Over at the Staggers blog, Kevin Maguire recounts an encounter between Paddy Ashdown and a hen party on a London bound train after the first leaders’ debate:
…the former Royal Marine met his match on a train to London after the 2 April TV debate. Outgunned and outnumbered, the Lib Dem peer was forced to surrender to a Yorkshire hen party in fancy dress. On this occasion, a radar-lugged snout was settling down to hear Ashdown discussing campaign strategy on his phone when the carriage filled up with shrieking lasses. Captain Paddy hastily terminated the call with a giggly: “Save me! Save me!”
And that was before he was recognised:
One of the hens eventually recognised Ashdown. A glass of Cava was thrust into his hand. Selfies were taken. “Is he the stripper?” one asked. Cue more cheering.
Apparently, Paddy looked terrified.
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5 Comments
This is a disgraceful example of the harassment of an elderly genlemen on public transport.
I hope the party has complained to the authorities in the strongest terms possible.
It has come to something when frail but respected senior citizens cannot travel on a train unmolested by drunken women from Yorkshire.
There must be something in the air, probably all the spring weddings.
Ed Miliband got mobbed by hen-sters yesterday.
In Knutsford of all places. It rather demolishes the ‘Red Ed the weird geek’ angle his detractors push.
Young women screaming Ed, Ed, Ed.
Cameron must be weeping, he and Clegg seem like yesterday’s men. Who screams for them ?
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB · 5h 5 hours ago
What happened when a hen party from. Knutsford in George Osborne’s constituency, discovered Ed’s bus https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W_RonXv8u78 …
well PBBrown, there was the woman on the TV Q&A who started by saying ‘you are even better looking in the flesh’, and didn’t he get ‘best looking male Leader’ a few months back too.?
Image shouldn’t count, but these days it does, and Miliband has the advantage of looking fit (in the physical sense), confident and happy in his skin.
The coalition’s Cameron & Clegg both come across increasingly tetchy. Not good.
I had the extreme misfortune to find myself sitting in front of Kevin Maguire and one of his colleagues during a conference speech some years ago. His ongoing comments reinforced an opinion I already held; namely, he is a deeply unpleasant little man. I have never been able to understand why he appears so frequently on political TV. Perhaps he’s cheap.