Part 6 - At Home with the Stansgates "Stitch this, Jimmy!" Wordlessly, Lord Stansgate put down his half-drunk mug of tea and took the proffered coat and button. Lady Stansgate had her mind set on wearing that particular coat for her maiden speech the next evening. He took the coat to his attic. There he had his sewing-machine, needle and thread, a battered typewriter and a single gas ring where he could boil a kettle. More importantly, there was an ashtray. The attic was the only room in the house where he was allowed to smoke his pipe. Lord Stansgate put the kettle on, then expertly sewed the recalcitrant button back onto the coat. The kettle nearly boiling he poured what seemed enough tea from the caddy into the teapot. The now boiling water was poured from kettle to pot and left to stand. He built a meditative pipeful of tobacco and lit up as the tea brewed. How to pass the time until his pipe was done? Aha! Correspondence. He owed a letter to Robert Nairn, an old friend from the wartime RAF. He rolled a sheet of paper into the old Imperial, poured himself a pint mug of tea, and set about typing.

13 November 1960 Dear Bob, It's been a mad whirl since I saw you last at Dad's funeral. Hilary and Carol[1] are bearing up well. How are Alice and the children? Being Lord Stansgate is a colossal bore, as we knew it would be. Forcing someone out of the Commons against his will, it's a violation of democratic principles! I was all for standing again at the by-election. The voters of Bristol South East would return me, I was and am sure of that. But Peggy wouldn't have a bar of it. "You'd just be ruled ineligible to sit again. We must fight the big battles, not meaningless ones." "Sometimes you must fight for principles," I said. "If I was re-elected as Viscount Stansgate and I was stripped of my seat again, that would be going against the will of the electors of Bristol SE. The government would be shamed into passing legislation to amend the constitution." Of course, Peggy had an answer, "Wouldn't Quintin[2] and Alec[3] love that? They'd move against Mo[4] in a moment if lords were allowed in the Commons." Personally I thought that before the Tories chose Quintin or someone as vacuous as Alec they'd pick Rab[5] even though Michael Foot is still rabbitting on about how he was one of the 'Guilty Men'. But I asked who should stand at the by-election in my place. "Two for the price of one," she replied enigmatically. It took me a few seconds to realise what she meant. "You, Peggy?" I gasped, "But if it were me I could become Prime Minister, in time." In hindsight, that was probably the wrong thing to say. "And you think a women shouldn't become Prime Minister?" she asked in a voice of chilled steel. It was time to back-pedal. I explained that of course women should be able to become PM just as any man of ability might so aspire. But the voters wouldn't be ready for such a concept, leastwise not this century. It was all this conditioning of anti-women propaganda in society, alas. "These same voters that you think are ready to choose Socialism, despite all the anti-Socialist conditioning in society?" It was time to raise the green branches of pax. And so, as you know Bob, Peggy Wedgwood Benn is now Lady Stansgate MP. It's not without its amusing moments. I'm sure you've seen the piece in the Guardian where we are being fêted as the new Labour couple; the next Beatrice and Lord Passfield (sadly departed). Peggy gets a manic glint in her eye whenever she hears comparisons with the Webbs. "Fabians!" she shrieks and it takes a tincture or two of the old electric soup to calm her down. We'll be in London for the next two weeks for the parliamentary sitting. If you're in the Great Wen be sure to pop by. I'll take you to the Lord's Dining Room and get you a cup of tea or something stronger. Yours aye, Jimmy.

Lord Stansgate put down his pipe, removed the letter from the machine and drained the remainder of his tea. Methodist or no, he could do with something a little stronger right now. [If you'll just let me continue.]

[1] In the UK 'Hilary' can be a boy's name and 'Carol'[6] a girl's name. Go figure. The world is a very big place. [2] Lord Hailsham [3] The 14th Earl of Home, who had previously served in the House of Commons before being elevated to the Lords upon the death of his father in 1951. [4] Maurice Harold Macmillan, then Prime Minister [5] Richard Austen Butler [6] Anthony Wedgwood Benn would have preferred to call his daughter Caroline but his wife Peggy insisted on the shorter name.