Queue-jumping

I’ve had a few cheeky texts and emails from people I know, asking if I’m enforcing my new queue-jumping rights in Parliament, following the Administration Committee’s decision that MPs should be allowed priority, which has caused no end of controversy. In fact, in the past fortnight not only have I been blatantly queue-jumped myself by a certain former Cabinet Minister’s researcher, but I’ve also been sworn at by one of the catering staff for getting in his way as he tried to replenish the salad bar in the Terrace Café. Did I complain? No.

It is actually a bit of a pain when you arrange to meet someone from an NGO or charity for a half-hour chat over a coffee and it takes 15 minutes to get served at the Despatch Box (the Portcullis House coffee bar), leaving not much time for business. But 111 MPs have signed Lembit Opik’s EDM against the new policy, and I’m one of them.