5 great walk-outs
In honour of Her Majesty, here are five great British walk-outs.
1. John Nott walks out of his interview with Robin Day. In October 1982 while asking about cuts in defence expenditure, Robin Day posed the question: "But why should the public, on this issue, as regards the future of the Royal Navy, believe you, a transient, here-today and, if I may say so, gone-tomorrow politician, rather than a senior officer of many years?" John Nott promptly rose from his seat, removed his microphone, said "I'm sorry, I'm fed up with this interview. Really, it's ridiculous" and walked out. Nott's memoirs are called "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow".
2. Michael Heseltine walks out of the Cabinet. On 9 January 1986 another Defence Secretary walks out. This time Hezza left the Cabinet. His colleagues sat around for a while unsure what had happened. Had he resigned or merely gone to the toilet? After a while, they realised that he wasn't coming back.
3. Peter Mandelson walks out on Tony Blair. It is Saturday February 1995 in Brighton and Tony Blair is writing a speech with Alastair Campbell at his side. Mandelson arrives to discuss a photocall. But then a critical discussion of new Labour policy turned into an argument. Writes Campbell: "I was strongly of the view he should wear a shirt and tie, if not a suit. Peter M thought he should wear cords and an open-necked shirt". The two start rowing and Mandelson exclaims that he is sick of being rubbished and wants out. "Get out then and we can finish the speech," responded Campbell tactfully. Mandelson started to leave, then turned and threw a punch at Campbell. The latter grabbed Mandelson's lapels and the Leader of the Opposition moved to separate them. Mandelson lunged at Blair, and then, shouting "I hate this I'm going back to London", walked out. Later these people formed a Government together and Mr Mandelson was made a Secretary of State.
4. The Bee Gees walk out on Clive Anderson. October 30th 1998. Five minutes after saying "I think we're much more mature now", Maurice Gibb led his brothers in a walkout from the Clive Anderson chat show. He was irritated that when he told the host that the band used to be called "Les Tosseurs", Anderson replied "you'll always be Les Tosseurs to me".
5. Eric Heffer walks out of Neil Kinnock's conference speech. The Liverpool MP stormed off the platform and out of the party conference when his leader, Neil Kinnock turned on Militant and the Labour council in Liverpool. He didn't much like the Militant group ruling the city, but there was something he disliked more - Kinnock. A few years earlier, when right-wing Labour MP (later SDP) Tom McNally was arguing with Heffer, the hot-headed MP esclaimed "Come the revolution Tom, they'll shoot you." "Wrong," replied Tom. "Come the revolution, they'll shoot you Eric. I'll be sent to America to negotiate a loan."
