Make way for the Minister
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Those who invite Government ministers to speak at dinners have to accept the risk that the order of proceedings may have to be rehashed at the last minute to allow the honoured guest to rush back to the House of Commons. I have known a Minister of Transport to respond for the guests before the toast had been proposed, so that he could cast his vote in the House at lOpm.
Nowman Fowler found him self in this predicament at the RHA dinner. John Silbermann, the retiring chairman, neatly solved the problem by interrupting his welcome to the guests to allow the Minister to speak.
Even the most skilled Hansard shorthand writer would have been hard pressed to keep up with Norman Fowler, who showed his ex-colleagues in the Press no mercy. There was certainly no time for ironicb laughter when he declaimed: "Civil servants are not the wealth creators in our society."