It is occasionally odd to think that, as I’ve been married to Ros for more than eighteen years now - a fact which astonishes me as much now as it did when I saw her walk up the aisle towards me on that April afternoon - I’ve been an observer of the Parliamentary Party in the Lords for just as long.
In the early years, especially whilst I was still working in London, I would regularly meet Ros after work and attend social events hosted by her colleagues - birthday parties or Christmas gatherings - and so I met some of them frequently. And whilst they seemed rather daunting at first, I got to rather like them and they were amazingly welcoming.
But, now that I live in Suffolk, and my visits to London are infrequent to say the least, my spouse pass mostly gathers dust. This evening though, I was fortunate to attend a retirement party for John Shipley who, at the age of eighty, has decided that he’d like to spend more time with his family and less time travelling up and down from Newcastle. After all, it’s not as though he hasn’t given marvellous service to liberalism and Newcastle over half a century.
There were speeches from Jeremy Purvis, the fourth Leader in the Lords since I started visiting, Alan Beith, some bloke called Ed Davey (seemed like a nice chap…) and finally, John himself.
He was most gracious, name checking Ros, who introduced him to the Lords in 2010, and noting that his father had taught Ros history, one of those strange coincidences which seems only too common amongst their colleagues.
Hopefully, John will have a long and happy retirement, although there were jokes that he could run for Council again. He’s certainly earned the right to slow down a bit and to spend some quality time with his wife, Margaret.
He will be missed, both by the local government community and by the North East, whose interests he championed throughout his political career. But most of all, he will be missed by his colleagues. He will be a tough act to follow…
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