Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race

MPs, Lords and members of the Press will be flipping up a storm in the annual Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race, sponsored by Harris Fowler, on Shrove Tuesday.

Political and media foes are required to put their traditional allegiances to one side in coming together as teams of MPs, Lords and media in a spirit of peace, love and harmony—all for a greater cause.

Following the Lords win in 2014, MPs and political correspondents having been engaged in Olympic-standard training for weeks, getting to know the route inside-out, perfecting their flipping techniques and attending pancake race boot camp to be in optimum flipping shape for this year's contest.

For 17 years now, the eggstravaganza has been taking place in the shadow of Big Ben and is one of London's must-see events. It is a huge draw for tourists and Londoners alike who flock to see their politicians and media as they have never seen them before.
TV crews from far-flung parts of the globe file also flock to the race filing reports for viewers back home who have no idea what to think of this bizarre and uniquely British tradition.

The event is mounted by the Rehab Group, an independent international group of charities and public benefit companies. The Group supports disabled and marginalised people in the United Kingdom through its high-quality education, training, health and social care and employment services, in enabling them to fulfil personal goals and to live more independent lives, as well as in pursuing further education or finding a job.

Did you know? Some interesting Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race Facts:

- In the past ten years of the race, the MPs team has had the most flipping success having won four times, with the Lords and media teams each winning on three occasions

- Pancakes take such a battering during the race that organisers have a stockpile of hundreds of replacement pancakes on standby for runners as they dart around the course

- The 2012 race had to be re-run after allegations of cheating prompted the race scrutineer and TV news anchor Natasha Kaplinsky to order the teams to line out again

- An MP once alleged that he had suffered a broken rib as a result of "shenanigans" from an opposing team. This claim could not be independently verified

- The race takes approximately four minutes—almost the same amount of time it takes to cook an actual pancake—with the 2014 race completed in a time of three minutes and 56 seconds

For the latest updates on the Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race, you can follow on www.facebook.com/rehabparliamentarypancakerace or on www.twitter.com/flip4rehab