-
Through a weird set of circumstance I went to one of those tea parties at Bukingham palace years ago.
When the Queen came out, her people went through the crowd pulling people out for her to say hello to. One guy standing next to me was asked out, but when he mentioned his wife was getting a cup of tea at the bar, the response was "I'm terribly sorry sir, I can't introduce you to the Queen without your partner" and he missed out.
I've literally no idea what the reason for rule is (so can't answer your question). It's clearly something ridiculous that should be binned, but these obligations do exist with heads of state and Starmer isn't going to be able to change them nor want to spend any capital in trying to deal with the inevitable 'snub' headlines that would come his was if his wife didn't come.
She should definitely get a warderobe allowance for them though.
You are reading a single comment by @christianSpaceman and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
christianSpaceman
Genuine question, I promise, but why is she expected to meet world leaders and attend state banquets?
That all seems really old school to me. Might she not be happier just doing her own thing in the clothes she already owned rather than being forced to go along to events because of her job?
I fairly regularly have work events and business travel that I'm expected to do. My wife is invited to relatively few of these things. If she was invited and felt she really wanted to buy new clothes for the event, she'd buy something out of our own money. I'd never even think about asking to expense that, which feels to me like the equivalent.
I accept that it's quite different because I'm clearly not PM or in any way important. My point is why should his wife have all these obligations placed on her? I think that's where we should be pushing as a root cause, rather than worrying about what she should wear and who should pay.