Tag Archives: Politics

A Day with the Druid

Posted on April 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

Spent today campaigning in the Welsh Assembly elections across North Wales.

First stop was Anglesey, where the excellent candidate, Paul Williams (aka the Druid), took me to Holyhead to discuss the town’s economic problems with local businesspeople.  We were accompanied by Antoinette Sandbach, one of our lead regional list candidates.

As Paul pointed out, Anglesey is the very poorest local authority area in the whole of the UK and Holyhead is its own poorest part.  The town, however, has many potential advantages, including its busy ferry port and its proximity to the site of the proposed Wylfa B nuclear power station.

Paul’s idea is to press for Holyhead to become an Enterprise Zone.  All credit to him for his ambition.  One of the 21 Enterprise Zones announced in the Budget will be at Birkenhead, a very short distance indeed from North Wales.  If our region is to be competitive, we need to ensure that Zones are established here.  Economic development is devolved to the Welsh Assembly Government, so it is essential that we have strong voices such as Paul’s in Cardiff Bay after 5 May. 

I was impressed by the positive reception that Paul received wherever we went this morning and am very optimistic that Ynys Môn will be a Tory gain.  Heaven knows that Plaid have done little enough to justify retaining it.

This afternoon took me to my old stamping ground of Aberconwy, where I did a few hours’ canvassing for Janet Finch-Saunders, the well-known Conservative group leader on Conwy County Council. 

Speaking to people on their doorsteps is the best part of campaigning.  It is enjoyable and also effective.  I was very pleased at the level of personal support Janet clearly enjoys on her patch, which should help her to victory on election day.

I was also extremely pleased at the level of opposition to AV; as one lady put it, “We really must stop mucking about with our constitution.”

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Posted in Politics

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In praise of Gillian Duffy

Posted on August 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

My sincere admiration goes to Gillian Duffy, the lifelong Labour supporter from Rochdale, whose trip to the shops last April to buy a loaf of bread turned into the defining moment of the 2010 general election campaign.

Given her very public humiliation at the hands of the leader of her party, who churlishly denounced her as a “bigoted woman”, she might have felt tempted, were she a lesser person, to tell Labour where to stick it.

Mrs Duffy, however, is made of sterner stuff, and yesterday was guest of honour at the opening of the offices of Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s new Member of Parliament.

Gillian Duffy is a trooper who is clearly devoted to her party and prepared to put the past behind her to advance its cause.

One might be inclined to contrast her conduct with that of Gordon Brown, of whom little has been seen since May.

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Posted in general election, Gordon Brown, Labour Party

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Big Society in Old Colwyn

Posted on August 11, 2010 | 3 Comments

This evening, I paid my annual visit to the Old Colwyn East Residents’ Association.  The meeting, which was well-attended, was also very lively. 

The secretary, David Curtis (who is shortly to retire, which will be a major loss to the Association), read the minutes of the previous month’s meeting.  I was particularly interested when he referred to the “adopt-a-border” scheme at St John’s church.  Under the scheme, individual local people will assume responsibility for looking after one of the church’s seventeen flower beds, so helping maintain the wonderful garden that has won so many Wales in Bloom awards.

I pointed out that “adopt-a-border” was very much in tune with the Big Society agenda.  Big Society was simply a reflection what is already happening up and down the country, with people taking responsibility for the direction of their own communities, with the Government helping them to achieve their aims.

All over this constituency and, indeed, all over Britain, people such those I met this evening are rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in, doing their bit for the place they live in and so making it a little better.  If Big Society can help them to do even more, it will have proven its worth.

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Posted in David Curtis, Old Colwyn

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Rural Wales Taskforce

Posted on August 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Visited the Anglesey show today, which was so well attended that we had to wait in a queue for forty minutes before entering the showground. 

When we finally got in, it was well worth the wait.  The weather was perfect, with the large crowds clearly enjoying themselves.   I was pleased to see my old friend Ieuan Wyn Jones; our respective officials took pictures of us together.  I wondered momentarily what our old principal from Ruthin days, Elwyn Talog Davies, would have said if he could have seen us.

I took the opportunity to launch the Welsh Office’s new taskforce aimed at consulting on the economic impact of the downturn on the life of rural Wales.  Over the next few months, we will be consulting with individuals, community groups, academics and business organisations to gather views and suggestions as to what the coalition Government can do to promote recovery in the rural areas.

The initiative was well received by the two Welsh farmers’ unions, the CLA and the Federation of Small Businesses.   We are now inviting other groups to feed their views into the Office by the 27th September.

For more information, visit the Wales Office website.

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Posted in Wales Office

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Not Jack’s style

Posted on August 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

Less than three months after announcing his resignation from the Opposition front bench, Jack Straw has announced it again.

This time, however, he has also announced his intention to publish his memoirs, which he says he hopes will be “readable” and not “tedious or self-serving”.  I have no doubt that, being the sort of chap he is, he will succeed on both counts.

Jack has also made clear his distaste for the recently-published memoirs of Lord Mandelson (which I am presently reading with great interest):

“I don’t approve of people breaking confidences. It may sound very old-fashioned, but I don’t approve, for example, of the way Peter Mandelson has behaved and neither do quite a number of my colleagues.”

No, I shouldn’t have thought you would approve, Jack.  Not your style at all.

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Posted in Jack Straw, Labour Party, Peter Mandelson

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David Laws

Posted on May 30, 2010 | 14 Comments

Appeared on BBC’s Politics Show this lunchtime and was, inevitably, asked about the resignation of David Laws. 

Certain sections of the media are trying to spin the line that this was a homophobic witch-hunt, but it was nothing of the sort.  The allegation against David Laws is that he diverted expenses to his partner in contravention of Parliamentary rules.  This would have been a serious matter whether the partner were male or female.  Laws has decided, correctly, that his continuance as Chief Secretary is impossible, given the nature of the allegation.

It may well be, of course, that David Laws is wholly exonerated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, to whom, quite properly, he has referred himself.  In that case, as David Cameron has made clear, there may  be a future role for him in government.

I hope so.  In the short time that  he was at the Treasury, David Laws showed that he has a great deal to offer public life in Britain.

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Posted in David Cameron

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Hip, hip, hooray!

Posted on May 22, 2010 | 5 Comments

In a couple of weeks, we will be moving house.  I can’t say I’m looking forward to it terribly, although I know it’s time to go: our house, which served us well while the boys were growing up, and of which we have many so happy memories, is now just too big.  So, yes, it is time to move on.

Moving house is a terrifically disruptive business; I’m told it’s the third most stressful event in life, after death and divorce.  All that paperwork, all those boxes, all that chaos.  But, still, we are moving and are looking forward to a summer sharing our new home with builders, electricians, plumbers and decorators.  There’s a lot of work to be done.  I only hope that, at the end of it all, it’ll be worth it.

At the start of the process of selling our house, we had to pay for a Home Information Pack.  It cost over £300, which Sara paid while I was in London, and for which I keep meaning to reimburse her.  A man with a clipboard came round one afternoon to carry out the inspection.  The HIP, when it arrived, told us nothing we didn’t know already.  The Energy Performance Certificate (required as a consequence of a European directive) informed us that the house is not terribly energy efficient.  Given that the property was built over 150 years ago with walls of solid stone, it didn’t come as a huge surprise.  Neither, I imagine, did it surprise our buyers.

HIPs were, of course, meant to speed up conveyancing, by providing buyers with a complete set of pertinent information at the start of the sale process.  Did it work in our case?  Not really; our buyers’ solicitors decided, quite rightly, to commission their own search, on the basis that the search provided by the HIP company was a personal one, not issued by the council’s local land charges department.  They also raised a number of pre-contract enquiries in addition to the standard ones we had answered.   There were also further delays, with which I shall not bore you.  In all, it took some ten weeks before contracts were exchanged.

The HIP didn’t help at all; it was still a painful process.  The £300 odd that we stumped up was a straightforward waste of money for which we feel we had nothing in return.

This week, our removal man came round to assess the job.  Naturally, he mentioned the election and said he was delighted that the Conservatives had promised to abolish HIPs.  “They’ve cost me loads of money,” he said.  “People didn’t want to pay for them in a difficult housing market, so they just made things worse.  More houses should go on the market if HIPs are scrapped; people should start moving again.”

Yesterday, we delivered on our pledge.  My colleague, Grant Shapps, the Housing minister, announced that the need for buyers to commission HIPs has been suspended pending legislation for their permanent abolition.

Too late for me (or for Sara), I’m afraid, but still in good time to boost the spring selling season.

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Posted in Home Information Packs

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Easy mistake

Posted on May 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

Apologies for the light blogging of late, but life has been rather hectic over the past seven days.

Yesterday evening, after driving back from London, I attended the annual dinner of the North Wales CBI at the St David’s Park hotel, Ewloe.  There were a number of extremely good speeches, including one by my friend Jeremy Salisbury, the CBI’s current chairman, who gave a summary of what the organisation was looking to the new Government to do for business.  On the whole, he gave the coalition a reasonably warm welcome.

The principal speaker was the Welsh First Minister, Carwyn Jones, who delivered a good speech, including an entertaining account of his experiences canvassing in South Wales during the general election campaign.

I was particularly amused when he related a story of knocking on the door of a house in Bridgend to be greeted by a lady who said she was absolutely delighted to see him, because she watched him on television every night.

“Every night?” enquired Carwyn, perplexed.  “I’m on TV quite a bit, but not that often.”

“Oh, aren’t you the BBC Wales weatherman?” asked the lady, clearly very disappointed.

I was pleased to learn that I am not the only one to have noted the resemblance.

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Posted in Carwyn Jones, general election

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Same feet, different tables

Posted on May 19, 2010 | 1 Comment

An incredibly busy couple of days.

Monday was spent in Cardiff, settling into the Wales Office building in Cardiff Bay, meeting the very welcoming officials and generally getting my feet under the table.  There was a very successful visit by the Prime Minister to the Assembly, where we met the Presiding Officer and the PM and Secretary of State had a private meeting with the First Minister.

Yesterday I got my feet under another table; this time, the one in my office at Gwydyr House, the Wales Office’s principal base, in Whitehall.  Again, a round of meeting more officials, who were equally welcoming.

In the afternoon, I crammed with colleagues into the overflowing Commons chamber for the election of the Speaker.  Not only were there hundreds of new faces, I had the experience for the first time of viewing my colleagues from the Government side. 

The election procedure was conducted in stentorian tones by the new Father of the House, Sir Peter Tapsell.  Sir Peter is a formidable yet well-loved figure, and appropriate tribute was paid to him by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who informed the House that its new Father had first entered the chamber in 1959, having previously worked for Sir Anthony Eden.

John Bercow was re-elected by almost universal acclamation.

Then back to Gwydyr House, and more meetings.

Cardiff Monday, London Tuesday.  If it’s Wednesday, it must be St Asaph.

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Posted in Parliament, Wales Office

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May blossom

Posted on May 16, 2010 | 1 Comment

Throwing open the curtains this morning, I am greeted by a brilliantly clear day.  So clear, indeed, that it is hard to believe that, high above me in the stratosphere, there is a pall of Icelandic volcanic ash so dense that, once again, flights from British airports are grounded.

The ash cloud has not, however, descended to the lower reaches of the atmosphere.  It is, I repeat, a stunningly clear day: so clear, that it is possible to pick out every sheep enclosure, every whitewashed cottage on the slopes of the Carneddau, now free, at last, of the snows that have lingered since October. 

The may is breaking into blossom, too, throughout North Wales.  The journey back from Ruthin surgery yesterday was a delight, the Clwydian roads lined with hawthorn trees heavy with the white, sometimes pink, bloom that is the cheerful hallmark of springtime here; the most visible sign of nature’s renewal.

Today I must drive back to London, taking with me boxes of files that were temporarily removed to the constituency during the election campaign.  The Mini is crammed full of them; it took me ages to get them in and I have no idea how I will unload them when I arrive.  I’m beginning to think that I may, sadly, need a four-door car again.

And tomorrow, there will be new challenges.  New job, new office, new colleagues, new routines.  The familiar process of adapting to the unfamiliar.

But new is good; new means progress.  New means change. 

Change, heaven knows, is what our country has needed, for so very long.  And change, at last,  has started.

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Posted in Clwyd West, Parliament, Wales Office

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Typical

Posted on May 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

Typical; you wait years for a Miliband leadership challenge and then two turn up at the same time.

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Posted in David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Labour Party

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Stephen Timms

Posted on May 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

I was dreadfully sorry to read that Stephen Timms, the MP for East Ham and former Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has apparently been stabbed by a constituent at one of his regular surgeries.

Stephen is a good and decent man, and I wish him well in his recovery.

The incident underlines the risks MPs and their staff can run when going about their Parliamentary and constituency business.  A few years ago, the aide to the Cheltenham MP, Nigel Jones, was killed by a man wielding a samurai sword; Jones himself was badly injured. 

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Posted in Parliament, Stephen Timms

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Ain’t that the truth

Posted on May 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

To Abergele, and the annual concert in aid of the hospital’s League of Friends.

The choir this evening was Côr Meibion Bro Aled, Llansannan, recently returned from a tour of Ontario.  They started with I bob un sy’n ffyddlon and never looked back.  It was a great night.

Shortly after the interval, the MC cast a mischievous glance in my direction and informed the audience that politics was:

the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

The quotation seemed vaguely familiar.  After I returned home, I looked it up. 

It was by Groucho Marx, probably the greatest Marx who ever lived.

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Posted in Clwyd West

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Quite a day

Posted on May 13, 2010 | 13 Comments

An extraordinary day, by any standards.

Around 3.00 pm, my mobile rang.  It was the Government Chief Whip: “David, the Prime Minister has asked me to invite you to join the Government as Parliamentary under Secretary of State in the Wales Office.”

It didn’t, frankly, require too much thought.  I was delighted.

And then the phone started ringing.  And didn’t stop. It continued ringing until 6.00 pm, when I left to attend the mayor making ceremony in Abergele.

People have been so very kind; I have been greatly touched to receive so many messages of goodwill from so many friends, colleagues, constituents and acquaintances.

Yes, it’s been quite a day.  But now the work starts. 

I understand that, even as I write, my first ministerial boxes are on their way to me from Whitehall.

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Posted in David Cameron, Wales Office

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Well played, Jack

Posted on May 13, 2010 | 5 Comments

Travelling back to the constituency on the morning train, I hear the news that Jack Straw has announced his retirement from the shadow cabinet.  He has had, he says, ”a good innings”.

Jack Straw’s departure is a huge loss to a Labour party in disarray after the election defeat.  He was the ultimate steady hand steady hand at the tiller: a man who could be trusted to make a decent fist of whatever office he was given.

I first met Jack Straw shortly after my election in 2005.  As Foreign Secretary, he hosted a seminar for newly-elected Members at the FCO.  He was courteous and good-humoured, and I took to him immediately.  It set the pattern for every encounter I had with him on the floor of the House; he was never anything other than a gentleman, never less than scrupulously polite, no matter how hard the questioning

Jack Straw is a politician of the old school.  He plays the game fairly with friend and foe alike.  Would that there were more of his kind. 

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Posted in Jack Straw

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