I was walking along Millbank, minding my own business, whsitling away to Roxette on my iPod (actually, I can't whistle, but that's another story), when who should I spy coming the other way but John Prescott.We shook hands, I congratulated him on his blog and then he told me his RBS petition gadget had broken and couldn't take any more signatures. Apparently he was off to present the petition to John McFall. He then looked me up and down and said: "I can tell you're a Tory by your coat." I returned the favour and told him mine was probably far older than his, and it may be a Loden but it was made in Yorkshire - eight years ago. He looked doubtful.
"Anyway," I said, "keep up the good work." He looked quizzical. "Keeping the spotlight off Draper, I mean," I replied with a smile. He gave me what I like to interpret as a knowing look.
PS Douglas Hurd used to wear a Loden too. One day he was approached by Carol Mather, an old school Tory MP who said to him: "Douglas, the last time I saw a man dressed in a coat like that, I shot him!"
15 comments:
Mrs N used to have a Loden coat from Austria. She saw Hurd wearing one and never wore it again. I just told her you had one and she said she knew she was right to get rid of it.
You make a lovely couple.
I suppose it's better than a Boden.
A harrington would be far more stylish. ;)
Reserve a lamp post
Have one myself! In fact I'm wearing it today as it's the best thing ever for keeping warm and dry particularly in snowy conditions. Mine's 18 years old Iain and still wearing well
Prescott's coat would have required a lot more material than yours, Iain.
Wasn't it Harold Wilson who liked a Gannex?
The Penguin
The only bit of French TV worth watching in the 1970's was the final sequence very night, a cartoon of men in Loden coats who flapped their arms and flow off into the sunset.
So was James Bond right about inability to whistle?
Yes Douglas Hurd should have been shot too along with the other traitors who took us into the EU.
Shame on you - for listening to Roxette!
Are you sure he didn't mistake you for the pie man Iain?
If so, he must have been bitterly disappointed.
At least he didn't punch you!
You'd have thought that an ex merchant navy steward would have been able to recognise a Loden for what it is. Maybe those stories about his 'humble beginnings' are apochryphal. Certainly seems to have done very nicely for himself since then....
I'm reminded of the aristocracy dressing themselves in family hand-me-downs. You could tell a man's status and breeding by his shoes, and the age of his tweed jacket, the number of darns and its leather elbow patches.
No doubt he can afford a decent coat from his huge pension pot. In fact its somewhat rich that Prescott is of all people on about people lining their pockets. His pension pot is the size of a bank bonus.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/may/07/uk.labour
Lodens were a feature of Thatcher Cabinets I recall.
I used to bump into them (as you do); Lord Gowrie's was dark green, long and flowing and bit theatrical, as if he was playing Banquo.
Modern Tories dress in Boden - but only one letter has changed. Progress is a small thing.
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