Just won’t get over opening Quality Street and seeing paper wrappers - Susan Morrison

The weather outside really is frightful. No denying climate change is happening. As a family we are fully onboard with the desire to recycle, reuse and repair wherever possible, but there comes a time when you have to sacrifice something to save the planet, but even I reeled when I opened the Quality Street and saw paper wrappers.

The Tories' Westminster front bench - the unloved Quality Street of politicians

Obviously, I’ll get over it, but I mourn the loss of the simple pleasure of holding up the purple and the green cellophane wrapping to peer through, smoothing out the blue and orange foil to use as a bookmark, or scrunching them all up into a ball to drive cats crazy.

There’s still some left at the bottom of the tub. There always are, once the mighty Green Triangle and the Purple One have been scoffed. Personally, and I know this is controversial, I’m a fan of the coconut eclair and the toffees.

Must admit, we aren’t too keen on the strawberry creams, and I have long held that orange and chocolate should never be mixed. They’ll rattle about at the bottom of the box, the sweeties that just didn’t make the cut.

There are times over the last few months where I have looked at the lads and lassies on the Westminster front bench and thought, these are the unloved Quality Street of politicians.

They are all that’s left and no-body wants them. They even look a bit tired and dull, and if we look under the wrapping, we’ll probably find they are a bit foosty.

Even Rishi didn’t like the selection he had on offer when he needed a foreign secretary, so he brought back Hummin’ Dave.

Mind you, he’s an Orange Creme if ever I saw one. The PM was probably dazzled by the old school shiny wrapping.

Some time in the New Year we’ll all find the box with the unloved sweeties at the bottom. The fruit cremes will be dispatched into the food bin and the now eco-friendly wrappings will be recycled.

You never know, we might just bin that tatty team down South as well in 2024.