Blog: MP gets on his bike

Blog: It has been another Right Royal week with ceremonial abounding at the Trooping of the Colour ceremony on Saturday followed by Garter Day on Monday at Windsor, and then the march of the hats at Ascot.

The service and parade of Knights of the Garter gave North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson just the excuse he needed for a long-awaited office party.

His wife, Rose, was in St George's Chapel for the service, accompanying her Garter Knight father, Viscount Ridley, who served for more than 10 years as Lord Steward of the Royal Household, and is the elder brother of former Thatcherite cabinet minister Nicholas.

While Mrs Paterson was mixing with the Queen, Charles, the Cambridges and the rest, her husband finally got around to meeting the request for an office party from his long-serving office manager at Westminster, Claire Ayres.

The venue was a restaurant on the bridge overlooking the Thames at Westminster, and also there was Claire's husband, Tim, the Tory MP's assistant, Alex Stafford, daughter Evie, and her boyfriend, also called Alex. "It was a jolly and rather unusual office party," said the Northern Ireland Secretary.

Certainly tops a boozy bash in an upstairs room at the local.

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Another Shropshire Tory, Mark Pritchard, was mixing with royalty last week when he was invited by a Chelsea Pensioner to the Founders Day ceremony at the Royal Hospital on the banks of the Thames last week.

The Wrekin MP was, as ever, quick to pick up on the Shropshire connection to the hospital, which was opened 11 years after King Charles II issued a royal warrant to build it in 1681.

Charles famously hid in an oak tree near Boningale to escape the King's forces after the Battle of Worcester in 1681.

On Founders Day, also known as Oak Apple Day, Charles's statue in the Royal Hospital grounds is partly covered in oak leaves, and spectators, as well as people taking part in the parade, wear sprigs of oak leaves.

Chelsea Pensioners are traditionally reviewed on Founders Day by a member of the Royal Family, and this year Prince Harry was there to take the salute and to talk to residents.

Harry followed in his brother William's, footsteps, in training at the Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury, and this cropped up in conversation with Mr Pritchard after the parade.

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Tory MPs Philip Dunne and Daniel Kawczynski were adopting the Olympic spirit in Shropshire today at an event which they believe shows the county is once again leading the nation.

The three-day Shropshire Olympian Festival beginning today in The Quarry, Shrewsbury, will celebrate the county's part in inspiring the modern Olympic Movement.

It's now widely accepted, even by the organisers of the 2012 London Olympics (thanks to Mr Dunne), that the Wenlock Olympian Games founded by Dr William Penny Brookes in 1850 provided a model for the modern Olympics for which Pierre de Coubertin generally takes the credit.

The early festivals in Shrewsbury featured not only competitive sports and even a pig race, but cultural activities such as poetry and painting.

Ludlow (and Wenlock) MP Mr Dunne was due to open this weekend's festival, and Shrewsbury & Atcham MP Mr Kawczynski will be presenting prizes.

"I think around 2,000 children will be taking part," said Mr Dunne.

"This is Shropshire leading the way in promoting school sports on the model of the Wenlock Olympian Society. I am thrilled to be involved in an event which shows our county once again leading the way nationally," said the Conservative MP.

Mr Kawczynski added: "This weekend will show that Shropshire is pivotal in starting the celebrations for the forthcoming Olympic Games."

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The lofty Shrewsbury MP was delighted by the news that 'Boris Bikes' will soon be available for parliamentarians to use when a special docking station opens at Westminster.

Bikes sponsored by a high street bank which were the brainwave of London Mayor Boris Johnson are now to be seen all over the capital.

You can pick up a bike at one point, ride it through the city streets and then leave it at another parking bay.

The project wasn't without its teething troubles as Mr Kawczynski found out late one night when he couldn't find a free parking spot and had to put his Boris Bike in a taxi to return it to where he first picked it up.

The 6ft 9ins MP wasn't put off. "It's a great scheme. You can easily adjust the height of the saddle," he said.