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House Magazine Diary for December 1998 |
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Written by Austin Mitchell
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01 January 1999 |
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Crisis at Christmas - for the well-housed, not the homeless. This messy row exploded just as our Daily Fax telling us what to think ceased. Another argument for keeping Parliament going all year round. As soon as its pressures stop there’s trouble, but the dispersed PLP is dependent on the media just like everyone else. We can’t be told that "Gordon loves Tony. True" every morning. Give us this day our Daily Fax.
Christmas (a.k.a. Week One of the Post-Mandelson Era)
Forced to abandon my new book "Walking the Third Way With Tony" because of large numbers of children and grandchildren who’ve come scrounging. Denounced by my wife for making no contribution to Xmas cooking (though I did eat most of it) I am reduced to playing with the grandchildren’s presents because they won’t. Maisie (aged three) keeps saying "You’re fat, Dan-Dan". Who’s put her up to it?
On 30 December they all announce they’re bored stiff and go away. I’m left exhausted and toyless, while Linda is festering with accumulated grievances about how little I’ve helped. Evidently, the husbands of all the new women MPs would never have behaved like that and from now on it’s zero tolerance for me. |
