Yesterday, I asked my researcher to hand deliver a letter to the Home Office.
Upon her arrival at the governing mall, the conversation went as follows:
Researcher: “I’ve got an urgent letter for Mr Alan Johnson.”
Receptionist: “Who?”
Researcher: “Alan Johnson.”
Receptionist: “Who’s he?”
Researcher: “The Home Secretary.”
Peter Mandelson has today made clear beyond doubt who runs the country. The answer, as if you didn’t already know, is: Peter Mandelson, of course.
Ahead of Gordon Brown’s umpteenth relaunch this afternoon (more relaunches than the Rhosneigr lifeboat, as one wag put it), Mandelson has unequivocally decreed that:
And finally, as if to underline the fact that the Blairites are back in charge, the deployment of the killer phrase:
“Being fiscally responsible is an important principle of New Labour.”
Hear that? Not “Labour”. New Labour.
And if you don’t like that, Gordon, just think: who else is there you can trust, or who even has the inclination, to try to save your bacon?
Gordon Brown, we are told by the Telegraph, has sought advice on poetry from Sir Andrew Motion, the recently-retired poet laureate. The Prime Minister apparently spoke to Sir Andrew about one of his own favourite poems, Thomas Gray’s Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, and asked for examples of similar modern poems.
The Telegraph drily observes:
It is thought Mr Brown could be attempting to liven up his speeches, which are known for their academic language rather than memorable words and phrases.
That was certainly the case when, in the early 1990s, the then shadow Chancellor’s speeches were written by a bright young man called Ed Balls. Balls managed to insert into one of them the astonishingly clunky phrase “post-neoclassical endogenous growth theory”, which was dutifully regurgitated by Gordon and was memorably lampooned by Michael Heseltine at the 1994 Conservative party conference:
“There you have it! Labour’s brand-new, shining, modernists’ economic dream.
“But it’s not Brown’s; it’s Balls’.”
If Heseltine could have such fun with the surname Balls, what, I wonder, would he say if the PM’s speeches were found to be inspired by a man called Motion?
As a boy in Ruabon Grammar School, I once undertook a local history project about Pontcysyllte aqueduct, which was situated only a few miles away. I remember visiting the structure and experiencing a mixture of awed admiration and vertiginous terror when I gazed down at the River Dee, over 120 feet below the highest arch.
I have harboured strong feelings of almost proprietorial affection for Thomas Telford’s masterpiece ever since. I was therefore absolutely delighted to hear that the aqueduct has today been named by Unesco as the latest of Britain’s World Heritage sites, joining such illustrious locations as the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, the Liverpool waterfront and the city of Bath.
Pontcysyllte entirely merits the award; if you haven’t visited it yet, please do go soon.
I was at Coleg Llysfasi on Friday, attending the college’s annual prizegiving.
The guest speaker was the BBC weatherman, Derek Brockway, who gave an entertaining insight into the life of a weather forecaster. Even more impressive was his prediction that we would experience a thunderstorm within two hours. As I was driving away from Llysfasi, the heavens opened and the thunderclaps rolled.
Derek is now predicting a heatwave for this week, with temperatures in Wales reaching 86° Fahrenheit. The Met Office says that the temperatures in London are likely to exceed 90°; given that I will be spending much of the week in a stuffy committee room considering the Marine and Coastal Access Bill – probably the last big piece of legislation scheduled for this Parliament – I can’t say that it’s a prospect that fills me with huge enthusiasm.
A further example – possibly the starkest yet – of the depth and extent of Britain’s economic crisis appears in today’s Telegraph.
Standard & Poors, the international ratings agency, has calculated that the country’s public sector debt could rocket from its current level of just over 50 per cent of GDP (a figure itself hotly disputed by some commentators) to well over 200 per cent by 2050, as a consequence of the “demographic time bomb” of an ageing population and the strain it places on public spending:
Moritz Kraemer, head of S&P’s sovereign ratings in Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Britain was facing a double challenge – first, to mend its books in the wake of the financial crisis and then to overhaul its economy drastically to stifle the pensions crisis. He said Britain was facing deficits unlike any before in peacetime history.
Kraemer makes it clear that the Government, whatever it political hue, will have to address the problem by, for instance, raising taxes, cutting pensions or reducing expenditure on healthcare.
Britain, uniquely among large developed Western economies, is already on S&P’s “negative outlook” list, meaning that the agency is considering stripping it of its AAA credit rating, an action that would have extremely serious consequences for the economy.
The article further highlights the need for Gordon Brown to acknowledge that urgent corrective action needs to be taken to start filling the black hole he has created through unfettered public borrowing.
Sadly, for so long as Brown is committed to his ludicrous and dishonest political “dividing line” of “Labour investment v. Tory cuts”, the prospect of any such action being taken looks depressingly remote.
Well, there was an excellent turn-out at Bryn Euryn car park today, despite the weather; about 200 people and probably almost half as many dogs.
Many of the older people who attended told me that, contrary to the claims of the management committee, they could not remember livestock ever having been grazed on the Bryn.
Local county councillors Roger Parry and Merfyn Thomas also turned up and confirmed they would be doing everything they could to stop the unpopular plan.
I’ll be writing to the committee next week, but in the meantime am posting a picture of just a few of the humans and canines who attended.
The news that Alan Milburn, the former Health Secretary, is standing down at the next general election underlines the extent of the malaise afflicting the Labour party, which Jack Straw says is the worst since the days of Michael Foot in the early 1980s.
Milburn is still a young man and one of the leading Blairites in the Commons. If he thought it was worth the candle, he would stick around, ready to take up the banner of the modernisers when Brown finally crashes out.
The fact that he has decided to call it a day, “to balance my work and my family life with the time to pursue challenges other than politics”, demonstrates the depth of the hole that Gordon Brown has dug for his battered party.
Mike Bushell, on BBC Breakfast, has just announced that it’s a glorious summer’s morning in Wimbledon.
Here in North Wales, though, we are experiencing a heavy summer downpour.
If you’re concerned about Bryn Euryn, ignore the weather, put on your wellies and head for the nature reserve’s car park. The protest meeting starts at 10.30; the more of us who turn up, the better.
Gordon Brown’s declared dividing line between the parties of “Tory cuts versus Labour investment” was further blurred by Hilary Benn on Radio 4’s Any Questions yesterday evening.
Benn acknowledged that his Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would face future budgetary cuts and would have to make spending adjustments:
“If I look at my department’s budget, it is going to go down a bit and therefore we will have to prioritise.”
Mr Benn went on blithely to add that the Government faced “real choices” ahead and “when times are tough you need to tighten your belt”.
This will certainly cause extreme displeasure to the Prime Minister, whose strategy has already been undermined by Cabinet colleagues, most notably the Chancellor, who has steadfastly refused to play along with it.
At PMQs last Wednesday, David Cameron highlighted the tensions within the cabinet over the issue:
Mr. Cameron: Let us first of all be clear about the Prime Minister’s claims about Conservative policy. Even his own colleagues do not believe him. This is the report that we had from last week’s Cabinet:
“Darling pointed out that Brown’s Tory cut figures did not represent the”—
Conservative—
“party’s policy but were merely extrapolations”—
[Hon. Members: “Ah!”] It gets more interesting:
“Cooper, previously the Treasury minister responsible for public spending, echoed his concerns”,
and:
“According to one source who was present, Brown was visibly irritated at the way he had been undermined, and brought the meeting to an early close”.
He says that he wants to be a teacher, but it sounds like he has lost control of the classroom.
Looks like it’s now poor Hilary Benn’s turn to stand in the corner.
Posted in Alistair Darling, Conservative Party, David Cameron, economy, Gordon Brown, Hilary Benn, Labour Party
Tagged Politics
The report in today’s Times on BBC executives’ expenses contains one particularly interesting set of figures:
Took the opportunity at Business Questions yesterday of raising the issue of the collapse earlier this month of the Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB) co-operative. Many of my farming constituents supplied milk to the co-op’s Llandyrnog creamery and have lost thousands of pounds in vital cashflow:
Mr. David Jones(Clwyd, West) (Con): Will the Leader of the House arrange for the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to make a further statement to the House on the circumstances that led to the collapse of the Dairy Farmers of Britain co-operative and on what has happened since? Across the north of England and throughout Wales, more than 1,500 farmers are suffering as a result of not having received their full milk cheques for May. That demands a further statement from the Secretary of State. Will the Leader of the House urge him to make one as a matter of urgency?
Ms Harman: The Secretary of State will be answering questions in the House next week. Given that this has been such an important issue in many regions, I am sure that he will be able to account to the House for the situation then.
Many suppliers of the creamery find it hard to understand how, only a few short months before DFB’s failure, the co-op’s annual report could include the following remarkably sanguine statement:
The prospects for DFB are very promising indeed. We have a business model that is capable of sustainable growth, driven by advantaged positions with emerging customers as well as our key relationships with our existing estate and we will maintain a relentless focus on costs and efficiencies, thereby improving our margins in line with business plan expectations.
The failure of DFB demands further investigation, and I have tabled an appropriate oral question to the Secretary of State for answer next week.
At this week’s PMQs, David Cameron came as close as gosh-darn-it to calling Gordon Brown a liar. He couldn’t do so, of course, because to use such an expression is unparliamentary.
Now the Conservative party has published a video neatly illustrating what Cameron wanted to say. And it doesn’t avoid the l-word:
Drivers on the London Underground have been issued with a booklet of philosophical, political and historical quotations which they have been urged to read to passengers as they hurtle through the subterranean network.
The booklet, What is the City but the People? has been compiled by the Turner prizewinning artist, Jeremy Deller, and is part of a series of arts projects planned for the Tube.
According to Sarah McLean, spokesperson for Art on the Underground, drivers are being encouraged to make judicious use of the quotations, at appropriate times in the journey, to help build a rapport with passengers.
I think it’s an excellent idea, with a great future. For instance, as I travelled this evening in a hot, stuffy, crammed Tube from Westminster to Euston, I would have been hugely inspired to hear the driver intone Jean-Paul Sartre’s immortal line: Hell is other people.
MPs were, to put it at its mildest, somewhat surprised when a press release from Peter Hain appeared on the Wales Office website on Tuesday evening announcing that:
A Welsh Grand Debate on the Welsh Affairs Committee report on the Welsh Language Order, expected for publication in the next fortnight, will be held on Wednesday, July 8, to allow MPs to fully debate the content and scope of the Order and its proposed impact on Wales, particularly Welsh business and industry.
Regular readers will know that I am a strong supporter of the Grand Committee and approved wholeheartedly of Paul Murphy’s decision to increase the frequency of its meetings. However, even I raised an eyebrow at the prospect of a Grand Committee debate on July 8.
The problem, you see, is that the Welsh Affairs Committee hasn’t reported yet. It is likely to do so in the relatively near future, but for the Wales Office to arrange a debate before the report is even published looked a tad premature.
The response of the committee’s chairman, Hywel Francis, to the announcement was a study in glacial pique. He has, quite simply, told Peter Hain where to get off:
“I have informed him he will need to consult with me and the opposition parties before a Welsh Grand Committee can meet to discuss my Committee’s Report.”
Hain has now done a swift U-turn and confirmed that the debate has been called off.
And the Wales Office’s excuse for not consulting the chairman? Well, they did try to give him a quick bell, but couldn’t contact him because he’d lost his mobile phone.
Perhaps, just perhaps, they might consider a letter or even an e-mail next time round.
Posted in Peter Hain, Welsh Affairs Committee, Welsh Assembly Government
Tagged Politics
