article_snippet: — at which Emma Soames gamely tried to enliven proceedings with an anecdote about Emma Soames brother Nicholas, who had just been selected to contest a tough seat in Glasgow.
article_snippet: At a raucous selection meeting, very unlike anything in the Home Counties, the prospective MP had been grasped by the lapels and asked, ‘Are ye married?’ Around Heath’s table, the diners waited expectantly for the end of an amusing story, but Emma Soames suddenly and mystifyingly stopped speaking.
article_snippet: Driving Emma Soames home later, Waldegrave asked if Emma Soames’d forgotten the punchline?
article_snippet: No,’ Emma Soames said.
article_snippet: I was on autopilot and got that far without remembering that after Nicholas admitted to being unmarried, the response was: “Och, not another Tory poofter!
article_snippet: ’ Emma Soames hadn’t wanted to offend Emma Soames illustrious host, whose sexuality was always the subject of speculation — though Waldegrave adds that in relation to the Scotsman’s allegation, it was not ‘as far as anyone I ever knew could discover, true’.