I am often reminded by the tea bag test of character put by @TimMontgomerie . You can only really tell the character and quality of people and politicians when they are put in hot water. Yesterday and over the weekend there was a lot of hot water around in the House of Commons and on the mobile phones of MPs – places normally filled with hot air. I watched from the visitors gallery from just before 15:00 until about 19:15.
It was a day when the technical quality of a speech mattered little. The levels of passion and principle involved in most of the speeches was palpable. Most notably Adam Holloway’s speech and that of Steve McCabe! But I saw and heard much behind the scenes over the last few days – the difficulties some MPs had in choosing between loyalties to country, constituency and party. I had helped many of them prepare the answers to this question in selections when it was hypothetical. Yesterday it was real. And it was tough.
Many deserve special mention. We should be very proud of the quality and calibre of many of our MPs. On both sides of yesterday’s vote.
Disclaimer: I am not retained by any Conservative MP at the moment and although I discussed yesterday and some speech ideas with a few MPs – not all these suggestions were taken up!!
