On Thursday a generous friend invited me to a Conservative Association lunch party. Being the Cities of London and Westminster Conservative Association it was rather swanky.
I was supposed to bring a passport to gain admittance but forgot. Fortunately my pass to the Godolphin & Latymer School got me through the door. The venue was the Savoy and we were given as much champagne as we could drink before lunch. We sat on tables of ten. It may surprise you that I was the oldest on my table by a considerable margin and also the only man. There was a strong overseas presence. I spoke to a young Zimbabwean before lunch. He left Zimbabwe when he was eighteen to attend INSEAD and now lives in France with his wife and children. He is CEO of a Lloyd’s agency. A tall young man from Shanghai came to Europe to work for Deutsche Bank, became disenchanted and know works in AI in London. At lunch I had a stilted conversation with an attractive Thai girl. She didn’t understand English so I had to speak into her ‘phone which translated our conversation.
Our wine waiter poured Brook Ridge Marlborough, 2016, and Argento Mendoza, 2017. He tried to pour the white into my red wine glass and did sometimes pour it into the larger glass for others on the table but not consistently. When he gave me a refill he did put it in the red glass – so I got more. He was obviously an operative in Russian Foreign Intelligence and I kept a beady eye on him when our speaker went to the podium. However, he kept his nerve gas to himself and the Prime Minister lived another day.
She spoke well, of course, but the elephant in the room (Brexit) was not mentioned. Her follow-up act was Conservative London mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey. I will draw a veil over his performance. He was standing in for the local MP, Mark Field, who has been in trouble, most unfairly in my opinion, recently.
After lunch I met a fellow Spectator crossword aficionado who admitted to dancing with my brother when he was a cadet at Sandhurst.