Humphrey, the Downing Street cat, has died

Humphrey, the Number Ten cat, has died.  Conservative Animal Welfare Group President, Roger Gale MP, "who met Humphrey on a number of visits to Downing Street during the Thatcher and Major years", has issued a statement:

“Humphrey was often curled up on the doorkeeper’s chair and a very reassuring presence to those entering No. 10 on business.  We were sad when Humphrey was ‘retired’ with the arrival of the Blairs.  Humphrey clearly had a much loved and comfortable old age.   We were all sorry to learn, today, of his death, and we shall all remember the Downing Street cat with great affection.”

Reuters gives us the history:

"He had wandered into No. 10 Downing Street under Margaret Thatcher and remained throughout the tenure of John Major. But he was sent away to live with a civil servant in "retirement" months after Tony Blair was elected in 1997.  At the time, Conservative opponents accused Blair of having Humphrey put down because the new prime minister's wife Cherie didn't like the cat. Questions were raised. Fur flew.  "Humphrey is now a missing person. Unless I hear from him or he makes a public appearance, I suspect he has been shot," opposition Conservative politician Alan Clark declared at the time.

The government finally arranged for press photos to prove Humphrey was still alive, saying he had gone to live with a civil servant to be treated for illness.  He was photographed, hostage-like, with copies of the day's newspapers to show the pictures were fresh. Blair's office issued a statement saying Cherie was sad to see him go.  It was not the only time Humphrey had been embroiled in scandal. In 1994 the government had to issue an official denial after the cat was accused of killing a family of robins."

Comments

[Margaret]

Animals are very perceptive, and I reckon Humphrey knew what a rotten bunch of chancers had moved in on his patch.

[Ted]

The treatment of Humphrey should have been enough to warn the country that the Blairs weren't entirely truthful. While personally being more on the dog than cat side of the fence I'm sure we could have attracted enough cat lovers in 2001 to keep Hague in a job had we exploited this dismal anti-cat action :-)

[Mark Fulford]

I hope that cat-loving remains an open vote.

Britain’s 10 million cats kill an estimated 55 million birds a year. Cat faeces (and I have 3 separate cats that like to do their business in my garden) are dangerous to children and gardeners, able to transmit toxoplasmosis, campylobacter, salmonella, giardia, cryptosporidium and other nasties. Humphrey may have been a venerable cat, but his species is, in short, vermin.

[Ruth Bennett]

I notice that the BBC Website dated 25 Nov 1997 states:

"The Blairs will get a new pet after it was announced a replacement Downing Street cat is to be acquired. But officials pleaded with the public not to send kittens or photographs of potential Prime Ministerial cats to Number 10, where Mr Blair will make the final decision".

Was a new cat acquired?? Or was was this another example of new labour spin, to avoid annoying 7m cat owners?

A question to the PM Is in order.

[Ted]

Mark,

but that means 55 million potential carriers of e-coli & salmonella are removed from causing a health hazard to us as well and with West Nile Virus and Avian Flu also a threat.....

RSPB has found no evidence that cat predation is a major threat - its mosty loss on environment. I've two cats regularly visiting my garden & a thriving community of birds - best cure I've found in my other garden plot (across the road) is a rumbustious dog which though no threat to cats irratates them enough that they no longer include the garden in their regular travels.

[Samuel Coates]

I wasn't old enough to be following current affairs under Thatcher... did Humphrey just wander in randomly?

[Mark Fulford]

a rumbustious dog...

Sadly my wife will not agree to one. Apparently two children and one husband are enough. I should probably put my foot down, but I'm too much of a thoroughly modern man.

[malcolm]

Er Ted I think you're wrong.RSPB estimates that cats account for around 10 million birds annually.I don't think any genuine bird lover would ever keep a cat.

[Patsy Sergeant]

Mark - I have three cats of my own, and I also have bullfinches, greenfinches, robins, at least one wren family, a pheasant wanders through from the field, plus magpies and blackbirds. The magpies do a lot of damage to the young birds, my moggies concentrate on voles, fieldmice and rabbits which are a menace to flowers. My one time neighbour used to have two yappy Jack Russells, but she had far fewer wild birds in her garden than I did.!!

[Richard]

Cats are the spawn of the Devil. They bring in dead rats and birds in the hope that you will cook them.

[Ted]

malcolm

Cats kill birds (and mice & voles & bats & frogs etc) but the question is if they have any real impact on survival rates.
http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/advice/cats/Copy_of_index.asp

both my family's cats visit my garden and only a few minutes ago looking out at the feeders while making a cup of tea I saw robins, great and blue tits, long tailed tits, greenfinches, chaffinches, wood pigeons, house sparrows, dunnocks and a woodpecker.

[Jon White]

Am I being silly if I ask what the **** a discussion on what our feline friends do is doing on a Conservative Party discussion website? I mean really, who cares?

[Ted]

Jon

"The quality of life matters, as well as the quantity of money"- its because we are deeply committed to our envoronment :-)

[Annabel Herriott]

At least he must have reached a ripe old age. I cant remember when he first attracted media attention, but he must have been well in the teens. I have only managed to keep a cat to 17 1/2, before old age overtook. I am abird lover, I have two rescue Siamese. They stay in. I expect them to hit 20 or so. We need a little light hearted threading, surely. We are compassionate Cons you know. Takes our mind off the sleaze from the other party.

[Mark Fulford]

Moreover Jon, I think we may have identified an interesting trend: cats and liberal-lefties may go together! If I were to post anti-cat stuff on any normal blog, I'd get strung up. That hasn’t happened, so I’m concluding that Conservatives are a more considered bunch! ;-)

[malcolm]

Yup I'm with you Mr Fulford.I hope that you're wrong about cats being owned by lefties ,my village is awash with them so it won't bode well when I'm trying to win an election.

[Richard]

"Am I being silly if I ask what the **** a discussion on what our feline friends do is doing on a Conservative Party discussion website? I mean really, who cares?"

Yes, you are. Just because this is a serious political website it doesn't mean that we can't have some light relief. Conservatives are people too!

[Jon White]

Okay. I stand corrected and suitably chastised!

[William Norton]

Am I being silly if I ask what the **** a discussion on what our feline friends do is doing on a Conservative Party discussion website? I mean really, who cares?

I care. The death of Humphrey the Cat is the only genuine news item that's happened today. Aside from being the last of the Thatcherites in Whitehall, Humphrey has some claims to having been the only efficient person working out of Downing St in the 1990s, and certainly the least expensive.

I think it says something about the Blairs that (a) they decided to get rid of the cat in the first place; (b) they did it in a shabby underhand way; (c) they tried to deny having done it; (d) they then staged an unconvincing media stunt afterwards; (e) they told a lie about getting a replacement.

Blairism in a microcosm.

On the wider birds vs cats issue, frankly any sparrow that gets itself picked off by the average domestic moggy is staring extinction in the face and deserves its fate. Darwin will not be denied.

And on that topic - who'd like to join me in a Gas The Badger Campaign? Utterly over-rated vermin.

[Jon White]

Okay William, I have already conceded defeat! Particularly liked your assertion that Humphrey was the only efficient person working out of Downing Street!

Reminded me of the old saying that Guy Fawkes is the only person ever to have entered Parliament with honest intentions.

[Ted]

William
Don't start me on badgers - our village overrun with them every Sunday night (night before weekly collection) as they overturn rubbish bins, tear open bags...and then they break into henhouses & kill the poor old hen sitting on her nest....dig over my flower beds & destroy my lawn....

but gas them........hmn

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

Whilst the death of Humphrey is sad, it is hardly a *ahem* catastrophe.

Paws (sorry) for thought - it is somewhat telling that the death of Humphrey has attracted more attention than that of John Profumo.

Incidentally, I wonder if William will treat us to a film dedicated to Humphrey this weekend? Some suggestions...

The Cat Came Back
Oscar-nominated animated comedy about a pesky black and white cat which becomes the bane of Mrs Blair's life as it constantly outsmarts her increasingly desperate attempts to get rid of it.
Verdict: Both children and adults will laugh again and again at this cartoon caper, which will never fail to entertain.

Cats & Dogs
Fast-paced family action movie about the top-secret, high-tech espionage war going on between a cat and Cherie Blair, which the general public are kept blissfully unaware of.
Verdict: British audiences may find the unsympathetic portrayal of man's best friend a bit of a turn-off.

The Cat, The Witch and The Cabinet
Modern adaptation of the famous C.S. Lewis classic novel about a once-mighty land, accessible either via an indefinitely large but empty Cabinet made from dead wood or by making large donations to the Labour Party, now ruled by an icy witch and her evil minions, in the absence of her mighty feline enemy Humphrey, who is betrayed by a naive public duped by the witch's deceitfulness. Featuring Tilda Swinton as Cherie Blair, Liam Neeson as the voice of Humphrey and millions of extras as the witch's suffering subjects.
Verdict: Not as far-fetched as you might believe...

[Patsy Sergeant]

I've read down each of these posts and had a really good laugh, and thats very therapeutic, thank you everybody, as I was feeling quite depressed by all the negative news earlier today!

[James Hellyer]

And on that topic - who'd like to join me in a Gas The Badger Campaign? Utterly over-rated vermin.

The badger: the least attractive street furniture on the A386.

Still, at least they decompose.

[Annabel Herriott]

My lilac point Anna has just wrecked my last post with a well aimed paw, so I guess that means we should all get back to work! Miaow!!

[Annabel Herriott]

PS. She says should she send flowers? Catmint perhaps??

[Samuel Coates]

The original story about Humphrey getting chucked out: "Last week, officials announced that Humphrey, a stray who wandered into Number 10 in 1989, was being pensioned off to a new home near London."......
"The Blairs will get a new pet after it was announced a replacement Downing Street cat is to be acquired."

[Huntarian]

Let no one ever again say Conservatives don't care!

[Daniel Vince-Archer]

"The original story about Humphrey getting chucked out: "Last week, officials announced that Humphrey, a stray who wandered into Number 10 in 1989, was being pensioned off to a new home near London."......
"The Blairs will get a new pet after it was announced a replacement Downing Street cat is to be acquired.""

If you click on the link on the right of that page, it takes you to an even older news item with a delightful animated 'gif' of Humphrey walking away from Number 10.

[Annabel Herriott]

So Humphrey was at least 18? That makes him a venerable old Moggie indeed. If he was a stray, perhaps 2yrs old? Died at 20 then? Not bad going, even with the enforced eviction in 1997.Anna is nodding sagely. She had it rough once, as well.

[Mary Banks]

It is very obvious from the comments, of the male prejudice against cats - testosterone + dogs and oestrigen + cats!
Mary.