Coronation tea (and cake)

Happy Coronation Day!

I don’t know about you but I shall be watching the event on television with friends and a bottle or two of Nyetimber English sparkling wine (limited Coronation edition, obviously).

On Wednesday I also celebrated the occasion with (what else?) afternoon tea at the House of Lords.

Hosted by Lord Kamal on behalf of the Conservative Muslim Forum (CMF), the event featured speeches by our host, the minister for London Paul Scully, and former chancellor of the exchequer Lord Lamont.

The last time I saw Lord Lamont was at the Carlton Club in February. It was at a memorial event to mark the death, last year, of Russell Lewis, who had been a non-executive director of Forest for 30 years. (I wrote about it here.)

Well, it turns out that the former chancellor is the new president of the CMF, and he sounded almost as surprised as I was.

He explained, however, that although he's a non-Muslim he had developed a strong respect for Islam and the Muslim community.

He noted that even Churchill, who began his political career with a less positive opinion of Islam and its followers, subsequently changed his mind.

I’m not entirely sure what Paul Scully’s connection with the CMF was, but I was interested to hear him say he was running for Mayor of London.

If selected as the Tory candidate the odds will be strongly against him winning, but he would run a very good campaign, I'm sure, and I wish him well.

I’m slightly biased because, before he became an MP, Scully gave Forest one of the best reviews we have ever had for one of our conference events.

Commenting on our Stand Up for Liberty event at the Comedy Store in Manchester in 2011, he tweeted:

Elected to Parliament for the first time in 2015, Scully is the MP for Sutton and Cheam. Today, as well as being minister for London, he is Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy.

Anyway, if you’re wondering why I was at the CMF event, I was invited by a friend.

Other guests on our table included a couple of podcasters, Javed and Dexter, a former prospective parliamentary candidate, and Helen Edward, the current PPC for Kingston and Surbiton where the sitting MP is Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.

Davey has a majority of 10,000 but Helen sounded quite upbeat about her chances. “I’ve got a plan,” she confided.

After the speeches we finished our tea (and cake, above) and wandered out on to the terrace, overlooking the Thames.

All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon meeting some interesting and friendly people, and a perfect curtain raiser to the main event.

Update: