The regulars at the Westminster Arms are used to drinking with politicians and famous figures. Angelina Jolie, Glenda Jackson, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Bill Clinton have all enjoyed a tipple at this famous pub just a short walk from the Houses of Parliament. They usually tend to keep to the other side of the bar, though.
Dame Penny Mordaunt, on the other hand, is more than happy to man the pumps as she pulls me an almost-perfect pint of Spitfire ale made by Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewers. If I’m being critical, she’s put a tad too much head on it, but that’s possibly because she’s keeping a watchful eye out for another frequent Westminster Arms visitor, Nigel Farage, should he barge in mid-pour.
The pub, built on the eve of World War One, is literally across the road from Westminster Abbey where Penny, as Leader of the House of Commons in 2023, famously carried the ceremonial Sword of State at King Charles III’s Coronation. The dress and headwear she wore at the ceremony, which she helped design, drew admiration from around the world, including from the leader of Reform UK, who said she looked like “a Roman goddess”.
Brandishing our beers, Penny and I descend downstairs to the restaurant. We’re here to discuss her latest Sunday Times bestseller, Pomp & Circumstance, co-written with Chris Lewis – a thoughtful, surprising and often humorous exploration of the traditions, values and rituals that underpin British life.
“Our traditions are our superpower, especially in these very difficult times,” the former Secretary of State and Conservative MP for Portsmouth North tells me, clad immaculately in head-to-toe dark blue. “Whether it’s something national like the coronation or a local event, there’s a common theme running through our traditions. They’re all about honouring service and sacrifice. We worship our monarchy, you see that in many national events.
“But look around the country and you’ll find Pearly Kings and Queens, Carnival Queens, Goose Queens, May Queens, Apple Blossom Queens, you name it. And [our traditions] are all about bringing the country together. They often involve dressing up, banging a drum or sometimes even setting fire to stuff, and horses are a common theme.”
She says that at the heart of it, they’re about not taking ourselves too seriously. “Some of our most important ceremonies and spiritual ceremonies, like the coronation, are ancient, but there’s nothing in those services that isn’t relevant today, and that’s why they speak to the country so powerfully.”
Pomp & Circumstance, the proceeds of which are being donated to charity, reveals how Britain, often thought of as old-fashioned, uses those traditions to navigate its future in a world that can often seem worryingly uncertain. As well as tracing their history and evolution, it contains a calendar of the rituals, festivals and events that take place around the country each year, with QR codes printed underneath linking to videos showing them in colourful detail.
A surprising number of these were founded and are still based in pubs, yet many of these historic watering holes are in danger. Changing trends – younger generations eschewing alcohol, for example – combined with increasing overheads and crippling regulations, mean more and more pubs are calling “last orders” for the final time. The British Beer and Pub Association, which represents the beleaguered industry, predicts there will be 378 pub closures this year, at a cost of more than 5,600 jobs.
And that’s a huge loss to the country, says Penny.
“I’ve always known that pubs play a special part in the community, but the extent to which they do was really brought home to me by the research I did for the book,” she says. “Without pubs, we lose a tremendous community resource. Not everywhere has a community centre but everywhere has a pub and if we lose these assets, our communities will be poorer for it. They’ve been important throughout the whole of our history.
She continues: “We’ve got to keep them going and that means recognising that they, along with other small businesses, need some breaks. We need to give them more flexibility to do what they need to do to diversify and thrive without jumping through loads of red tape. So I’m in favour of cutting business rates; that’s my party’s policy on those kinds of businesses. But we also need to recognise and support in other ways, especially in rural areas where it’s hard to generate additional footfall.”
Whilst the book exemplifies another of Britain’s greatest assets, its sense of humour, through its celebration of whimsical sounding traditions such as bolving (stag mating mimicking contest), hoodening (performing with a hobby horse and gravy wrestling (no explanation required!), it also pays respectful homage to what Penny says is the nation’s greatest and, to her mind, most revered tradition: Remembrance Day.
“It is the ultimate expression of love and willingness to lay down your life for your fellow countrymen,” she says. “It’s something that we all take part in still. Most of us will probably go to some sort of event, most of us wear a poppy, most of us will be thinking about our grandfathers and other family members and those that are still serving.”
Not everybody who lives in Britain has respect for its traditions, though, and I ask Penny whether some of the rituals that many of us enjoy might be seen as elitist or exclusive – ”pompous and circumstantial” even – by others.
“There are lots of things that worry people at the moment and a lot of it stems back to how politics isn’t delivering for people,” she replies. “If you want to do the kind of transformation in politics and public services that the public are crying out for, you have to take a leaf out of the book of people who’ve done it well before, and that means their radical programme has to be rooted in the traditional. You can’t just blow everything up; that doesn’t work here. It’s got to be something that makes sense, like Margaret Thatcher did. She brought everything back to terms that people really understood and were comfortable with; it was all about people taking responsibility.
“These traditions are about people taking responsibility, demonstrating the agency they have in their local communities. And so I don’t buy the narrative that people have fallen out of love with their neighbours and the community they live in and the country. I didn’t get that impression when I stood on the steps of Guildhall Square in Portsmouth on Remembrance Sunday.”
Penny is also adamant that the surge in St George’s and union jack flags this year is “an expression for people of love as opposed to hate” despite tensions running high between communities over immigration.
“I think the reason why people are wrapping flags around lamp posts is because they want to feel proud of their country,” she says. “And that’s important because pride is a necessary condition for the country doing well, so I’m very optimistic when I look at the people of this country. I don’t think they’re disrespectful. I don’t buy that narrative at all. I think they’re fed up.”
Penny was previously tipped as a future leader of the Conservative Party but lost her seat to Labour last year. Would she consider a return to Parliament? “You can be of service and you can make things happen without having to sit on the green benches or in a Town Hall,” she says. “The hundreds of organisations that we touch on in the book who are doing those things for their communities – bringing people together and raising money to get stuff to happen – very few of those things are funded or organised by any state authority. They’re organised by local traders and communities coming together. So Westminster and Whitehall isn’t everything. In actual fact most things are done better when they’ve done outside those institutions.”
She breaks into a smile. “And you don’t need letters after your name to be of service. Being an MP is just one way to do that. I’d like to get back because I’ve got a list of things I’d like to try and get done, but you can help in other ways. You don’t have to hold public office to do some good.
“The book has an important message for people at this time who are feeling a bit unconfident about their country and are worried about the future and the pace of change, which is all a bit frightening. It will hopefully remind people that probably out of any other nation on earth, Britain is best placed to weather the challenges ahead because of where we’ve come from and who we are.”
Pomp & Circumstance – Why Britain’s Traditions Matter by Penny Mordaunt and Chris Lewis (Biteback, £22) is available from all good booksellers. Proceeds will be distributed among several community causes including The Royal Hospital Chelsea and The Household Cavalry Foundation
