Friday 27 November 2009

Quality not quantity

What will get our 'mother of Parliaments' back in a position of respect? Why did I read Cameron's rumoured plans to run Parliament through August next year - if his party is in power - with a sinking heart?

I just don't know that having our legislators sitting throughout next summer is quite what the doctor ordered if they are just going to continue to spout the kind of tedious politico-speak which has become the norm. It's quality not quantity that counts.

What we need is a return of the Awkward Squad, people who are proud to serve as constituency MPs and actually don't give a stuff, to use the technical term, about being promoted. They can be an absolute pest, they cause the Whips to foam at the mouth, but they're just the people who stand for something because they think it's right. The House needs a lot more of them - people who have lived other lives and aren't in awe of party leaderships.

And while we're at it, more of the late-night rows which I used to enjoy in the Palace bars when I was working there as a jouranlist would help to ge tthe place back to where it should be, full of life and argument and - occasionally - the kind of brilliance which commands national respect. Not the shrivelled husk I hate to think it (almost) now is.

Friday 13 November 2009

Gordon Brown


I have quite a number of criticisms I could make of Gordon Brown, but lack of courage in dealing with the fact that he is blind in one eye is not one of them. I have long admired Mr Brown's stoical determination to do his job and make no public fuss about it. With a member of my own family affected by partial sight, I have some appreciation of the true cost of that determination.
Most people have little idea how much of a problem loss of vision can create - from the obvious issues around personal safety through to failing to recognise someone or being assumed to be lacking in alertness because they have not spotted signs or information at a distance. It can be upsetting and painful to be with someone who has such a problem when you realise what they do suffer, and so often uncomplainingly.
This week's row over the letter Mr Brown wrote to a mother who has lost her solider son is a case in point. Her suffering is of course unimaginable, and she is entitled to remonstrate personally with her Prime Minister about what she sees as his inappropriate letter and the more fundamental issues over equipment for the armed forces. But, in truth, I have been glad to see the tide turn around the letter. It was sincerely written to try to bring her some comfort. If his writing is poor and some letters not properly formed (all faults I have, without the excuse of poor vision) I think that is secondary to the effort he made in writing to her. No-one other than the lady he wrote to needed to say anything about his handwriting. I dislike our national tendency to jump on people for imagined failings. Mr Brown may not be popular, and indeed we may think he is very unlikely to be Prime Minister for longer than another few months, but attacking him for his handwriting and failing to acknowledge the extraordinary way he deals with his own disability struck me this week as shallow.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Bombing of The Grand

Twenty-five years ago I was a young political correspondent reporting on the Tory Party Conference. With a one year old son at home, I couldn't bear the separation and my husband arrived in Brighton for the last night with our gorgeous curly headed son in his arms. At the end of the evening we headed for The Grand Hotel - that's what you always do on the last night, and, Sam - ever cheerful in his pushchair - was no barrier. My husband was happy Sam was there as he attracted a crowd of BA stewardesses. We dropped any pretence of early bedtimes and stayed there enjoying ourselves till the early hours.
I think of that scene when I play back the events of that conference. Our cheerful departure to a nearby hotel. No we didn't hear the explosion. No mobiles then, I first got the news from early morning tv and ran back to The Grand to see the scene of utter devastation.

In the conference centre, we journalists milled around each other trying to piece together our thoughts before filing copy (I was an evening paper journalist). Someone said: "you know this was an attempt to assassinate the entire Cabinet". It was the first time any of us appreciated quite the scale of what had been attempted. I walked into the hall, and there on the platform was a dignified figure, sitting quietly and calmly. Mrs Thatcher. She had declined security advice to leave, and felt she must show by her presence that the IRA weren't going to defeat our democracy by bombs. On that awful morning I was so glad to see her there, expressing by her quiet dignity an overwhelming moral rejection of IRA violence.

Party conferences never have been quite the same since. Security fell like a heavy curtain. A certain innocence was lost. I remember sitting with Sam afterwards and trying to connect that happy evening to the picture of carnage I had seen myself but hours later and the shocking human consequences. They could have been even worse - the bar had closed earlier than usual (many journalists would otherwise have been there when the bomb went off). But above all it is Mrs Thatcher I remember.

Thursday 20 August 2009

On trains

What is it exactly that makes train operators determined that every rail journey is punctuated by constant announcements? I am sitting on a train writing this, and there have have just been three announcements in succession, reminding me which carriage I am in, not to leave my bag unsupervised, and that I am about to arrive at Oxted. No! I have in fact arrived and must now listen to yet another 'welcome' announcement.

My husband has become so fed up with this non-stop assault on our ears that he plugs in his Ipod to cut the world out, only pausing grimly to point out that if ever there is a real health and safety problem ("train on fire") he'll be the last to know. I am glad to hear a campaign is building. Already I have heard the defences, the health and safety/EU regulation blah blah. But I am hopeful that passenger revolt will make the operators see sense.

They have actually provided we long-suffering commuters the best trains ever - modern, comfortable - and even more amazingly they are more punctual than I ever recall in a lifetime of commuting. Now it's time to back off and leave our ears in peace. I was going to say more, but we're about to arrive in Lingfield and while gathering my bag, and listening to the extra announcement about being careful if I am crossing the line I lost my flow...

Friday 31 July 2009

Bob Ainsworth


Ok, Bob Ainsworth may not be everyone’s cup of tea as Defence Secretary. If I were him I probably wouldn’t want to read my morning papers. Phrases like “not up to the job” have followed him everywhere since his surprise promotion from Armed Forces Minister to Cabinet rank as Defence Secretary in June.

One of the few MPs in the Commons to have a background in manual work – he was a sheet metal worker and fitter with Jaguar cars – you wonder what Bob “Bollocks” Ainsworth (a nickname he is said to regard as undeserved, denying that he uttered the words in the Commons) makes of the condescension that seems to flavour a good deal of the coverage he receives. I have a notion that many who actually listen to him think he comes across as sincere and down to earth.

He is under huge pressure at present regarding the court action to limit compensation payments to British servicemen, and, yes, I recognise it’s an incredibly sensitive and serious issue where many of us are offended by what the Government are doing. But when I read that he was, disgracefully, on holiday and should be forced to return – as indeed he did – I began to feel uneasy. Am I the only one to find this perennial campaign every summer to bring a minister back from his or her holiday to “face the music” deeply unsettling? And I say it because, unpopular though the sentiment is at the moment after a year of ugly revelations about MPs and their expenses, many of them work incredibly hard. And I do mean hard, long days that last late into the night, the pressures of many competing demands, and decisions that all of us would find extraordinarily difficult and challenging should we be making them. Yes, politicians are accountable to us and we have every right to demand explanations from them. But it’s one thing to be critical, it’s quite another to treat them all as idle buffoons spending most of their time on holiday sun loungers. It simply isn’t true, and by tyrannising them back home from their family holidays all we do is make it harder for any of them to get a proper rest or to make good decisions when they get back..

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Never waste a good crisis


At a breakfast last week Sky’s Adam Boulton reminded us that Obama had made the phrase “never waste a good crisis” a guiding concept for his administration.

I was initially puzzled, until of course I realised what it means is that a crisis gives you an opportunity to say and do things you never could at any other time. You may be facing huge challenges, but if you’re a strong leader you can also appeal to people in such a situation to accept the inevitability of major change. Think of a family crisis, when all the old rules go out of the window, and you know what I mean.

And it is a tribute I have to say to the failure of most of our politicians that a “good crisis” – in truth one of the worst economic crises we have ever faced – is being squandered. An angry and very senior Tory aide spluttered to me last week “Talking to Gordon Brown is like standing on a weighing machine. You just get robotic comments, no dialogue.” And, taking the analogy a bit further, the wrong weight presumably. Because across Whitehall it is an open secret – blown open I see by the Sunday newspapers – that the mandarins are quietly working out all the true implications of our national budget deficit and drawing up plans to address them as soon as the politicians have stopped pretending that a lot of budgets can easily be protected. Our transformed economic situation and our huge national debt will be a part of all our lives until 2030 at least. Walking up to the problem, and deciding what we should be doing about it, is a NOW problem, not tomorrow. The Tories have launched an open challenge to Gordon Brown on this, and they are right – but they need to add their own reality too and explain what all of them know, which is that after 2011 virtually every government budget will be frozen or cut. The British people are very good at adapting to crises – heaven only knows we have had enough practice over the years - but they need to be told the truth.

Tuesday 23 June 2009

Our new Speaker

My colleague Tanya Joseph quite rightly blogs about the task confronting our new Speaker. She also reminds us that, many years ago (and before he became an MP of course) John Bercow did some work for Westminster Strategy, the first public affairs arm of Grayling. It was at a time when Mr Bercow used to get written up in some satirical magazines as a very right wing sort of chap.

When I met him at WS, it was quite clear to me he was no such thing. I cannot now recall what it was we debated one day when I suspect we were both supposed to be doing something else, but I remember the realisation that he wasn't ultra-right wing at all, and indeed that we appeared to share some markedly similar middle of the road views. And he could laugh at himself, which made a change from quite a few politicos I have met over the years.

For those reasons, I have followed his career at a distance with interest. Of course I never expected him to become Speaker, but then who would you expect to take on a role like that? Decent as she is, I am jolly glad it wasn't Margaret Beckett. I just don't see how you step out of Government and turn into the Commons Champion.

But the sight on TV last night of John Bercow in a robe made me realise not only that a few years have passed - I am not prepared to say how many! - but also that be seemed to me to become it. He's an interesting chap, someone who has thought a lot about his views and not been afraid to express them. It's going to be very tough, but the Commons needs a Speaker who can rise above the entire appalling spectacle of the last few months, and let's hope Mr Bercow will prove he is the one.

Thursday 4 June 2009

Le Déluge


In the Commons last night where MPs look totally shell-shocked from a week of astonishing drama. The situation is so grim it's moved beyond party politics. Conservatives are openly as alarmed as Labour by rumours that Labour might drop to fourth or fifth in the polls tonight. Just at this moment they all feel the tumbrils are rolling.

The tide of public hostility is so strong and deep Parliament has something of the atmosphere of Custer's last stand. The demonstrations in Parliament Square - where last night the voice of a protestor shouting through a megaphone seemed to bounce off all those Victorian Gothic walls with particular resonance - add to the feeling of encirclement.

And one thing's for sure. No-one really has the faintest idea what IS going to happen when the votes are counted after today's polls. "I have never seen anything like this in my life," said one deeply worried Member.

Monday 1 June 2009

It's just not cricket



Watching a village cricket match, a commotion breaks out in the corner of the field. Players start running from all corners. Turns out the the scout shed, which stands under trees in a secluded corner, is being burgled as play takes place. Match is brought to a halt as our brave lads circle the miscreants and demand that all the paddles - being placed in a car boot before the kayaks - are put back. After a lot of swearing and threats, said miscreants do so and drive off. Registration numbers are taken.

That's the good news. The bad? The players don't think the police will take any interest. And they think the thieves - bold as brass after all to do this with a match in progress - may indeed make good their threat to return one night and burn the shed down. "And the police still won't do anything," said one player, gloomily. I don't know whether he's right or not, but it disturbed me how little faith any of those present had in the blue line. I wondered what our politicians would make of it. Then I remembered most are far too busy explaining their conduct at the moment to have much time for the ordinary goings-on of our lives. That's the whole problem.

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Cromwellian nightmares


What kind of Parliament are we going to get after the next election? The Telegraph’s Charles Moore reminds us Oliver Cromwell promised to clean up Parliament too but his “Assembly of Saints” turned out to be creatures of the army.
A serious political thinker I spoke to last week said he feared our 'Manure' Parliament would be followed by a Commons even more in the grip of its leaders and whips. We have to hope that David Cameron's big constitutional speech today points towards a different future.

Electoral reform

Supporters of electoral reform must feel some cheer today to hear that Alan Johnson wants to change the way we vote in order to revitalise our ailing body politic. If anyone means what he says, it's straight-talking Mr Johnson.

But he will have to deal with the entirely understandable cynicism of Lib Dems that this has been offered many times in the past to keep them on side but cynically dropped the moment an election is past.

It's precisely this kind of behaviour which has led to a withering of our civil society. Let's hope Mr Johnson is going to break the mould, something the erstwhile “Gang of Four” who founded the SDP were unable to achieve.

Monday 4 May 2009

Speakers' Corner Trust


Ok, now for something completely different. Let's just forget the misery that is our current Parliament and think about our great democratic tradition. A few months ago I met a wonderful chap called Peter Bradley who told us all about a new organisation he has set up called the Speakers' Corner Trust. Its whole purpose is to reinvigorate our civil society by establishing new Speakers' Corners in the UK and beyond. Already there is a new Speakers' Corner in Nottingham and one being launched this very weekend in Lichfield. Peter - a former MP who cares passionately about using our freedoms and engaging in proper debate and discussion to underpin our society - has a real vision for his charity with lots more launches in the pipeline.

Magnificent as blogging and texting are, there is no substitute for face-to-face discussion and argument. I don't think we ever really advance our thinking and create new ideas without robust challenge. Those uncomfortable conversations we sometimes have which lead to the private thought "Hmm, I think I may be wrong on this one" are often followed by fresh ideas. It's what makes human beings special, so for all kinds of reasons, do take a look at the Speakers' Corner website here and support them if you can. Small acorns and all that.

Friday 24 April 2009

Paul Myners


City Minister Paul Myners - apparently unbowed after the drubbing he got on Fred the Shred's pension arrangements - loves a colourful phrase. He enlivened a rather worthy post-Budget discussion with business leaders by re-cycling President Obama's call for "shovel-ready" projects. These are projects where permissions and approvals already in place mean that if money is secured jobs can be created immediately.

Myners was speaking a day after the Budget alongside diligent Financial Secretary Stephen Timms and Business Secretary Peter Mandelson - whose deliberative style makes every sentence sound as if it might be a major announcement. Businesses were perhaps surprisingly courteous in questioning, rather in the manner of those sitting at the bedside of the gravely ill.

Tuesday 21 April 2009

Breakfast with an up and coming member of the Shadow Cabinet


Bright and engaging, but also very clear there will be no detailed roadmap on spending cuts before an election. They need to look at the books and then decide.

Is this wise?

Several of us listening thought the public really want to have a straightforward 'sock-it-to-'em' statement which gives at least an idea of what is necessary. We all know things are grim. Surely one reason why the Tory lead is soft (yes I know they're ahead by miles today, but it slips an awful lot too) is that they need to show the public they've got the guts for it. If they do, isn't it more likely that the public will have the guts to vote them in?

Monday 20 April 2009

Spare a thought this week ...


... for the political correspondents reporting Darling's eagerly awaited Budget statement on Wednesday.

Ok I know journalists don't come high on people's sympathy lists but when I did this job I used to quake in my boots on Budget day. I think they get a bit more pre-briefing these days - in my time this would have been deemed totally unacceptable - but the fact remains you have only minutes to de-code some of the most complex financial material you have ever heard.

I used to run back and forth to the phone in a state of mild terror. Was that three or six noughts on the PSBR? What IS the PSBR? Etc. Budgets have become less important in recent years - we have pre-budget Statements now too and also a year-round policy of pre-briefing and leaking which takes the oomph out of 'em - but this year is a grand exception after a banking crisis and a recession.

Will Darling fight off the pressure to make eye-catching but essentially irrelevant pre-election gestures with the bad stuff hidden in the Treasury Red Book? Or is he going to rescue his reputation as a nice but essentially weak Chancellor run by his Prime Minister by finally telling us the truth about how tough things are and what needs to be done?

And while we're giving a bit of thought to the journalists trying to work it all out, spare one too for the Leader of the Opposition - the toughest job of his year is standing up to make a credible response while still computing what on earth it all means.

Be ready for Vince Cable later on. Every other party will try to pretend it ain't so, but what the Economic Guru thinks will be a highlight of the day.

Thursday 9 April 2009

G20 and a piano


OK, so what does a piano have to do with G20?

On the face of it, I admit not much. But let me explain. In common with millions of others I have been thinking about G20. I gave thanks last week I was no longer a political correspondent, tasked with making instant sense of it. I don’t know whether it will make any difference - I reckon the wisest comments were from those journalists who said that the small number of good things out there, those pregreen shoot green shoots we are hearing about, were already happening and nothing to do with G20. That chimes with the one thing I have learned about
politicians. They are rarely as powerful as we - and they - need to believe.

Anyway, this doesn’t explain the piano. It was just that as I was watching G20, my thoughts drifted from the behaviourally challenged Signor Berlusconi to something far more important – the rest of us, and what the relentless cycle of doom and gloom is doing to our psyche. Are we really changing as a result of recession?

Newspapers and magazines are awash with articles about consumer trends –"cocooning” (retreating to the cave for security) being a recurrent theme.

Apparently, we’re all going back to custard for comfort. Is that before or after we have logged onto those web dating sites which are apparently experiencing a big increase in demand because we would rather stumble through the bad times with a mate who can help share the bills?

Do I really believe all this? I reckon I am as good a source of data as anyone else, so I asked myself some tough questions. Was I different from last year? Eating a lot of puddings with custard? Spending time wrapped up in a duvet in my front room avoiding normal social contact? And I was just filing my report recording myself as satisfyingly robust with no obvious custard issues when it dawned on me I had bought a piano.

We’re not talking grand piano here, just traditional upright, but why did I become so fixated on replacing the wrecked Gors and Kallman I have had for years with a functioning, tuneful piano? It’s not as if there was any obvious trigger. Nor am I alone – I found that our from the delivery chaps. “Sales are up,” they said. It was all clear to me in a flash. This is about home and comfort.

I mean, after the kitchen table and your own bed, what greater symbol is there of
comfy old home than the piano in the corner and family sing songs?

Obviously if you play as badly as I do, the family sing song bit doesn’t happen very often. But that’s to miss the point. Just when I was thinking that all this trend stuff was a lot of nonsense dreamed up by the Brand Boys to shift longdeclining brands, it turns out I am actually part of a sub-trend myself. While I haven’t been out to buy any custard – yet – I find myself increasingly persuaded that it isn’t just the zeitgeist which is changing as a result of recession, but our deeper selves. I imagine this will indeed have all manner of implications not just for the amount we spend, but on what. Who is going to join Bird’s Eye twittering that the recession has been very good for them?