These boots… belong to none other than the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Nicholas Soames, as do the feet.

Normally a purveyor of refined, sartorial elegance, Nicholas decided to go a little wild today and wow us all with his new boots.

Needless to say he created something of a kerfuffle in the Members' tea room.

Everyone, but everyone, had an opinion, particularly as Nicholas was about to walk into the chamber! "Leave him alone", said I. "It's 2009, anything goes."

At which point Sir Nicholas Winterton almost choked on his coffee as he spluttered "anything goes, anything goes, that’s what's bloody wrong with this country!" At this point I almost fell off my chair laughing.

I love this place. You couldn’t make up the scene in the tea room at lunchtime; and it's people like both the Sir Nicholas’s that make it such a fascinating and amazing place. Where else would you get to work with such unique, clever, knowledgeable, wise, bombastic colourful characters?

I left Nicholas about to sashay through the chamber doors. I saw him grin, and I swear I heard him whisper with both feeling and a flourish, to no one in particular, "are you ready boots? Start walkin’!"

I’ve been singing like Nancy since...