Red alert! The very fabric of democracy is under attack — not from revolutionaries or even Jeremy Corbyn, but from the humble clothes moth. The parliamentary estate is worried about its historic Pugin furnishings and the textiles in its art collection.
Despite spending £7,352 on deterrents and 923 monitoring devices, the battle appears to be going in favour of the combatants with wings. Monthly moth sightings have leapt from 1,262 in January this year to 1,716 in April — twice the level of infestation two years ago.
Oh dear. It’s all rather worrying, particularly bearing in mind the lavish decor of the Speaker’s house. Perhaps the insects need a distraction. They are known to thrive in environments where little happens to disturb them and they can feast on fusty remnants. That’ll be the House of Lords then.
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When Labour infiltrators gave it to Tories with both barrels
The former Welsh Labour party leader Rhodri Morgan recalls a time when even Labour students could vote in the Oxford University Conservative Association executive elections. “As Labour Club members, our instructions were to vote first for anyone with a triple-barrelled name, then anyone with a double-barrelled name, then finally anyone with an effete-sounding name.”
Morgan cast his vote for a “young man with the unforgettable moniker of Greatorex Delicate”. A name good enough for a landslide.
Titbits
• The dear old NHS sits alongside the Chinese army as one of the world’s largest employers — and that is not the only similarity. Nurses at Eastbourne District General Hospital and the Conquest Hospital in Hastings are being told they could face disciplinary action if they do not wear matching black socks. “We do often get uniform checks,” says one nurse. “But socks? Really?”
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East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust confirmed that matrons would carry out the checks. Just the smack of firm discipline so beloved in Beijing.
• Atticus’s fierce no-stone-unturned approach has turned up something you did not know about Jeremy Corbyn. And here it is. He was born on May 26, yes? Well, so were a lot of other people — and their work is an uncanny reflection of Corbyn’s future. John Wayne is a May 26 man whose films include The Undefeated (that’s the result). Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac sang Go Your Own Way (Corbyn’s unique appeal) and Verden Allen of Mott the Hoople gave us All the Young Dudes (Corbyn’s youthful supporters). After Corbyn wins, his fans can reflect that the May 26 boy Peter Cushing made a film called And Now the Screaming Starts. How prescient.
• One rather hopes peers of the realm have — if nothing else — some taste. Sadly not, in the case of the Lib Dem lifer Lord Marks. His plans to build a splendid new property have been chucked out by South Oxfordshire district council after one opponent described the design as “Russian oligarch meets Los Angeles bling”. Ouch.
• Would you believe it? The House of Commons spent £933 on hiring suits for the state opening of parliament in May. You would think that after a good few openings in their time, they would have their own suits by now.
• Lord Prescott reveals a softer side in the Camden New Journal. Referring to “What’s his name?” it turns out he means Labour’s toff Tristram Hunt. “He’s very clever. There are some of us who wish he’d stayed at university, but he’s a nice guy.” Prescott praises public school boy? Hold the front page — or at least the final column in Atticus