Good luck, Deirdre... and goodbye!

Dec 9 2009 By Jon Walker

WOULD-be MP Deirdre Alden was bemused to receive a Christmas card from the editor of House Magazine, Parliament’s very own journal.

Coun Alden, who will be the Conservative candidate for Edgbaston in the next election, was told: “Good luck with your forthcoming campaign. Should you be successful, the magazine looks forward to welcoming you to Westminster...we look forward to working with you should you be elected to Parliament.”

The card was signed by the House Mag’s editor, one Gisela Stuart – Edgbaston’s sitting Labour MP. Coun Alden pointed out: “If I get elected to Parliament, the one person I won’t be working with is Gisela Stuart – because she’ll have lost her seat.”

* ROYAL Bank of Scotland directors have not won any sympathy from MPs after threatening to resign if they are blocked from giving massive bonuses to top staff.

No-nonsense MP Lynne Jones (Lab Selly Oak) signed a Commons motion urging the government “to accept without hesitation the resignations of those directors when they are offered”.

But she was politeness itself compared with Wolverhampton MP Ken Purchase (Lab Wolverhampton North East).

Speaking in the Commons, he said: “Those precious, self-centred people need to be brought here and cautioned for what they are saying. They are blackmailing the Government.”