Maybe I'm amazed
Sunday, July 17, 2016 at 16:10 When I was appointed director of Forest we had an office in central London.
In addition to me there were three full-time staff.
I can't remember her official title but Jenny was part receptionist, part secretary, forever photocopying documents and supervising mailshots to MPs and the media.
She also spent a great deal of time on the phone, diligently listening to the grievances of mostly elderly smokers, many of whom lived alone and just wanted a friendly voice to speak to.
Jenny was as hard-working as she was patient. She rarely grumbled (although I could always tell when something was amiss) and was extremely loyal.
What I remember most though was her enduring cheerfulness and endearing ability to laugh at herself.
When she left I was sad to see her go but pleased for her too. Hired to work for a member of Parliament in the House of Commons, she told me it was her "dream job".
That was 16 years ago. Today she continues to work for the same MP so the qualities that impressed me must have impressed Theresa May too.
Amazing then to report that the PM's PA once worked for Forest. Fancy that!
Reader Comments (7)
Well, we can always hope that the knowledge and experience she gained at Forest will inform the advice she gives to the new PM with regards smoking legislation. We could do with friends in high places.
Don't raise your hopes! Jenny was an administrator (a very good one) not a campaigner. Her role today is personal assistant, not political advisor.
Enjoyed that story.
Funnily enough – and I was going to mention this some while ago, but probably forgot – at the last-ever Freedom Dinner before the ban came in (at the Hilton, I think), which my OH and I attended, said OH just happened to be sitting next to “Theresa May, the MP’s, secretary.” And a very nice lady she was, too. Ms May herself wasn’t there, but I must admit that at the time I thought it was a pretty good sign that her PA was – which presumably she knew about. Of course, back then Ms May would still have been a smoker, but I thought it a cautiously good sign that she was clearly aware of Forest (which she would be, as her PA’s ex-employer) and didn’t regard them as so much “the enemy” that she’d tried to dissuade her PA from going. Not that she’d have had any right to, of course, but at that particularly sensitive time, with anti-smoking feeling at virtually hysteria levels, many MP’s, I suspect, might well have hinted that “perhaps it wouldn’t be such a good idea,” etc etc. But clearly she didn’t.
Minor correction, Misty. The Freedom Dinner started in 2012. It was however inspired by the dinner you refer to, which took place at The Savoy Hotel in 2007. Glad to know you were there, though. Re Theresa May, I may be wrong but I'm not aware she was ever a smoker. Doesn't fit her image, somehow!
Indeed she was, Simon. A (past - 2014) quote mentioned during the leadership contest ran something along the lines of: “I gave up smoking three years ago, I’ve stopped drinking and last year I gave up red meat for Lent. I’ve had the odd lapse (she didn’t say in which “discipline!”), but pretty soon there’ll be nothing left for me to give up!” Apologies, Ms May if this isn’t absolutely correct, but that’s the jist of it. Which means, of course, that there’s quite a strong likelihood that she would have had to endure a fair few years of being treated like a social outcast. I know she’s not a party-loving, pub-regular type, but no doubt in those years of the ban run-up with its accompanying encouragement of anti-smoking self-righteousness she would no doubt have had to suffer the ignominy of being invited round to friends’ (if that’s the word) dinner parties etc only to be told to stand out in the back garden whenever she wanted a cigarette. Here’s hoping that becoming an ex-smoker hasn’t – as it so often seems to do – dimmed her memory of those unfriendly and unwelcoming moments ...
Interesting. Thanks for that.