Celebrity Celerity

This week the parade of important visitors at Westminster seemed especially high. On Wednesday I was one of the last bodies to cram into a speaking event with the Dalai Lama. He warmly talked about happiness and tolerance and fruit; fruit seemed to be a consistent metaphor. His accented English was not helped by the fact that I was wedged into a corner near the door, which saw many people trying but failing to enter and exit without commotion. A cell phone rang and I was delighted to see one of the Buddhist monks from the Tibetan delegation answer it embarrassingly. Who calls monks? Other monks? I wish I had a monk to call. 

Leaving with MP from the event (her seat had been much better than mine of course), we went down a lift that I didn’t know existed and popped out into a hall that I’d never been to and there was His Holiness!!! He had been ushered out before the herds of MPs could beg for pictures earlier, so at this opportunity MP and I sprang into action. She rushed forward hand out and I started flashing my camera like a practiced paparazzo. His Holiness was perfectly gracious at our obnoxious behavior, as was Speaker Bercow who had been escorting him and ended up in my picture too. Elated as I trooped back to my office I felt that if I did nothing else for MP, at least I got her that picture! It felt like a real feat. 

Later that day at one of several cancer receptions I tagged along to, I met one of the other interns and his MP. His MP insisted on getting a picture with a buxom, heavily made-up girl, and given what I'd heard about this guy, I assumed that he just liked to take pictures with pretty girls. Later I found out that the girl is a British celebrity from a “reality” show here: The Only Way is Essex—which is one of those embarrassing TV circuses about shallow, rich people with more latex than brains. It’s nice to know that America doesn’t hold a monopoly on trash television. One of the cancer lobbyists, who cornered me uncomfortably for most of the reception, told me that this particular celebrity had 1.2 million followers on Twitter. He mentioned that when they can get her to tweet about (whichever type they were promoting awareness for) cancer, it has a good reach.

Also, dear readers, you might have seen that Aung San Suu Kyi spoke to both chambers of Parliament on Thursday. I  wasn’t able to make it in to Westminster Hall to see her, but I did glimpse her enter the building as I was passing through to Portcullis House and then I watched her speech on the internal television feed in my office. She is a truly inspiring woman. I dearly hope that she has more than 1.2 million Twitter followers.

She spoke about the need for Britain and other established democracies to help Burma as they attempt to become more democratic. She also said that the Burmese assembly is too formal for her liking—she would rather there was more spirit and heckling like the British Parliament. At this the cameras panned to David Cameron and Ed Miliband who were sitting in the front row together.