This week’s quiz is on peers who have previously sat in the House of Commons. The House has just under 180 members who have been MPs. As usual, the first two readers to supply the correct answers will be the winners.
1. I am a former Labour minister who later became leader of the SDP and President of the Liberal Democrat Party. Who am I?
2. I am a former Conservative Cabinet minister and European Commissioner. I am also a distinguished QC. Who am I?
3. I was returned to the House of Commons at a by-election and I now sit in the House of Lords as an elected hereditary peer. Who am I?
4. I am a former Cabinet minister who was elevated to the House of Lords while still holding my Cabinet post and continued to hold the post for a couple of months before taking up an important international post. Who am I?
1) Jenkins of Hillhead
2) Patten of Barnes
3) Lord Avebury (that was tricky)
4) Robertson of Port Ellen
1. Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank
2. Lord Brittan of Spennithorne
3. Lord Avebury
4. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen
1. Baron Maclennan of Rogart
2. Baron Brittan of Spennithorne
3. Baron Avebury (Orpington 1962, became Baron in 1971)
4. Lord Robertson, disappeared off to a NATO post.
Owen
Howe
Lubbock
Patten
Correction to my answer to question 1: Lord Maclennan of Rogart (as Bill Rodgers was never leader of the SDP).
Congratulations to Dave H, who got in first with a correct set of answers, and to Jonathan, whose correction meant that he too had a correct set. The answers are indeed:
1. Lord Maclennan of Rogart, Leader of the SDP 1987-88 and President of the Liberal Democrat Party 1994-98.
2. Lord Brittan of Spennithorne; no other Conservative currently in the House has been an EU Commissioner, Cabinet minister and a QC.
3. Lord Avebury (4th Baron Avebury) who as Eric Lubbock was the Liberal victor of the famous 1962 Orpington by-election.
4. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, who sat in the Lords as Defence Secretary August-October 1999, before taking up the post of Secretary-General of NATO.
Tough questions this week. We’d better not count that as a win for me this week, as I believe that would make me a triple winner, and I haven’t even claimed my second prize yet!
Jonathan: It does indeed make you a triple winner. Perhaps we should consider up-grading the prize to dinner at the Lords.
Many more wins and they may as well just grant me a life peerage and be done with it. 😉
There’s a prize? I thought the reward was ego-inflation and satisfaction that my Google-fu was still working properly. Now I’ll definitely have to try for a hat-trick next week.
I hope the Lords canteen offers better fare than the Party Soup on offer in the Commons in several varieties, which looks appetising and smells good, but turns out to be rather thin, bland and lacking in substance should one elect to try it. The expiry date is all wrong as well, usually it’s five years but really ought to be no more than six months.
Question 2 was an interesting one, which I missed completely, as usual.
The number of UK names associated with the EU top jobs is few and far between, although, being one of the most populous states, more jobs are apportioned to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_Commissioners_by_nationality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_EU_institutions
Question 2 was an interesting one, which I missed completely, as usual.
The number of UK names associated with the EU top jobs is few and far between, although, being one of the most populous states, more jobs are apportioned to it.
Looking at those lists makes one realize how insignificant these tiny islands really are… as islands.
I must apologize to the Noble Lord Norton for intruding in to his very fine Quizes! They are not pub quizes, and I would be no good at those either.
In some ways I regret having a sense of humor, since just about the only way I can remember the name of,for example, the noble lord Falconer, constitutional reformer of recent year is to think of the name Fork Bender, by which the noble lady of Wilsonian interest, was named in the 1970s; almost the same as Falconder.
In the case of a very good friend of mine called Mike, who is a professional rugby coach At worcester warriors,and trained the Welsh side in a grand slam season five or six years ago, I can only remember his surname,by thinking of the Gluteus Maxima of which he, (I know he will not object in the least to my saying) has an exceptionally fine pair. Those are the Buttocks.
However his name is Ruddock, and he may, for all I know, be a relative of the erstwhile lady member, for the other place, of the same name, who is similarly endowed.
It is a way of thinking and a way of remembering, which taken to ‘Private Eye’ extremes, can be cruel. I am never that, but it does lighten the burden of paradise, a little, to think in that way; to laugh… ok… and to be laughed at too on the occasion!
Kind regards to Lord Norton, for his hard work,and in what he believes!