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Article: The Restaurant Spy.
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 7, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: TOBY YOUNG
I had picked possibly the worst day of the year to have lunch at Wiltons, the famous Tory restaurant on Jermyn Street. Iain Duncan Smith faced a vote of no confidence later that day and my dining companion - the parliamentary sketch writer, Frank Johnson - could only spare 45 minutes.
Normally, Wiltons would have been stuffed to the rafters with Conservative MPs plotting and scheming about who to stab in the back next, but there was no time for lavish, three-course meals on this particular day.
As Johnson remarked, 'Any night of the long knives is preceded by the day of the short lunches.' Fifty years ago, when Conservative ...