Meow the 59th – Chief BritCats

Chief BritCats

Larry, Palmerston, and Gladstone … three Britcats working in official capacities in Downing Street, the Foreign Office, and the Treasury. On Twitter they are @Number10cat (Larry), @DiploMog (Palmerston), and @HMTreasuryCat.

Larry

Palmerston

Gladstone

Chief BritCat Fight

According to the Daily Mail, there is a claws-off between Larry and Palmerston at Downing Street. The Chief Mouser of No. 10 Downing Street and the Mouser at the Foreign Office apparently do not like each other, and “the claws are out” as The Telegraph points out. “A vicious brawl” broke out in Downing Street with “the culprits still at large”, Metro.co.uk reports, showing the fight in a series of pictures.

The Guardian joins in with a video (click on the video to start it).

A different kind of politics: Downing Street cats at warhttps://t.co/fk2YihDFQN

— The Guardian (@guardian) July 29, 2016

Larry and Palmerston get their regular share of the BBC’s news coverage: Foreign office employs chief mouser, Palmerston the cat.

“Palmerston’s domestic posting will have zero cost to the public purrse as a staff kitty will be used to pay for him and all aspects of his welfur.”

Now Gladstone has joined the ranks of the official Britcats: Gladstone the cat lands Treasury job.

Chief Britcats History

The BBC also goes into the history of the cats in Downing Street in Larry the cat escapes Downing Street eviction listing the chief mousers from the 1920s onwards.

• 1920s – Rufus of England
• 1930s and 1940s – Munich Mouser
• 1970s – Wilberforce
• 1989 to 1997 – Humphrey
• 2007 – Sybil (Alistair Darling’s pet cat)
• 2011 – Larry

The National Archives UK have more information on The Bureaucats at the heart of government. Cats have been employed officially since the mid-19th century.

Chief Britcats Future

Claws are out in reality and virtually. On Twitter, hashtags #TeamLarry, #TeamPalmerston, and #TeamGladstone are used with quotes like

“Time for me to step up and show these two who is top cat #TeamGladstone”

https://twitter.com/GladstoneCat/status/759352347738898433

Please click on the pictures for their sources.

Featured image: Her Majesty’s Government, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons