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Becoming a statesman. I came down from Leeds on Sunday suitably dressed as a new revolutionary jeans, sweater, hoodie like any other teenager for the Tory Leadership. The lady pushing the trolley stopped. ”Don’t I know you? You’re a politician?...”
Modestly I smiled and prepared to reveal the truth. “No don’t tell me. You’re the Father of the House”
My God .Do I look that old? That’s a job for small minds and the competition is now on. It goes to the MP with the longest service and that is currently Alan Williams from Cardiff with Sir Peter Tapsell, Tory Grandee in second place. He’ a magnificent survivor. Indeed I remember how, when we used to invite him to Yorkshire TV he would only come if we could fetch him from his mansion in Lincolnshire by helicopter. All too often it wasn’t available on Fridays because the chairman’s wife wanted it to go to Harrods.
Third in line is Sir Patrick Cormack who desperately wants the job. He was perfectly happy to give his humble constituents the opportunity to re-elect him for Cannock as he progressed round the villages receiving tugged forelocks and other tributes. Then suddenly his Liberal opponent was inconsiderate enough to die. Result: the election is put back a month and Patrick still isn’t an MP. His office is closed to him. He can’t take part in any party elections .He’s had to hire an office in exile to hold meetings. So the crucial question still obsesses him. Will the break be counted as a break in service which prevents him from being the third in line for Big Daddy? The world waits?
The kind of parterfimiliarity which breed only boredom provokes a thought. If the Liberals (or even UKIP) want to disrupt the election all the have to do is select 646 suicide candidates who pledge to die or commit suicide two days before the poll.
Then all campaigns will have to be re-run. With enough volunteers it could go on forever.
I hate being back having had a month’s joy fighting the election and rediscovering Grimsby. One of the worst things is that for all his pretense of listening to the people Tony is still pressing on with his old follies about reforming the public sector.
Several bits are in the Queens speech. Another big bit has emerged in Patricia Hewitt’s barmy announcement that she was allocating £3billion from Health service funds to buy operations on the private sector. This is intended to bring down waiting lists but it is essentially daft in a way only New Labour announcements can be. Firstly it really only helps big cities. Secondly why not put that money into building up capacity in the NHS itself rather than providing it to fly by night private operators creaming off the profitable business and leaving the dirty expensive work to the NHS.
Finally just look at the effects in the smaller centres and the rural areas where there won’t be a private provider NHS hospitals will lose patients to the new system however well they’re doing, however low their waiting lists. That means fewer treatments but a constant overhead. The only answer till be to close wards and let them out to the private sector to use and carry a share of the overheads. I’ll then be asked to explain to Grimsby why part of our much loved Princess Dianna Hospital is being run by the private sector to do a job we can easily do for ourselves. I’m writing to Patricia to help me to try and understand this.
Accordis a viscose manufacturer, one of the few surviving components of the old Coutauld Empire has just called in the receivers in Grimsby. This is part of an industrial disaster that s afflicting, manufacturing all over the country.
t sells what is treated as a commodity though the Accordis material has more of a niche market. It faces intense Eastern competition. It has the handicap of an overvalued pound which is disastrous for manufacturing. Then over the last two years the price of natural gas on which the whole plant depends has rocketed to levels far higher than in Europe. I’ve urged the company’s case on government. I’ve asked them to manage our prices in the same way as the German’s do. I’ve asked them to investigate why the transfer from Europe operates so as to make our prices higher. I’ve asked them to investigate the market manipulation of the big companies. No response. The department of Energy has none.
Winston Churchill wrote often of the end of the Great War that as the mists of battle cleared there arose from them the dreary spires of Fermanagh and Tyrone.
I feel much the way about the new session. As the fun and interest of the election and the opportunity to talk to real people recedes we come back to Westminster to deal with the old disasters of ID Cards, Euthanasia, Terrorism ,yobs yobs and yobs in the Queens speech which was a reheated dinner. All the old arguments will be trotted out with noting new to say. Except on Yobs where Tony’s little helper Hazel Blears has come up with the bright idea of dressing Yobs on community service in distinctive uniforms like American chain gangs. There has to be some way of distinguishing them from teenage contenders for the Tory leadership.
The threat from the TMG (Tony must go) faction has been enormously exaggerated by newspapers eager for a blood bath to enliven their pages. My guess is that nothing will emerge from all the huffing and puffing. The old lags started announcing their mutiny too early. The New Chums weren’t gong to bite the hand that feeds them. The rest of us worry about an Indians and Waggon train battle. So nothing much will happen for months. The only deadlines are the Euro referendum next June and the council elections in May. Tony sits on his tottering throne until then. |
