MP in the future. The Boundary Commission
consultation has now closed and we wait with
interest to see their final report sometime (it
could be anytime) this year. More at
www.stevebrine.com/keepingalresford.
As always, there is also a huge amount of
information about my work locally and in
Westminster at www.stevebrine.com and
if you have a smart-phone you can now
download my App via that site.
Steve Brine
MP for Winchester & Chandler’s Ford
01962 791110 (constituency)
0207 219 7189 (House of Commons)
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.stevebrine.com
Steve Brine TV: www.stevebrine.tv
Sign up to receive Steve’s email newsletter www.stevebrine.com
Royal Air Forces
Association
The Alresford and District
branch of the R.A.F.A. meet
at the Swan Hotel, Alresford
on the first Thursday of each
month, at 8pm. New
members
are
always
welcome.
Contact Derek Sweetenham
(Chairman) on 733559, or
Brian Gabriel (Secretary) on
734482 for details.
16
PROFESSOR LORD
WINSTON – A
NATIONAL
TREASURE
I first met Robert in 1973 when we were
junior doctors at RHCH Winchester. We
became great friends when he wrote the
Hospital Christmas Show, for which I wrote
the music.
Physician, Surgeon, Scientist and Politician,
he is now the President of the Royal College
of Music. Over the years I have watched his
remarkable career, and seen absolutely no
change whatsoever in the man himself.
I can best illustrate this by a call from the
BBC to appear on This Is Your Life. My chum
Roddy Morton (who became a Winchester
GP) and I turned up with a few prepared
lines about our friendship with the great man.
What followed was truly extraordinary.
First there was a video clip from Tony Blair
and amusing comments from a famous
footballer. Standard stuff.
Then a German surgical instrument maker,
one of the biggest in the world, came on to
explain how he had written to Robert to ask
to buy the patent for his newly-invented
Fallopian tube guillotine. Robert replied
saying that he would give him the patent,
providing he labelled the instrument the
“Thatcher cutter” (it makes a clean cut) and
the replacements “Denis blades”.
Unfamiliar with English irony, and being a
literal
German,
he
accepted
with
considerable reservation, and in due course
the instrument came out in a vast catalogue.
Robert then got hold of some 10 Downing
Street headed paper and wrote an angry
letter as if from Mrs. T., demanding an
explanation, causing much temporary alarm
in the company.