Peter Rhodes on gunpowder, baked beans and the assumption that we've all done everything before
Why all this dismay among the Tories? So what if they've just lost two by-elections by one of the biggest shocks in politics since a beefeater peered into Parliament's cellars and said: “Sarge, there's a bloke down here with some gunpowder.”?
In the wake of the Tamworth and Mid-Beds results, any Tory MP with a majority of less than 15,000 can expect to lose their seat. An unnamed former Tory minister declares: “It's pretty depressing whichever way you look at it.”
And yet aren't politicians always telling us how poorly paid they are and how much more they could earn in jobs away from the Commons? You would think they'd embrace the prospect of a Labour landslide as the perfect opportunity to take their dazzling talents into the City or the public-speaking circuit and become millionaires. Instead, they seem to be trembling with fear. I am reminded of those priests and vicars who bang on endlessly about the joys of Heaven but never seem keen to go there.
