our Derbyshire bastion

Ros and I are in Derbyshire this weekend, so I made my way up to Chesterfield where the Local Party were having a dinner with Ros as the guest speaker.

I was picked up at the station by local MP Paul Holmes, whose car was notable for not being a gold-plated Maserati and the absence of security guards - don't all MPs have those, if the Telegraph is to be believed? We caught up with his wife Rae, the cats (Hendrix and Cashmere) and daughter Rhiannon over tea, before heading into town for the dinner.

The dinner was great, and we ate well before the raffle draw. Once again, I urged Ros not to pull one of my tickets out of the bag, and once again, she unfailingly managed to do so (the bottle of Australian Shiraz Cabernet will go down a treat at some point...). Paul then drew a winning ticket, only to pull one of Rae's out of the bag. It was beginning to look a bit suspicious but fortunately, the prizes began to be more spread out. Between us, Rae and I must have turned down another six prizes but the raffle eventually concluded.

An auction of a bottle of House of Commons claret followed, which entertained us all for ten minutes, before Ros spoke, a more light-hearted effort suitable to an after-dinner speech. She then fielded questions before the evening drew to a close.

They're a nice bunch in Chesterfield, and they work like Trojans. And with Paul leading the way (and he's someone I really respect), they'll do alright next month.

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