Tag Archives: chocolate

Caron Lindsay

Parliamentarians “gorging” on a maximum of one and a bit chocolate bars a week? I don’t think so.

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 22nd February 2015 - 12:50 pm

chocolateYou have to wonder who thinks up freedom of information questions like “How many chocolate bars do the catering outlets in Westminster sell?” But the Sunday Times (£) reports that somebody has asked precisely that question and that the number of chocolate bars bought in 2013 and 2014 totals just under 200,000. This leads them to conclude that our MPs and Peers are “gorging” their way through some massive chocolate stash. It’s like we’re meant to see them as some sort of court of Henry VIII busting out of their breaches.

In fact, I was surprised that the amount is so low. Let’s think about it. There are 650 MPs and 800 members of the House of Lords who attend regularly. Even if we only count them, that’s 1450 people. That only allows them 69 chocolate bars a year each. It’s not even two for every sitting week. When you add in all of their staff (and most MPs will have at least one person in their Westminster office) and all the visitors to the place, it reduces that amount even further. Maybe they’d all be happier if they ate more chocolate, not less.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 7 Comments
Joe Otten

Opinion: Talking at cross purposes about equal marriage

By Joe Otten | Sat 9th February 2013 - 4:33 pm

While it is tempting to be triumphal at success of the vote on equal marriage, I have some sympathy for some of the opponents. Not for the bigots of course – but while all bigots will oppose equal marriage, the converse isn’t true, and some opponents are genuinely unhappy at the idea of parliamentary vote to, as they see it, change the meaning of a word.

Now that may seem to many of us an odd thing to get upset about – although I would be quite unhappy if Parliament attempted to change the value of …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 145 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Gossip from Gateshead #1

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 10th March 2012 - 4:08 pm

This is a brief foray into the lighter side of Liberal Democrat Conference in Gateshead. There may well be more issues before the weekend is out but that depends on the amount and quality of the information I receive.

The most pressing matter, of course, is the mystery of the missing chocolate. Yesterday, I put a box of Celebrations and a bag of Minstrels in the Liberal Democrat Voice office. By the time Mark Pack arrived here at the crack of dawn this morning, it had disappeared. What could possibly have happened?  I’m sure that we could run to a small …

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Sara Bedford

Daily View 2×2: 18 February 2010

By Sara Bedford | Thu 18th February 2010 - 8:50 am

Welcome to my second Daily View of the week, as Alex continues his Caledonian cultural capers.

On this day five years ago, the ban on hunting with dogs came into force. As a long-term campaigner against blood sports, I don’t think it’s been the most successful piece of legislation ever. Today is also the anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s u-turn of 1981, when she withdrew plans to close 23 pits and agreed to reduce coal imports from eight million to five-and-a-half million tonnes over the next year. As we know, it was only a short reprieve.

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Posted in Daily View | Also tagged , , , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Why David Cameron was right to claim for chocolate bars on expenses

By Mark Pack | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 4:41 pm

Given my love of chocolate, today’s Daily Mirror front page at first made me happy. Four big colour photos of bars of chocolate! And David Cameron in an expenses scandal!

But once I read the story, it quickly became clear David Cameron has done nothing wrong.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 8 Comments
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