Mark Tami – an Apology

I appear to have incurred the wrath of Alyn and Deeside Labour MP, Mark Tami, which, readers will understand, is a terrible thing. I must hasten to offer a suitable apology.

Enfield lad Mark is normally a placid enough cove, sitting with the Welsh contingent in the rearmost of the Labour back benches, and usually raising not a peep, save to utter the odd “hear, hear” when Gordon is at the despatch box. Hitherto, the only time he has stuck his head significantly above the parapet was in September of last year, at the time of the failed Brown putsch against Tony Blair, when Mark, along with a few fellow bag-carriers, resigned his position as PPS (in his case to “Red” Dawn Primarolo, then Paymaster-General).

As a reward for being marched up the hill, only to be marched down again, Mark was appointed an assistant whip by Gordon this summer, after he acceded to the Labour throne. Though unpaid, the position appeared to please Mark, who, one might have thought, would have then reverted to his customary docility.

Not so. It would appear that Mark has been reading my blog (for which I must feel duly flattered) and my posts about the follies of over-regulation and general healthansafety pottiness have raised his hackles beyond endurance, to the extent that he has written about me on the Welsh Labour party website.

According to Mark, I am an “extreme rightwinger”, who is attacking “our basic rights”.

Steady on, Mark. I have to admit I am a bit right of centre (the fact that I am a Conservative MP should have given you a clue), but I can’t say I have ever wanted to attack anyone’s “basic rights”. In fact, being a Tory, I am, on the whole, rather in favour of the rights of the individual and opposed to the overweening power of the state.

Nor have I ever, as you appear to be suggesting, sought to deny women “equal rights in the work place”. Indeed, I can’t see that any of my blog posts could ever be interpreted that way by anyone who is remotely fair-minded.

What I do feel, however, is that a lot of the regulations that have been imposed on us, year on year, by your government, are probably unnecessary. I feel that regulations should be regularly audited and, if they are of no real benefit, should be scrapped.

I must acknowledge, however, that as a Brownite socialist, you probably don’t agree with me. Indeed, you probably applaud yesterday’s announcement that the requirement to provide Home Information Packs is to be extended to the sale of all three-bedroomed houses from September. I happen to believe that this piece of legislation is pointless, amounting to an additional tax on house selling, and may very well damage the housing market. You, on the other hand, no doubt feel that it is a jolly good idea. That is part of the reason you are a socialist. You like regulations. You like the idea of the government bossing people about. As a Conservative, I don’t.

Anyway, I do hope that this little disagreement won’t spoil the excellent relationship you and I have enjoyed until now. I am truly sorry to have upset you by saying that we have probably got too many regulations in this country. In future, I will try to keep my opinions to myself, so that you can go about the important business, undistracted, of whipping your colleagues on a pro bono basis.