The Palace of Westminster, parts of which are around 1000 years old is in bad need of repair! Much of the interior of the oldest building, Westminster Hall is shrouded in scaffolding, Elizabeth Tower home of Big Ben is invisible behind scaffolding and shrouds, and the Minton tiles which cover the floor throughout most of the public spaces of the Palace are being repaired or just plain replicated! And those are just some of the bits visible to the casual visitor.

A place nevertheless of much splendour, grandeur and history. We spend much of a day there. We start with a very informative morning tour conducted by a delightful retired teacher, although we are rushed in and out quickly of the chamber of the House of Commons which closes to visitors at 10:15 on Wednesday mornings so that the officials can prepare for the highlight of the week - Prime Minister’s Question Time. Seats in the Strangers Gallery for PMQ as it's always referred to is just about the hottest ticket in town - you stand a better chance of nabbing a couple for Hamilton!! The closest we get is witnessing a couple of MP’s inserting “prayer tickets” in seat slots (the only way even an MP can be sure of a getting seat for the Main Event!) and watching the Speaker’s Procession into the Chamber

We return back to the House of Commons in the early evening. This time we are able to gain access to the Strangers Gallery and watch an entertaining half hour of fairly vitriolic debate on an opposition motion relating to Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Customs Union. Just half an hour though as at 6:30 we’re scheduled to be I n the Central Lobby (between the House of Commons and House of Lords) to meet our host, Michael Fabricant the flamboyant Conservative Member of Parliament for Rob & Kate’s constituency of Litchfield. At 6:30 on the dot, Michael appears and tells us that we have to follow him quickly down the hallway to the Members Bar, where he has one of the few available tables being “held” for us by a former Conservative cabinet minister and now member of the House of Lords, the utterly charming Baroness (Virginia) Bottomley of Nettlestone! With just a brief break when the Division Bell summoned him to go off to vote on the motion we’d just seen being debated, Michael Fabricant - a 25 year veteran of the House of Commons - kept us amused and entertained (and plied with wine) for the next couple of hours. Perhaps the world would be a better place of there were just one or two more politicians like the “Honourable Member for Litchfield”!