Last week, our first grand prize-winner, Chris K. – the first reader to win three of the quizzes – visited the Lords. He joined me and fellow blogger Baroness d’Souza for tea, followed by a tour of the Palace. The picture shows us in Westminster Hall, by the steps leading up to the Grand Committee Room, where Westminster Hall sittings are held. Chris K. is now the first of several grand prize-winners. The second, Jonathan, is arriving for tea and a tour today.
Many congratulations to Chris and Jonathan, also it is nice to see a face of one of our non-noble contributers!
Mind you, the background on the photo does look a little like a Hammer House of Horror set, I do hope that Chris had tea rather than was dinner!
Considering some of the things claimed on expenses that I would never have believed possible the idea of members of the Lords eating visitors seems almost plausible
😀
The real proof would be a photo at some later date. Nobody looks like dinner when the go into such places in the stories do they?
Still in my infinite generosity I am willing to presume Lord Norton is not using the quiz as a means of acquiring food. Some might say I epitomize trust and affability.
Congratulations Chris!
Lord Norton what is to be done with you?
Location! Location! Location!
This extract from wiki:
“the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful.”
A perfect description of Lord Norton?
stephenpaterson, Croft and franksummers3ba: I can reassure you that Chris was offered food, rather than forming the food!
Senex: Modesty forbids.
My friends won’t believe I just said that.
Looks like Chris K has one of those boring new plastic security passes – where’s the fun in that, I think the old ones, seemingly produced on some WW2 surplus forms, with your name written in a hand no man could discern and a stamp I could buy in the local stationary store were much better. Progress bah humbug!
Security perhaps has been redfined since the Cold War period where the threat of Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles got so much attention. I commit to the benevolent thought of my fellow regulars and our gracious hoststhe memories and families of the 13 fallen at the hand of a gunman on the largest US base yesterday. Thirteen dead and thirty wounded although he was a US soldier and may have had acomplices still it is a security issue. Many families are in pain and I am sure security is being looked at in a different light on the base.
Croft: You’re going back rather a long time. The most recent visitor pass was a sticky label with the date written on. They kept falling off. Before that, there were metal passes, but people kept walking off with them. We now have more sophisticated passes: each carries the photograph of the carrier.
They were certainly still using the ‘WW2’ style ‘visitor’ passes in the 90s I don’t know if that had changed by the time you joined the Lords.
There must be a fair level of cost if all visitors have photo ID as the daily numbers are if I remember pretty substantial.
Croft: There are about 800,000 to 1 million visitors a year. The system I gather is efficiant and high-tech and, from a security point of view, much superior to what went before.