MPs pulling strings

The SNP was out in force at the annual Macmillan Lords Vs Commons tug-of-war in Westminster last night. Pete Wishart, the rocker turned MP, turned up to support fellow traveller Angus McNeil, the Commons’ captain. Wishart looked baffled by the non-whisky brown drink on offer at the bar. Clearly, Pimms has not reached Perthshire.

The BBC’s James Landale host the annual jolly once more. And BAE System flexed its muscles by picking up the tab again – any MP whose constituency contains so much as an aviation-related nut and bolt factory came to pay homage to the ‘job creators’.

Alas, there was no romance and even less competition. The Lords team was crushed by an opposition that weighed-in at over a ton (Tory backwoodsman Alec Shelbrooke MP shared his secret training regime: ‘a pint and a pie’). No Lords team has won since those youngish hereditary boys were booted out by the last government. It hardly seems fair these days.