Political

The real story is how little chocolate is sold in Westminster

We’re meant to be shocked at how much chocolate MPs, peers and their staff have been eating, with the news that shops inside the security cordon at Westminster sold just under 200,000 bars of chocolate a year. There’s even a quote from the National Obesity Forum attacking Parliamentarians for, they say, not setting a better example.

Time to deploy some simple maths.

There are around 1,700 staff working for MPs, just over 2,000 staff working for the House authorities and 650 MPs. That is 4,350 and counting. Which makes 200,000 bars of chocolate in a year equal to one bar of chocolate a week. Except it’s even less than that because I’ve not included peers, their staff or the staff in the Lords (though a small number of the latter are counted in the 2,000 as some staff are shared). Nor the many members of the public who can buy chocolate from several of the outlets themselves.

In order words: not much chocolate per person really.

UPDATE: Caron is joining me on the barricades with the chocolate.

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