Lord Bonkers' Diary: Jo Swinson gives Humphrys one up the snoot

The radio event of the year was enjoyed in Rutland too.

Wednesday

I am no great lover of the Today programme as it can be Terribly Unfair. Only the other day I was given a hard time over the travails of my Rutland Fried Chicken empire, and a few weeks before that is was my cryptocurrency Rutcoin that attracted their scorn.

I also found it disconcerting that, halfway through my interview with an irascible Welshman (who, if I might say, was Getting On A Bit), a member of the production team came in, pulled out the waistband and stuffed handful of used tenners down his trousers. (When I asked afterwards I was told the fellow is on so much they have to do this every 20 minutes or he will not get his full salary.)

All this is by way of explaining why I cheered so loudly when I heard our own Jo ‘Gloria’ Swinson give the same presenter both barrels over the question of equal pay. It seems, moreover, that I was not the only one. This lunchtime the thaw had set in, so I risked the overground route to the village.

Passing the school playground I found the children engaged in a game of “Humphrys and Swinson” – one child would ask the others a long question, interrupt them as soon as they began to answer and have a mound of snow dumped on his head. It looked great fun so I joined in.

So I won’t hear a word against Jo Swanson, not even after the Lib Dem Pint do at the Bonkers’ Arms when she tried to persuade the assembled company to eschew their normal Smithson & Greaves Northern Bitter and drink carrot juice instead because it was more inclusive.

Good on you, E.W.!

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• The Beast from the East
• Stilton Man