Dish and Dishonesty

Things are looking bad for the Prince Regent as the newly appointed Prime Minister and meddlesome teenager, Pitt the Younger wants to strike him from the Civil List. However, the House of Commons is evenly divided on the issue and the Prince's butler, Mr. E. Blackadder has a cunning plan. Why not tip the scales in his favour by bribing an MP? Sir Talbot Buxomley MP to be exact. Unfortunately Buxomley's ruddy complexion hides the fact that his heart is just about to give out which it does, just as he has agreed to support the Prince in the upcoming parliamentary vote.

But Blackadder is no fool, and he knows that Buxomley's constituency of Dunny-on-the-Wold is a rotten borough consisting of 'half an acre of sodden marshland in the Suffolk Fens with an empty town hall on it. Population – three rather mangy cows, a dachshund named 'Colin', and a small hen in its late forties.' Perhaps the only flaw in Blackadder's plan is that having effectively bought the constituency, he chooses to install Baldrick as the constituency's new MP with the intention that he votes in favour of the Prince.

Accordingly, once in the House of Commons, it is only too easy for Pitt to manipulate Baldrick into into voting the wrong way. But fear not, there is another chamber in the Mother of Parliaments, so the issue proceeds to the House of Lords. Realising that if you want something doing properly, you have to do it yourself, Blackadder arranges to get himself named to the House of Lords, where he will be able to vote against the bill, and he even purchases a ludicrously expensive catskin robe in preparation. However, his scheme is ruined by the Prince George's vacuous nature, who instead elevates Baldrick to the Lords. He is also given money to bribe a few Lords in order that they vote with him. Unfortunately, the lure of a giant turnip is too much for Baldrick to resist and instead he spends the money on that.