Cricket in the Lords
A surreal moment from their Lordships' debate on the Commonwealth, today, from the former Cabinet Minister Peter Brooke, Lord Brooke of Sutton Manderville, ruminating upon the nature of the institution.
He came up with a striking metaphor...
"...a humble career long ago, that of a 19th Century Manchester Nonconformist missionary, who spent a lifetime in the Admiralty Islands, teaching his congregation the laws of God and of cricket. And when he died, full of years, his flock were too poor for a permanent monument, but planted his wooden leg upon his grave, and so fruitful was the local soil, that the wooden leg took root and flourished, and provided them with an inexhaustible supply of cricket bats [laughter]. That is not a bad symbol for the Commonwealth, and it is our responsibility to help make its fertility blossom even more productively, both commercially and politically...."
Can there be another legislature on the planet, where such a speech could be made?
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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