Sign a letter to a voter? Read one? Don’t be so bloody silly

HAVING a marginal seat, I found colleagues with big majorities irritating.

Take the Member for a leafy seat where they weigh his vote rather than count it.

Returning to the Tea Room for a break, having signed and read 80 constituency letters, I was having a gentle whine about the time it consumes. The leafy Member proffered unsolicited words of wisdom. ‘Sign your letters? Don’t be bloody silly. No one signs their letters personally any more. And as for reading them...’

No one, that is, except a marginal seat MP who thinks that the personal touch matters.

I challenged him and was patronised for five minutes with a: ‘Dear boy, you’ll learn.’ He continued chortling and slurped his soup just as nanny taught him, without spilling it over his regimental tie.

I fear for the Tories’ future with people like that.

Thankfully, they’re a diminishing breed, often, as in this case, despatched to the Lords.

I’m not saying all MPs with safe seats are lazy b ***** ds, of course.