Notting Hill Nobody | 10 November 2007

Monday

Whisked to Oxfordshire with Jed and Wonky Tom as part of Queen’s Speech preparation team! Spent whole day in outer inner sanctum!! Dave was in kitchen with his River Cottage apron on making slow-roast organic pork sandwiches when we arrived. If only people could see him like this, we would definitely win the next election. (Actually, Bonny from events was filming with the hand-held, so I guess people will see it at some point, luckily!)

There were so many issues to cover we split into sub-groups. I was on ‘Gordon Small Talk’ committee. Dave v worried about what to say on the long walk across central lobby to the House of Lords. After three sarnies (yummy!) finally came up with some killer lines that will have the two of them chatting like old chums in no time. Dave and Jed took charge of the main business — what Sam should wear — while Sam and a couple of her girlfriends went upstairs to do a bit of writing for his Queen’s Speech response. After a lot of hard work, they finally got it down to two options, the Ralph Lauren two-piece, versus the Vera Wang dress. Sam didn’t seem a bit bothered herself. At one point she absolutely yelled down the stairs: ‘Can you keep the noise down, please? I’m trying to rewrite the section on counter-terrorism — it’s a complete dog’s breakfast!’ Before long, it was time for Dave to change into his DJ for the big Conservative Way Forward dinner. He was extremely irritable. ‘It’s easy for you lot. Now I’ve got to go and be right-wing, and make jokes about Lithuanians.’ Hope no one tells him Tom and I were meant to be thinking some up, but didn’t have time.