Despite the MP for Ipswich adding his name (as reported by Ipswich Spy) to a pro-European salvo dispatched a few days before David Cameron’s historical speech, Ben Gummer, ironically, might win a few votes off the back of the PM’s promise to give the British people an In-Out referendum on our membership of the European Union.
That’s if he doesn’t draw attention to his opposing letter and rabidly pro-European views…can he rein himself in?
But then Ben Gummer is a canny political operator as we saw with his anti-immigration leaflet during the 2010 General Election. If needs must, eh Ben?
Train to nowhere: Greater Anglia services last night were thrown into chaos
Last night was the worst rail experience – by far – I have ever experienced on the shambles that is the Great Eastern mainline.
It was compounded by delays occurring on Tuesday as well because of “slippery rail conditions” – that is it was raining!
Yesterday though was beyond reason. Firstly, the service was due to be delayed because of speed restrictions. As soon as the conductor had told us this, and before we had even pulled out of London Liverpool Street, she came back on the tannoy to announce there had been a fatality at Goodmayes railway station in north east London. As soon as I heard this, I factored in a two hour delay.
I know how long it takes because I have previously been on a train which has hit a ‘jumper’. And by the time the police had found all the different body parts and bagged them up and once the driver had been relieved of his duty it had been a two hour wait. This is still way too long though to clean up the site.
But last night, things took even longer. Two hours later the conductor told us the police had yet to find a body and were still “investigating”. Half an hour later we were told there was no body, therefore nobody had committed suicide by train, and we would be soon on our way (slowly as you will find out in a moment!).
But first, why does it take two and a half hours for British Transport Police to realise no one has actually jumped in front of a train? The report from Morning Ipswich Star is almost comical. The train driver at Goodmayes thinks he saw someone lean off the platform despite there being no body on the line but there was a dent on the front of the train. So based on that flimsy account of events, thousands of people were held in cramp conditions, which would not be legal for transporting cattle, for hours.
Sardines: People pay good money to travel like this
Then the fun really began. By the time the police had decided they couldn’t find a body or body parts, they opened the line again (how nice of them). Two and half hours had elapsed. Our 19:00 service then became the 21:30 to Norwich and was duly announced on the station concourse at Liverpool Street as ready for departure. Bearing in mind it was standing room only on the held 19:00 service, five hundred people then descended on to the platform to board the same train. Infrequent passengers on the already standing-room-only train were asking where the hoards of people running down the platform were going? The look of incomprehension on their faces when we told them they were boarding this train was a picture to behold.
So, the police closed the line for two and half hours for “safety reasons” to hunt for a non-existent person but cramming in a further 500 people into already overcrowded small compartments for a three hour journey to Norwich is perfectly safe is it?
Health & Safety: Cattle have better travel conditions
We then finally crawled out of Liverpool Street at 21:30 but as if nothing else could go wrong, it did. A freight train broke down in front of us, forcing us to descend to a walking pace. We finally got into Ipswich at midnight. As one fellow commuter said, it would have been quicker to cycle the 80 miles from London. All in all, because I had travelled from Reading yesterday, it took me seven hours to get home from work!
One thing that struck me last night was how hardly anyone complains when an event like this occurs. There was also a level of stupidity. Some people wanted to get something to eat and a drink (preferably alcoholic) but the buffet car was blocked by people sitting in the aisles. Instead of stepping out of the train on to the platform, walking a short distance and then stepping into the buffet car, several people just moaned (the only time they actually did complain) they couldn’t get through and went back to their seats! I think this must be one of the reasons why we have such a poor rail service in the UK: operators realise they can get away with it because the customers are either too polite or stupid to complain about the criminally expensive service they receive.
Well, you may have guessed I am not one for being quiet. First thing this morning I contacted my MP to highlight the woeful and time-wasting processes British Transport Police follow in the event of an actual or imagined fatality. I await Ben Gummer’s investigation.
To end, there is one main reason travelling in this country is such a horrible experience not matched on the European Continent: there are too many people. The immigration policies of the last fifteen years, primarily caused by the Labour Party to deliberately dilute the British identity, has led to South East England being one of the most densely populated regions in the world. We know it is caused by immigration as the indigenous birth rate has fallen off a cliff and every time I take a train it is like being at a session of the UN assembly considering the number of different languages being spoken into mobile phones up and down the carriage.
Now, I love different cultures and peoples but we can’t just continue ramming thousands of people into a small patch of land off the north coast of the European continent unless the public services are enhanced to reflect the demand. But that can’t happen without massive public spending and the UK taxpayer is already shelling out enough cash to the Exchequer. Therefore, the Government needs to “get with the programme” and start implementing a workable immigration policy. But for now, I’m just glad I am working from home today.
EUSSR: You and I are being asked to give Brussels more money
I know – I am bit late to the party but I felt the need to at least say something about Wednesday’s vote on the EU budget in the House of Commons on Wednesday evening.
First off, I am not a sensationalist blogger unlike some of the mainstream newspapers who carefully forgot to mention Wednesday’s vote was not binding and was not even a vote on the EU budget at all. It was actually a “take note” vote on a report on the upcoming EU budget negotiations, with the catchy title Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. The report was tabled by the Government for the House of Commons to note the report but Conservative backbenchers took the opportunity to make a point about the profligacy of the EU and basically the corruption endemic in Brussels and Strasbourg by tabling an amendment to the report calling for a cut in the EU budget. The amendment was laid down by Tory MP Mark Reckless MP. Labour then duly backed the Conservative rebels as a text-book case of political opportunism.
In all, 53 Conseratives rebelled against the Government, and with Labour MPs voting with the amendment as well, the Government was defeated by 13 votes. Like I said, this was not a binding vote and therefore David Cameron and George Osborne can choose to ignore it but if they have the slightest political instinct they won’t.
53 rebels is a large swathe of the Tory Party and this will have worried Downing Street considerably. In fact, it would be fair to say the Government is in big trouble over it’s stance on Europe. The Prime Minister now needs to come back from the EU budget negotiations in Brussels later this month with some red meat for his restless backbenchers. He can’t veto the EU budget or the remaining 25 EU nations will just ignore the UK and instead of freezing the budget (plus 2% to keep up with inflation) they will increase it along with the UK’s contribution. This is just how corrupt and undemocratic the EU is. The sooner we leave the EU the better.
There is no way the Conservative parliamentary party, and for that matter the Labour Party, are going to allow any more money or power going over to Brussels – at least whilst this Coalition Government is in office.
Rebel: Mark Reckless MP
Let’s be sensible though. Labour haven’t suddenly become Eurosceptic – they would have abolished Britain as a sovereign state if they could have got away with it during their disastrous years in power from 1997-2010. On Wednesday, they only backed Conservative MP Mark Reckless’ motion by traipsing through the No lobby with many Tory MPs to humiliate the Government and they will continue to do so as long as David Cameron and Nick Clegg are still in power. However, once Labour get back into power, which is likely in 2015, albeit in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, they will be back to their Europhile selves and will start the print run of cash to Brussels once again. Remember this when you come to vote in 2015.
I believe the Conservative rebels were speaking for the majority of the country. Brits are fed up with meddling from the EU. High energy prices are as a result of EU Co2 targets, 70% of our laws are made in Brussels, and dubious jurisdictions in far flung corners of Europe can have a British citizen arrested and extradited at the drop of a hat by deploying the European arrest warrant (police beatings are still part of the interview technique in some European states). To name but three.
The United Kingdom pumps £10 billion a year into EU coffers. Each MEP has the use of their own limo, they have special lanes at airports and for their cars on the roads of Brussels and Strasbourg, and the EU accounts haven’t been signed off for decades because so much money has gone missing. The EU parliament is a democratic front but our elected MEPs don’t even make the 70% of laws imposed on the UK: an unelected Commission does that – the same Commission Peter Mandelson once was a member of after he resigned from Blair’s Government for the SECOND time. A fiction writer couldn’t even make this up. Dictatorships are more democratic than the EU.
The UK economy may have its face out of the mud come the General Election in 2015 but she will still be on her knees. The best thing the Conservative Party can do is highlight the meddling and damage the EU does to our sovereign state during the election campaign, explaining how Labour gave back the rebate Margaret Thatcher won and how even more powers were ceded to Brussels by Gordon Brown sneaking into Portugal to sign the Lisbon Treaty. This campaigning strategy may be the only chance the Tories have of being returned to power.
Europhile: Ben Gummer MP
My MP, Ben Gummer, told Ipswich Spy after Wednesday night’s vote: “Very sad that the Conservative Party continues to do this to itself”. Sad, I’m delighted. At least some MPs represent the real views of the British public. Those on the Tory Far-Left, including Ben Gummer and Ken Clarke (I seriously can’t think of any more), think Europe is an unimportant topic. It is probably the most important topic there is in British politics today. Basically Britain is run by the EU – 70% of our laws are made in Brussels. In the 1990s, the Maastricht rebels were more concerned about British identity; identity politics is very important but the economy is even more important. Back in the 1990s, the European single market along with the US market WERE the economic powerhouses of the world. Not any more they aren’t. Europe and the US are very sick economies indeed. But in 2012, it is the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China (the so called BRIC countries) which are booming. Can the UK form a trade treaty with any one of these nations unilaterally? No. Only the EU can form a trading agreement. We have given away our sovereign power to trade with anyone we like to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.
Therefore, frankly, Europe matters. It matters to every aspect of our lives: energy prices (which are going up because of make-believe EU Co2 emission targets), the right to a fair trial and humane treatment by police (which is not guaranteed because of the EU arrest warrant), jobs (Britain is banned for signing a unilateral trade agreement), and even the weeds growing in the pavement outside your house during the spring and summer are there because the EU has banned your council from spraying weed killer on them!
Like I said, the EU is the only topic in town. It will probably decide the next General Election.
Creaking: Trains on the Great Eastern mainline have seen better days
The Great Eastern mainline from Norwich to London is single track most of the way, runs the oldest trains on the national network (some were built in the 1970s!), has the worse punctuality in the country but still the passengers pay more per mile than any rail passenger in the UK and probably in Western Europe.
I’m lucky in that when I go to London on business I don’t personally have to pay for the journey from hell (I get to suffer it for free!) as I claim the cost from my employer. But I can’t claim the psychological costs from my employer!
However, I am very aware not only do people have to put up with a smelly, dirty unpunctual service from Greater Anglia (aka Abellio) but they have to pay for the privilege as well out of their own wages.
This has hit home today as my wife has secured a job in London. But this comes at a price: £5,608 and climbing to be precise. This is the cost of a 12 month rail season ticket from the Greater Anglia railway operator. Now, the firm my wife is joining is large and they can afford to provide a loan to my wife for her one and quarter hour commute into work everyday. But there is a limit her new company will loan her: £5,000. It doesn’t take an accountant to work out there is a shortfall of £608 there. When my wife raised this with her employer they would not budge above £5,000 as this is the maximum they can offer for tax law reasons but did state they were shocked by how expensive a season ticket between Ipswich and London is compared to the cost presented by other employees for a similar distance into London from other parts of the country.
Well, there is no need to be shocked any more. The reason East Anglia commuters pay more is because they are being milked by the Government to prop up railway services in the North of England, which if they weren’t subsidised by the hard pressed taxpayers of Suffolk and Norfolk would not be viable and would have to shut down because of a lack of demand. Sounds like socialism to me.
I know Ipswich MP Ben Gummer is lobbying transport ministers to change the funding formula for the railway network in the UK so it is fairer and promotes more investment in the creaking track and rolling stock infrastructure. But it is is a disgrace we have been paying more for a worse service for so long.
Whilst walking into the town centre yesterday for an appointment and back to my house again it felt as if East Ipswich had been bombed. There are holes in the road everywhere with what looks like a crater in Fore Street.
As the blogosphere and dead tree press have reported there are two things going on: 1) a gas mains replacement in Fore Street and 2) a series of transport works as part of the £21 Million ‘Travel Ipswich‘ programme.
On the first set of roadworks, this project has overrun. A meeting with business owners, MP Ben Gummer and Suffolk County Council was held this week but there was one noticeable absence: Ipswich Borough Council. It seems from reports in the Morning Ipswich Star the County’s transport chief Cllr Guy McGregor spent the meeting blaming Ipswich Borough Council for National Grid not completing their work sooner. I wonder if he mentioned that his County Council is actually the highways authority and that the Borough Council just facilitates the closure of the road as the highways agency. And did he also mention that Suffolk County Council intend to outsource the entire highways department to a private company in April next year?
Labour Council transport chief Cllr Phil Smart
However, it is true to say Ipswich Borough Council are responsible for putting pressure on National Grid to get their work finished on time and to fill their crater in as soon as possible. The way this is done is through something called “project management”. In short it means transport officers should be on the case of National Grid managers day in, day out, asking for updates on when they will be finished and explaining the legal consequences if they don’t finish by an agreed deadline. Political leadership is also very important. The Labour Borough transport portfolio holder, Cllr Phil Smart, has regular meetings with senior transport officers at Grafton House. At these meetings he should be pushing his officers hard for a swift conclusion of the gas mains work: is he doing this or is he spending these meeting talking about his pet subject: trains. Think trainspotter and you pretty much sum up Cllr Smart!
The only time transport projects got done in a timely manner is when Tory Tanya Maclure (yes, I declare an interest!) was the transport chief at the Borough. Believe me, officers knew to keep to schedule when Tanya was overseeing their work! Cllr Smart is one of those who “steers”, not “leads” it would seem.
With number (2) above, I am all for improving and developing our infrastructure, which ‘Travel Ipswich’ will do, but the disruption is going to be massive and the heavy duty works haven’t even started yet. The Civic Drive/Princes Street roundabout is going to be shortly torn up with the pedestrian underpasses filled in: this will take months to complete and will undoubtedly cause traffic chaos. But this is part of ‘Travel Ipswich”s aims: the government via Suffolk County Council want to make it hell for car drivers to the extent they will be forced to wait in the rain for a bus which is half an hour late. This would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.
The ‘Travel Ipswich’ programme has multiple engineering teams, some from the County and some from the Borough. Ipswich Borough Council are in charge of widening and re-laying the pavements along Grimwade Street and Fore Street, along with other schemes. I was walking home yesterday evening and crossed Grimwade Street at the bottom-end close to the Waterfront but I soon met a dead-end on the eastern side of the junction – there was no pavement. It was rectified by turning back to the traffic island and crossing over to the Waterfront side of Fore Street heading up to the Duke Street junction – however, several pedestrians took their lives into their hands and walked along the road instead!
It is by the Council not putting up adequate signs and barriers which compounds the inconvenience experienced by road users and pedestrians alike during major transport works. Better management of ‘Travel Ipswich’ starting from the political leaders at the Borough Council will ease the transition to a better transport system. Alternatively, the patience of voters will snap. The disruption in Ipswich over the coming months WILL have an affect in the County Council elections next year and could also be a deciding factor for Ben Gummer at the next General Election. Now, that should concentrate minds!
Today the second Beacon Town Conference is taking place in Ipswich at the Corn Exchange. The conference is organised by the Morning Ipswich Star and brings together local business leaders and politicians to discuss how to improve the economy of Suffolk’s county town. This time round Ipswich MP Ben Gummer has managed to persuade the former boss of Marks & Spencers, Sir Stuart Rose, to attend the conference as a keynote speaker to offer his thoughts on how Ipswich can improve its retail offering. The conference delegates will also discuss how to get their hands on £24 Million of the government’s Future Cities fund. Earlier in the week during the Star’s promotion of the conference, I noted how Ipswich Borough Council leader David Ellesmere tried to hold on to Mr Gummer’s coattails when he was quoted in the local paper saying it was a “real coup for the town” getting Sir Stuart to attend the event.
Socialist: Cllr David Ellesmere pursues Michael Foot policies
The fact of the matter is that without an MP like Ben Gummer who has connections far and wide through the family business of politics, Cllr Ellesmere would never be able to attract the likes of Sir Stuart Rose to come and speak at a provincial town business conference. But the Council can’t rely on the MP to develop Ipswich’s economy. That is not the MP’s job. Ben Gummer is tasked with representing Ipswich in Westminster and bending the ear of ministers and mandarins in Whitehall to get the best deal for Ipswich people. However, the political local leadership must come from the local authorities who are at the coal-face in the town day-in, day-out. Council leaders must be the primary drivers of change and development. This is where we are distinctly lacking in Ipswich. We don’t have such a leader. Borough chief executive James Hehir, before his untimely death, came close but he was a civil servant and should never have had to step into the shoes of a political leader. But he had to because no political council leader was a-coming. Ipswich has many things going for it, including a shopping centre which is actually quite good with a wide variety of retailers, the largest UK base for Willis insurance brokers outside of London and Europe’s largest research and development centre on its doorstep: BT Adastral Park in Martlesham. And even with dreadful rail infrastructure and chronic overcrowding, Central London is one hour, fifteen minutes away. But more must be done to develop Ipswich fit for the twenty first century: there are very few big private employers with public sector employment heavily relied upon which in the present “cuts” environment is not good for the local economy’s medium to long term health. And the transport links are more akin to the Victorian age rather the Digital age. Things can be better but it requires local political leadership from Ipswich Borough Council. At the moment we have a Labour council leader and a Labour Administration who yearn for the 1970s, who are rabidly anti-enterprise and anti-aspiration. Cllr Ellesmere fits the bill of a old-style Labour leader – he has everything other than the donkey jacket. Is central government really going to part with £24 Million with this man?
For Ipswich to move forward to the next level, we need a dynamic leader who gets economics, aspiration and growth. Frankly, it doesn’t matter how many high profile retailers, entrepreneurs and other successful leaders appear at provincial town business conferences if, when the keynote speakers go home back to the home counties, there is no one left back in Ipswich who can absorb the ideas and then lead a team to implement them.
Representative: Ipswich MP Ben Gummer
Don’t look at Ben Gummer to do the Council leader’s role. The MP is doing his bit: ministers and Whitehall mandarins know for the first time in twenty years where Ipswich actually is on a map. Our health services at Ipswich Hospital and our schools have directly benefited as a result of Mr Gummer’s work representing the town in Westminster. But that isn’t enough if we are to attract investment to Ipswich. Without a go-getting council leader, Ipswich will only ride the economic wave rather than chart a successful course. We are certainly not seeing any spark or vision from the current Labour administration and leader. Even before they got their hands back on the levers of power in 2011 they colluded to turn their backs on 900 jobs and £70 Million of investment when they voted against Tesco’s proposed development of the old B&Q site on Grafton Way. Then once they were in power they continued their anti-enterprise agenda by voting against the conversion of a closed Green King pub site on Woodbridge Road into a new retail unit with new jobs. Labour’s campaign slogan should be: “Against jobs and investment”. It is not as if Labour can’t deliver growth and prosperity to a town: look at Reading in Berkshire, a town not so dissimilar to our own. The electorate consistently vote a Labour administration into their council but here the Labour councillors actually showed some leadership back in the 1990s and attracted millions of pounds of investment to turn what was a run-down dump of a town centre into one of the best retail environments in the country with The Oracle Centre. Their can-do attitude and strong leadership undoubtedly also attracted some of the biggest IT firms in the world – Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco etc. – to setup shop on the town’s periphery. Ipswich PLP take note! Back in Ipswich, the Borough Labour leader might not have a donkey jacket but the similarities with Michael Foot are there for all to see. The sad thing for Ipswich is I think Cllr Ellesmere might quite enjoy the comparison.
I learnt last night from Ipswich Spythat Ben Gummer has accepted a role in the Coalition Government as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to International Development Minister Alan Duncan.
A PPS is the lowest rung on the greasy pole of Government and is unpaid although the level of access and kudos is certainly an enough reward for an aspiring Government minister, which in accepting this post Mr Gummer must be. But I am not sure this will happen any time soon as David Cameron is unlikely to do a big reshuffle before the next General Election in 2015. And without constituency boundary changes to correct the inbuilt advantage for Labour (now vetoed by the Liberal Democrats as “punishment” for Cameron ditching Lords Reform) it is looking unlikely the Conservatives will win the next election, with or without Boris. I am in full favour of a Conservative majority government but without more Conservative policies going faster and deeper such as debt reduction, actually implementing welfare reforms and getting a grip on immigration this is not going to happen and the Yellow Peril quite frankly can’t wait to jump into bed with Labour, once they’ve ditched Mr Clegg, so a new Conservative-Lib Dem coalition is never going to happen again.
I would have hoped Ben Gummer had got a job in the Business Department or the Treasury as putting aside his bizarre views on the environment and Europe he is a proper Tory when it comes to the economy. But, alas, fellow Conservative Therese Coffey, the MP for the seat next door, Suffolk Coastal, has become PPS to Business Minister, Michael Fallon.
I am sure Ben Gummer is an ardent supporter of International Aid, being on the Left of the Tory Party, but I hope his economics brain is at the forefront when working alongside Mr Duncan and he makes it clear that giving aid to India so they can buy warships has to end.
One thing that struck me about today’s Cabinet reshuffle is the deliberate drama played out by the Prime Minister of the day. In a parliamentary democracy, the PM doesn’t really have much power. Unlike the President of the United States, he can’t even go to war without some jumped-up backbencher from Nowheresville North having a vote on it. But when it comes to deciding who has a Government job or not, the Prime Minister has real power – his word is final.
However, today’s reshuffle took the best part of a day to complete. It’s not as if ministers who got sacked only found out today. They knew yesterday or even before. But we still had to see grinning winners like Theresa Villiers and Jeremy Hunt traipsing up Downing Street to “find out” what David Cameron wanted to see them about. I suppose a bit of drama is necessary: who was it that said politics is showbusiness for ugly people?
Anyway, down to business. This is the make-up of the new Coalition Cabinet:
Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service –The Rt Hon David Cameron MP
Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council – The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs – The Rt Hon William Hague MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer – The Rt Hon George Osborne MP
Chief Secretary to the Treasury – The Rt Hon Danny Alexander MP
Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice – The Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP
Secretary of State for the Home Department; and Minister for Women and Equalities – The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Secretary of State for Defence – The Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills – The Rt Hon Dr Vincent Cable MP
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – The Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change – The Rt Hon Edward Davey MP
Secretary of State for Health – The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
Secretary of State for Education – The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government – The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP
Secretary of State for Transport – The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – The Rt Hon Owen Paterson MP
Secretary of State for International Development – The Rt Hon Justine Greening MP
Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport – The Rt Hon Maria Miller MP
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – The Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP
Secretary of State for Scotland – The Rt Hon Michael Moore MP
Secretary of State for Wales – The Rt Hon David Jones MP
Minister without Portfolio – The Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP
Minister without Portfolio – The Rt Hon Ken Clarke QC MP
Leader of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – The Rt Hon Lord Strathclyde
Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal – The Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP
Minister for the Cabinet Office, Paymaster General – The Rt Hon Francis Maude MP
Attorney General – The Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP
Solicitor General – The Rt Hon Oliver Heald MP
Chief Whip (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury) – The Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell
The Liberal Democrats have been left in place. Outside of the Cabinet, David Laws has risen from the political dead and becomes an Education Minister, which looks likely to be cover for doing fix-its jobs for Clegg and Cameron across Government. As Harry Cole from the Guido Fawkes blog said, some MPs didn’t spend two years on the backbenchers after fiddling their expenses, they spent time at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. But, hey, if you’re liked by the top brass, you get a pass!
Andrew Lansley has been sacked as Health Secretary and, strangely, Jeremy Hunt, who was Rupert Murdoch’s mole in the UK Government during his botched takeover of BSkyB, wasn’t sacked for corruption, he was promoted today to laud over the NHS. What does the guy need to do to get sacked? In Hunt’s case, it may be what he knows that is keeping him in the Government and in a very senior position at that.
The Government’s position on airport expansion was partially revealed today by the side-ways shift for Justine Greening who moves from Transport to International Development. Miss Greening is adamantly opposed to a third runway at Heathrow and has campaigning heavily on the subject in her constituency, Putney, which sits in the flight-path for Heathrow. Now she’s gone, the Government is likely to seriously look at the third runway option again, which in my view is the wrong approach, as I’ve written here.
A notable move is that of Ken Clarke who has been sacked from Justice and given a non-job as “Minister Without Portfolio”, which means he can attend Cabinet. To do what, I don’t know. But Ken’s seen it all before so no doubt he can offer pearls of wisdom to the public school boys around the the Cabinet table. Frankly, he is probably the only person in Government who has a clue about economics but dumping Osborne was never an option for Cameron, however many British people boo him at a global event.
A major change in the organisation of the Conservative Party was made today in that the hapless Baroness Warsi was given the boot and was replaced by über-moderniser and Cameroon loyalist Michael Green Grant Shapps. I’m not sure that will go down very well with the grassroots. Warsi was dreadful as Party Chairman but she was from the same mould as Hunt, Cameron and Shapps. Cameron’s Government doesn’t reflect the Conservative Party membership or the country and having a Government-man like Shapps telling the members in not so unsubtle terms that we are the reason why the General Election was lost in 2010 is really not going to go down well amongst the voluntary party. Let’s hope he doesn’t equate UKIP to the BNP!
A number of the 2010 Conservative intake have been given jobs today including former GMTV presenter Esther McVey, who becomes Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions (the lowest rung on the Government ladder), and Anna Soubry who will join Jeremy Hunt’s team at Health, also as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.
Osborne’s former bodyguard Chloe Smith moves from the treasury to take a few bullets for Francis Maude in the Cabinet Office, where he is pretending to slim down the Civil Service. Sajid Javid replaces Miss Smith becoming the new Economic Secretary to the Treasury.
At the time of writing, it is not known if Ipswich MP Ben Gummer has received a call from Downing Street.
It was interesting to read Tory MP Tim Yeo’s piece in the Daily Telegraph today on his Damascus-like conversion to more plane travel but I think he might have ulterior motives along with other environmental zealots in the Conservative Party.
Anyway, less of that. Although I agree with some of Mr Yeo’s article, especially the bits about Cameron’s distinct lack of leadership qualities and the need for a “trace of Thatcher”, I don’t agree we should build a third runway at Heathrow. That’s far too little (and probably too late). We need a new airport with two or three runways to ensure we remain competitive with the other hub airports of Europe, such as Schiphol, Frankfurt or Paris.
My view on aviation policy in this country is, and has been for sometime, to build a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary, commonly referred to as Boris Island after the London Mayor’s support for such a scheme last year. I am tempted by a second runway at Stansted but as Ben Gummer alluded in a tweet to me a couple of weeks ago, this would just tinker with the problem rather than fix it. Boris Island would offer a fix, a third runway at Heathrow or second at Stansted would just be a sticking plaster. Without good air links to the world’s commercial centres, which a new London hub airport would bring, we will get left behind along with the likes of Greece, Italy and Spain. You see we are not that different to these despot economies. Gordon Brown back in the noughties presided over unforgivable exorbitant levels of government borrowing, PPI schemes and tuition fees which has left us (or more accurately the next generation and those yet to be conceived) with over a £trillion of debt and rising; it is only our higher GDP which is keeping the IMF at bay. We desperately need to create growth which a new hub airport would bring in construction and future trade.
Thames Estuary airport proposition
So grow some balls Mr Cameron and take a stand for once in your political life. Unfortunately, as I write this I see the Yellow Peril starting to froth at the mouth. The Liberal Democrats, once they’ve made their money, hate anything which brings prosperity to the masses (like all socialists do) so anything to do with creating growth really is not on their agenda. And with a Prime Minister who probably couldn’t care less as long as he can fly out of the country to one of his holiday homes after he retires from politics in 2014/15, aviation expansion looks likely to be kicked into the long grass for another 30 years.
Another example of unforgivable leadership from our ministers.
Ben Gummer’s latest missive to the Morning Ipswich Star (not on Star website but is available here) was not his finest hour. I cede to no one in my admiration for Sir Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony, which was frankly the best artistic production I have ever seen. It was, and this is not too strong a word, a masterpiece and he should be duly honoured by Her Majesty for this service to his country.
I won’t bang on about the Opening Ceremony too much (I have written a full review here) but I do have to take umbrage with the MP for Ipswich, who could only say the most obvious thing any politician would say – post-Aidan Burley tweet – about the ceremony, choosing deliberately to concentrate on the last third of the show:
“..what came through clearly was the pride we have in the diversity of our country – both in our different nations and in the multiplicity of the people who call themselves British and name Britain their home.”
Really, is that the best a Cambridge double-starred first historian could say about the three-hour spectacular tour of British history and the massive contribution we have made to the world?
How could historian Mr Gummer not say anything about Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Boyle’s genius depiction of the Industrial Revolution, which brought mechanisation and great wealth to Britain and then the rest of the world? How, with the biggest research and development centre in Europe on Ipswich’s doorstep, could Ipswich’s MP not mention that the Opening Ceremony celebrated how the World Wide Web was invented by a Brit, with Sir Tim Berners-Lee taking a bow in the Olympics Stadium and to the one billion people watching world-wide?
Yes, the Olympic Games were about sport but to brush aside the extraordinary geopolitical event, which London 2012 was, is at best naive and at worst very cynical (if he thinks Ipswich people don’t get politics!).
Mr Gummer says:
“These Olympics have not so much celebrated the Olympic movement, or Britain, or buildings, but pure competitive endeavour, which is what it should all be about.”
You are kidding, Mr Gummer? Equestrian was deliberately moved by Lord Coe – a politician of the grandest order if there ever was one – from Windsor Great Park (a perfect natural habitat) with a shack called Windsor Castle as a backdrop to Greenwich Park in built-up South London. Why? Because it offered a superb backdrop of the economic powerhouse of Great Britain across the river: the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, with television pictures beamed across the globe. Now that’s soft political power or hard political power, whichever it is.
I am disappointed in Ben Gummer for segwaying in his piece from stock praise – rightly – for the diversity we have in the UK to racism. That is the classic rhetoric of the Left. Mr Gummer wrote the below when describing a dispute in a restaurant between a customer and a waiter over the bill (something which takes place thousands of times up and down the country every day):
“Frankly, I doubt that they [the customer] would have behaved like that had the waiter been white. So we butted in and suggested they be more polite.
Speaking to the waiter afterwards, he said that although he was born and bred in Britain, worked hard in Britain and contributed to Britain, the way some people treated him made him doubt whether everyone accepted that fact. He was making a subtle point and we all knew what he meant.
How sad that should still be the case. We should take Danny Boyle’s idyll as an injunction as much as a pat on the back.”
Ben Gummer really should have taken a step back before writing this. It is quite possible that the disagreement the customer had about their bill would have still taken place if the waiter was white. Unpleasant people can be unpleasant regardless of race: some people just don’t know how to behave respectfully to people of the same or different colour. Perhaps, Mr Gummer should remember this before he starts firing off allegations of racism?
If Mr Gummer’s final paragraph in his article was an attempt to link the legitimate opinions many have on multiculturalism (including Prime minister David Cameron) and diversity with a non-subtle allegation of racism then this is quite disturbing to hear from a a representative in Her Majesty’s Parliament. This only serves to stir up tensions and is divisive and those in positions of influence should steer clear of such rhetoric.
My wife and I had a wonderful time when we visited the Games to watch the Mens’ Trampoline: we were all mixing together – irrespective of nationality, race or creed – and helping each other out as we navigated through the transport system, security and the Olympic arena. The London 2012 Olympic Games were such a positive and inspiring time and it’s a shame the MP for Ipswich has used his article to put a negative gloss on this once-in-a-lifetime event.
Mr Gummer should not let his left-wing prejudices cloud his highly intelligent mind like this. And if they do, he should not write them down. We all have off days and I am sure the Ben Gummer I selected back in 2007 will resume normal service again soon.
Gavin Maclure's Musings 