Baroness Boothroyd, RIP

Sorry to hear that Baroness Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons, has died.

Not a bad age, though – 93.

Known for her "no-nonsense style", she is pictured above enjoying a cigarette ahead of the annual Lords and Commons Pipe and Cigar Club lunch on No Smoking Day, March 2007.

I suspect she may have given up in later years but she smoked well into her seventies (a pack a day, apparently) and made no attempt to hide her habit.

Business Live, for example, reported that:

Lady Boothroyd, better known as Betty, once revealed the secret of her success lay in smoking a packet of cigarettes a day. This was the cause of what she called her "lovely deep voice", which helped her lay down the law with hearty cries of "order! order!"

In 2018, recalling her time in office as the first woman Speaker, The House magazine noted:

Every day, Boothroyd and her deputies would go through the list of people due to speak in the Commons, interspersed with cigarette breaks for Boothroyd.

Reporting her death, The Telegraph adds that:

William Hague, the then Tory leader, remarked on how she had governed the lower chamber with "exemplary courtesy, charm and when necessary a little firmness… augmented in pitch by a packet of cigarettes every day".

The late Lord Harris, chairman of Forest from 1987 until his death in 2006, also spoke warmly of Boothroyd, although their political beliefs (she was a staunch socialist, he was a free marketeer) were poles apart.

Thanks to their mutual enjoyment of smoking, however, they shared a rather different bond.

PS. The Press Association adds:

She described herself as “pleasantly plump” and had no inhibitions about what she ate. “I just like good food, beef steaks, and I enjoy the House of Commons chips. They are terrific.”

RIP.