Angela Merkel is in London officially to talk about the G7 and unofficially to discuss David Cameron’s hopes for a reformed European Union that Britain can stay in. But while she’s here, she might want to ask after one of Cameron’s colleagues, Iain Duncan Smith.
Duncan Smith likes to tell Tory constituency parties the tale of the time the pair attended a summit on benefits. Mostly the summit was attended by EU leaders, but Cameron sent IDS in his place. After sitting through a very long and dull speech from one of the delegates, Duncan Smith finally got his opportunity to speak. He began by saying how grateful he was it was his turn, and that he had almost lost the will to live by this point.
After he’d spoken, IDS was rather confused that Angela Merkel was growing rather attentive towards him, rushing over to talk to him, checking he was alright, and remarking that things must be very difficult (mind you, at points in his tenure at DWP, IDS must have grown rather used to colleagues saying the same). Then in the group photo at the end, Merkel was again checking that the Work and Pensions Secretary was OK.
Duncan Smith then discovered from someone else present that the reason Merkel was so concerned about his welfare was that the translation of his remark about losing the will to live had been that he had ‘weeks to live’. Merkel will be very impressed to see that he has in fact defied all expectations.
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