During a recent Prime Minister's Questions session, Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne quoted a line from a 1907 poem to engage with the opposition. Swayne, the Member of Parliament for New Forest West, referenced Hilaire Belloc's cautionary tale about a boy named Jim.
The poem tells the story of Jim, who enjoyed a comfortable life but ultimately ran away from his nurse and was subsequently eaten by a lion. The moral of the tale, as Swayne articulated it in the House of Commons, was: "Always keep a-hold of Nurse - for fear of finding something worse."
Sources indicate that the reference drew confused laughter from the house. Sir Desmond later told the BBC that Belloc's cautionary tales were among his "favourite reading and a compendium of wisdom." This marked the first time Swayne, an MP since 1997, had posed a question to the current Prime Minister during Prime Minister's Questions.
The Prime Minister responded to Swayne's remark, thanking him for his "most generous" comment. He recounted a personal anecdote about Swayne offering him a bottle of champagne upon arriving in the New Forest for a family holiday.