Tossers

21 February 2007



MPs Beat Peers and Journalists in Annual Pancake Race

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, Carneval, Mardi Gras, or if one prefers, Pancake Tuesday. In Rio, there was the usual wild party. In New Orleans, there was a fair attempt at the usual wild party amid the ruins of the drowned city. And at the Palace of Westminster, there was the usual Pancake Race among teams from the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the reporters assigned to cover Britain’s Parliament. This year, the MPs won under protest from the journos. Rehab UK, which “provides assessment, training and development programmes that enable people with disabilities to break into the workforce,” was the beneficiary of this charity event.

The ever-useful Wikipedia says that the tradition of pancake racing is centuries old. “The most famous pancake race, at Olney in Buckinghamshire, has been held since 1445. The contestants, traditionally women, carry a frying pan (skillet) and race to the finishing line tossing the pancakes as they go. As the pancakes are thin, some skill is required to toss them successfully while running. The winner is the first to cross the line having tossed the pancake a certain number of times. The tradition is said to have originated when a housewife from Olney was so busy making pancakes that she forgot the time until she heard the church bells ringing for the service. She raced out of the house to church while still carrying her frying pan and pancake.”

Clive Anderson, known best in the States for “Whose Line is It Anyway?” on BBC America from before Drew Carey took it over, was the referee. The poor man. The BBC’s Nick Assinder reported the teams “ignored just about every one of the complex rules of engagement. They may not have resorted to flinging the ingredients at each other or using their frying pans as weapons - both things specifically banned under the rules. Spoilsports. But when it came to tossing three times around the relay race course, returning to the start if they dropped their pancakes or not holding their pancakes in place, forget it.”

Naturally, this led to complaints. Mr. Assinder quotes one of his colleagues (whom he didn’t identify but whom this journal suspects was the BBC's very own Nick Robinson) as saying, “It’s not fair. They [the MPs] had a frying pan each when we only had one between us. So their handovers were much quicker." Mr. Assinder also reported, “There were demands for public inquiries, dope tests and cash-for-frying pans allegations. All involved denied wrong-doing.”

Not surprisingly, the House of Lords team led by Lord Morris stayed above the kerfuffle. However, Their Lordships weren’t even in the running for the trophy. When it comes to reforming the House of Lords, whether it’s appointive or elective makes little difference. What’s needed to protect the realm is a House of Lords reformed so as to be competitive in future pancake races. And in the immortal words of the great Brooklyn Dodger in the Sky, “Wait’ll next year.”

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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