Act I

The former MP David Chaytor has been jailed for eighteen months for falsifying his parliamentary expense claims.

He’s paid a very high price for submitting what turned out to be bogus invoices: disgrace, prison, exclusion from the party he served for many years, heavy court and legal costs and an uncertain future.

Sentencing, the judge commented that MPs ‘behaviour should be entirely honest if public confidence in the parliamentary system and the rule of law is to be maintained.’ There’s not much else to say after that.

Except, it must be remembered, this was just the first of the court cases pending concerning misuse of parliamentary expenses.
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Why The Tears?

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Some of the morning papers report that David Miliband’s wife reacted with tears and ‘absolute fury’ at the ‘betrayal’ by those whose votes resulted in Ed Miliband becoming Leader of the Labour Party. Speculation is also rife as to what David Miliband will or will not do now that he has lost the leadership election.

No election, or very few of them, is a foregone certainty so one of the Miliband brothers was bound to be disappointed at not being elected Leader, and it follows that the wife of the loser would also be disappointed.

It was a guaranteed cast-iron certainty that one of the brothers was going to lose, so why the disappointment and tears? Or is it because the loser thought his election was in the bag?
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You Pays Your Money ...

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The newspapers are dominated by Ed Miliband’s election as Leader of the Labour Party, and it’s interesting to see how they vary in their treatment of the story.

The papers seem to agree that New Labour is dead but, while some say that Ed will tilt the party to the Left, others say the opposite. Some say that he is in thrall to the unions while others say he will resist them.

We will have to wait and see what happens but, like Cameron and Clegg in these times of economic woe, Miliband may have been given the poisoned chalice for he will have to deal with the dinosaurs of the union movement which threaten to bring Britain to a standstill this winter.

As they say, you pays your money and you takes your choice!
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Spot On!

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My admiration for Nick Clegg improves by the day.

It is reported that, just after the General Election results were known, he told Gordon Brown that, ‘... it is not possible to secure the legitimacy of a coalition and win a referendum unless you move on in a dignified way.' He apparently also said that the Labour party was 'knackered after 13 years in power’.

He got that right!

It’s Been A Bad Week For Gordon

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I suppose I can’t ignore the electioneering of the past week since all the newspapers are stuffed full of it, and the television channels have joined in with their collection of experts and pundits and daily opinion polls which jump up and down like the value of the pound to the dollar.

It’s been a bad week for Gordon Brown is the basic message, followed by speculation as to whether or not there will be a hung parliament between the Conservatives and Lib-Dem. This, in my view at any rate, may not be a bad thing since it might rein in the wildest of Tory ideas. There is also much merit in Nick Clegg’s oft-repeated plea to get the financial wizards of the three main parties together to sort the economy out. A bit of cross-party co-operation on other issues might not also come amiss.

But to return to the main story, one reviewed both by the columnists and the cartoonists this weekend. Gordon’s bad week.

I said earlier in the week that some of Gordon’s problems were brought about by the Labour party spin-doctors; the return to Gillian Duffy’s house to apologise in person for calling her a bigot was a case in point. Having telephoned her with an apology, he should have carried on with his campaign trail and not been deflected into what became a public humiliation for him. But ‘Duffygate’ derailed his campaign and ‘that woman’ has now confirmed she has thrown away her postal voting card despite a grovelling invitation to go to Number 10 for tea with Gordon and Sarah.

Of course, I should have said that most of Gordon’s problems were brought about by the Labour party spin-doctors. He was, after all, mainly following the scripts given him.

It has to be said that Gordon is not a natural television personality even though he sincerely believes in what he is fighting for. The accident which caused his blindness hasn’t helped his facial expressions and his Presbyterian upbringing probably suppresses any passion the man feels. Given this, the spin-doctors should have put him into situations where these two things didn’t matter though, to be truthful, I can’t think of any except for radio broadcasts where the studios were not monitored by television cameras to record every grimace or look of despair.

Then there was the line-up of senior party officials who, along with Gordon, all looked as glum as glum could possibly be, all photographed beneath posters which were of such insignificance that no-one remembers what they said. A scene made all the more bizarre when some hapless and distracted motorist crashed into the bus shelter nearby. Whatever message those posters were meant to convey was obliterated in a moment; the actual message received by the media was that Labour was crashing and the looks on the faces of their seniors showed just that.

Worst of all has been Gordon’s appearances at the ill-conceived leaders’ debates which have mainly distracted voters’ attentions from party policies to the performances of the three main personalities. How could Gordon have outshone the polish of the other two men? Gordon did his best to get across complicated financial figures and statistics but overdid them to the point where any memorable response to a question was obscured and, bizarrely smiling in the wrong places, he came across at times as decidedly odd. None of this helped his or the Labour cause and one assumes that some spin-doctors have been ‘spoken to’ subsequently. I guess too that the spin-doctors who suggested that a bronzed Tony Blair be parachuted in to make a couple of insignificant speeches realises now that this may not have been the best idea of the campaign so far either.

Labour was never going to be ultra-popular in this election. Thirteen years of Labour misrule have seen to that. Much of the odium for the past, and most certainly the current economic situation, falls on the shoulders of Gordon Brown and, sad to say, it is Gordon Brown who will lose this election for the Labour party.

I actually feel sorry for Gordon who I think has been very poorly served by the spin-doctors, though it has to be said that his initial cock-up for calling a Rochdale matron a bigot was entirely his own fault. Compared with the slick campaigns across the country by those advising Cameron and Clegg, that of the Labour party has been something of a shambles.

Is there any way of Labour surviving from this point? I can think of only one and, sadly for the man himself, that surely can only be Gordon’s speedy announcement that after this election he will stand down as leader of the party.
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Ouch!

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The spin doctors don’t always know what’s best in a situation and they certainly got it wrong when they persuaded Gordon Brown to return to Gillian Duffy’s house to apologise to her in person following the ‘off-record’ gaffe he made on Wednesday.

I said at the time that this was a very bad idea and that, having telephoned his apology to Mrs Duffy, things should have been left at that. But, no, the spin doctors thought that an apology in person followed by scenes of the pair warmly shaking hands afterwards would put an end to a story that was running out of control.

But now we know for certain that Mrs Duffy refused to come out and be photographed with Brown who was forced to emerge grinning like the Cheshire Cat from the house on his own.

Thus has one Rochdale housewife humbled the Prime Minister of Great Britain. As did, in effect, the spin doctors as well who, in this case, got it terribly wrong. On Sunday, in what is now being callef ‘Duffygate’, we will learn more about what happened when these two people met.

In the meantime, the last of the three leaders’ debates is now mercifully over and, according to reports, ‘Teflon’ Blair is being brought back to bolster Brown’s campaign.

The spin doctors should take care. That could finish Labour off for good!
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The Forgotten Message

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Most of the morning newspapers lead on the election and the chances of a hung parliament following Nick Clegg’s sudden rise in the popularity polls.

The Tory and Labour parties must now be bitterly regretting their agreement to the televised leaders’ debates. Until the first of these, the elections were primarily between the two main parties. After ninety minutes of debate it became clear that this election was now a three-horse race.

The leaders’ debates have also turned the election into a sort of Presidential race in which it has been forgotten that we are voting not for Clegg, Cameron or Brown but for our local man or woman, many of whom have served our local communities for years.

And this is a message that seems to have been forgotten as the three leaders slug it out in what has become something of a ridiculous personal popularity show.
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Cleggmania?

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Two stories dominate the morning papers: the ash cloud hovering over much of Europe and grounding airplanes, and the apparent growth in the support for Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems.

Perhaps we are heading for a hung parliament but much can happen before we actually get to vote, and it is what happens on 6 May that will count not the current media hysteria.

Clegg did well during last week’s televised debate; so much so that many folk thought that the Lib-Dems were going to get Gordon Brown’s vote. But there are two more debates to follow, and Clegg is going to have to justify his stand on a number of sensitive issues - Trident, the euro, the EU, immigration and others. At the same time, Messrs Brown and Cameron are going to have to sharpen their acts if their parties are to make any progress.

On the other hand, perhaps a hung parliament might be good for the country for a few years since, if the Lib-Dems have the balance of power, then we might see some relief from the more extreme policies of the other two parties.

There are another two debates and another two weeks of politicking (groan!). But, whatever the polls, the pundits and the experts have to say on the subject, none of us will know for sure until the fat lady sings on 6 May!
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A Hung Parliament?

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A YouGov poll has found that the Tory lead in sixty Labour-held marginals had shrunk from seven to just two points over the past year which pundits say might indicate we are heading for a hung Parliament at the next General Election.

One problem the Conservatives face is identifying exactly what their major policies are and their recent conference didn’t do that for me. Less politicking and more direct communication might help them in my view.

On the other hand, I can’t say that I fully understand what policies are being proposed by the other parties either!
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Vote Winners?

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The New Statesman carries a ComRes poll that shows that three quarters of Tory prospective parliamentary candidates want to renegotiate the UK’s relationship with Europe ‘as a matter of priority’ and that 91 per cent favour a cap on immigration.

Unless Gordon has something to say on these subjects, they seem to be vote winners to me!.
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What Achievements?

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At a rally yesterday of the party faithful in which he launched ‘Operation Fightback’, Gordon Brown told Labour activists that they should not use the government’s achievements when seeking votes at the General Election.

Achievements? What achievements?

A leaflet aimed at Labour candidates warns them against asking for support on the basis of Labour’s record in office.

They got that right!
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Cancer Care

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In a speech to the King's Fund charitable foundation later today, Gordon Brown is said to be going to announce that Labour plans to provide free, one-to-one home care for every cancer patient in England within the next five years if Labour wins the next election.

It is said that this will save over £2.5 billion a year by reducing hospital admissions, and will give patients the opportunity of receiving chemotherapy, dialysis and palliative care without travelling to hospital.

Cancer Research UK report that there are around 300,000 new cases of cancer, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, diagnosed every year in the UK and that more than one in three people will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. That’s a lot of cancer.

It is a subject close to my heart for I am a cancer sufferer though, for the moment at any rate, my tumour is fortunately dormant. As it happens, I have no complaints about the NHS treatment I have received. In fact, I have nothing but praise for the doctors and other staff who have dealt with me at University College Hospital in London.

But, on behalf of all cancer sufferers in the UK, I do hope that the pledge to be made by Mr Brown is not just another cynical election promise. And why didn’t he think of this a decade ago?
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Is This Useful?

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Stories about the latest attempt to unseat ‘Bronco’ Brown in a new Labour leadership election, the folk stranded in the snow that has blanketed the country and bought it to a standstill and even the record-breaking tuna weighing 232 kilos that was sold in the Tokyo fish market for the equivalent of £109,000 have not interested me as much as one other jaw-breaking piece of news.

The story that grabbed my attention was that of the computer scientist who has computed the value of pi to nearly 2.7 trillion digits, beating the previous record by 123 billion digits. Wow!

I have no idea what value this piece of research is to the world at large, other than a possible entry in the Guinness Book of Records, but it seems to have taken a total of 131 days to compute and then check the result.

As a further piece of useless information, it has also been calculated that to recite the formula at the rate of one number a second would take more than 85,000 years. Wow again!

I wonder if this scientist could kindly turn his attention to the state of the economy, the cost of living, MPs expenses, the price of petrol and other fuels, etc., etc. Now that would be useful!
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It’s Started!

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It’s started! The run-up to the General Election I mean.

David Cameron kicked off proceedings yesterday morning with a not-too convincing speech telling us that the NHS will be his number one priority, pledging also maternity reforms ‘to meet mothers’ needs’ whatever that means. All this while tackling the government’s budget deficit.

Then we had the monotone Chancellor Alistair Darling who launched an attack on the Tories’ spending plans, claiming that they had a credibility gap of £34 billions, an easy accusation to make since none us understand it or can check it.

Not to be outdone, Nick Clegg has told us that the Labour and Tory parties were ‘increasingly alike’. I’m not sure I agree with him here unless he was referring to the general shouting match that has now erupted.

We haven’t heard from the other parties but, doubtless, we will in time.

Commentators believe that the General Election will be called for 6 May. If that is right, we will have four months of this nonsense to endure.

Groan!
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A Long Slog

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It seems that the Labour Party, by which I mean the government, has withdrawn its pops against Tory MPs who were privately educated since it was disclosed that many of their own MPs were so privileged.

Among the leading Labourites who were privately educated are: Ed Balls, Hilary Benn, Stephen Byers, Alistair Darling, Quentin Davies, Peter Hain, Harriet Harman, Geoff Hoon, Tessa Jowell, Bob Marshall-Andrews, Michael Meacher, Nick Raynsford, Geoffrey Robinson, Keith Vaz and a whole bunch of others.

It’s going to be a long slog to the General Election but, thankfully, at least one subject has been ruled out of further discussion.
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Deceit

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Home Secretary Alan Johnson has accused David Cameron of being deceitful in blaming ‘big’ government for many of the social problems affecting the country these days.

Mr Johnson has unwittingly put his finger on the nub of the voters’ dilemma in the run-up to the next General Election.

And that is - which party is less deceitful than the others?

It’s quite a question!
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Bring back Sir Humphrey Appleby!

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One of my favourite television series is ‘Yes, Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’, starring Paul Eddington as Jim Hacker MP, who eventually becomes Prime Minister, and Nigel Hawthorne as the double-speaking Whitehall mandarin, Sir Humphrey Appleby. The beautifully scripted and hilarious satirical comedy series ran from 1980 to 1988 and repeats are still shown from time to time.

Earlier this week I watched the last episode of ‘Yes, Prime Minister’ in which Sir Humphrey Appleby, believing that a radio interview has been terminated, commits a monumental gaff when speaking about unemployment and the cost of social security payments.

‘Cut off all social security to any claimants who refuses two job offers, there’s genuine unemployment in the north but the south of England is awash with layabouts, many of them graduates, living off the dole and housing benefit. Plus quite a lot of cash that they pick up without telling anybody.’ ‘Most employers will tell you they’re short staffed, but offer the unemployed a street sweeping job or a dish washing job they’d be off the register before you could say parasite. Frankly this country can have as much unemployment as it’s prepared to pay for in social security. And no politicians have got the guts to do anything about it.’

I laughed at the time for there is much in what Sir Humphrey said that it is true today.

But it wasn’t so funny later in the week when it was announced that five million Britons have never worked under this present Labour government and that two million of them have never worked in their lives.

Many of us believe that state handouts have contributed to this situation by encouraging some people not to work. Indeed, the TaxPayers Alliance have said, ‘It’s absolutely right that we have a safety net to help people who fall on hard times, but the government have allowed welfare to become a life choice rather than a last resort’.

A comment by Theresa May, the Tory MP, is also telling. She said about the figures, ‘They will include lone parents which the state has told not to bother trying to work until their youngest child was sixteen’.

According to the Office of National Statistics, the cost of jobless benefits alone in this country are now a staggering £193 billion a year and this has increased from £93 billion in 1997. Add on all the other benefits which are paid to people each year and the cost to the taxpayer must be absolutely mind-blowing.

Can this situation be allowed to continue and will any government have the guts to do something about it? Very good questions!

Bring back Sir Humphrey Appleby!
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No Shrinking Violet?

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Harriet Harman is the Leader of the House of Commons and seems to be doing her bit for the country while my friend ‘Bronco’ Brown is on his holidays.

Among other things she feels that men ‘cannot be left to run things on their own’. Even the former Deputy Prime Minister, ‘Jumbo’ Prescott, reacted to this and said she should ‘stop complaining and get campaigning’ after she suggested Labour should never again have a men-only leadership team.

Ms Harman has now announced that she is no ‘shrinking violet’. Yeah, right!
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