Why did Claire Perry MP begin her ministerial response to a Westminster Hall railways debate on the Furness Line and the Transpennine Express with the words: “The phrase ‘the Thin Controller’ is running through my mind”?
Although not recorded by Hansard, it seems likely that some cheeky MP had muttered a remark about the new minister for railways being tagged the ‘Thin Controller’ – as in Thomas the Tank Engine. A variation of this moniker was apparently dreamt up by John Crace who writes parliamentary sketches for The Guardian.
Writing last week on the new transport team’s first appearance at Transport Questions in the House of Commons, Crace wrote about the Secretary of State, Patrick McLoughlin, as the country’s Fat Controller sitting in his office counting traffic jams and urging Thomas to slow down a bit so as not to be too punctual – never forget that the leader who made the trains run on time was the very right wing Benito Mussolini.
John Hayes, his minister of state, was the Not Quite So Fat Controller. And he christened Claire Perry the Really Rather Thin Controller. This may have brightened up her breakfast reading no end – if, of course, she lets The Guardian into the house.
However, in the way that governments the world over snip bits off the promises they make, so Mrs Perry has snipped off John Crace’s ‘Really Rather’.
She does, however, seem ‘really rather’ pleased with a House of Commons nickname that dubs her the Thin Controller.
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