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jgale | 
05 March 2010 at 13:34 | 14 views | 
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At last we are in March, and warmer weather surely cannot be far away.
Last Saturday the former Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies (Ming) Campbell visited our area, and on Saturday he spoke at a Public Meeting in South Petherton on a variety of Foreign policy issues.
Ming had flown down on Saturday morning from his own constituency of Edinburgh, which was still deep in snow and ice – so by comparison he found the temperature in South Petherton to be almost sub tropical.
Ming is an enthusiastic sportsman (with a fine record of his own in athletics), and he insisted on visiting Huish Park to see Yeovil Town play MK Dons. It was nowhere near as cold watching the match as I had expected, and we were warmed by Yeovil’s excellent first half performance and by a cracking Yeovil goal. The second half was a much tougher proposition, but Yeovil fought with determination to the bitter end, and secured a very valuable three points. Congratulations to Terry Skiverton and his team on taking six points from last week’s matches – this achievement could prove to have been very important indeed by the end of the season.
There was a collection at the Yeovil match for the national “Help for Heroes” charity, which raises money for servicemen who have been injured in Afghanistan and in other theatres of conflict. There could hardly be a better cause, and I am grateful to all those who have given so generously on this and other occasions.
After the match I had return to London, to work in the office on Sunday. As usual, I caught the train from Yeovil Junction, and I was relieved this week to find that there wasn’t any engineering work, and that it was not therefore necessary to catch a bus between Basingstoke and Woking (which has been the case on many weekends this year.)
The two and a half hour train journey up and down to London is one of the most enjoyable times of the week for me. I am able to clear quite a lot of paperwork, read the newspapers, and sometimes just “switch off” for half an hour or so. For a lot of the journey, mobile phone reception is very poor, which is actually a huge blessing. Being contactable 24 hours a day, and therefore always open to disruption and distraction, is for me one of the plagues of modern life. I am afraid I am rather old fashioned in that respect!
The staff at Yeovil Junction railway station are always brilliant too – friendly, patient, and good at steering me to the cheapest tickets. These days there are so many special deals and other considerations that using a machine is just no substitute for talking to a real person.
Imagine my seething anger, therefore, when I discovered last week that those wretched senior managers at South West Trains are yet again trying to close the ticket office at Crewkerne Station for half of the week.
We successfully fought off the plans by South West Trains to close the ticket office at midday and for all of Sunday, and yet only a year or so later they are trying again. Closed ticket offices are bad news. They mean passengers cannot access the cheapest fares. They mean waiting in the cold, as waiting rooms are locked. They mean reduced safety and reduced information for passengers.
I am determined to fight these proposals again. And this week I will be meeting the Transport Secretary, Lord Adonis, and asking him to tell South West Trains to take a hike. You would have thought this company had learned its lesson last year, but apparently not. I hope that local residents will once again send a clear and determined signal. We must get these proposals withdrawn.
Later this week some of the first Education debates of the General Election campaign will begin, and I will be taking part for the Liberal Democrats. I must have at least 10 of these debates over the next month, and there is no doubt that this is going to be a very busy period.
Ever,
David.
jgale | 25 February 2010 at 19:26 | 37 views | 0 comment(s)
Parliament returns this week after a 5 day recess, and we enter what is likely to be the last session of the current Parliament. Most people expect Parliament to be dissolved before the Easter recess, and an election to be fixed for Thursday 6th May.
The Prime Minister must have been cheered for a few brief moments by another recent opinion poll which suggested that the gap between the Labour Party and its opponents was narrowing. But no sooner had this news been received when the PM was hit by the revelations of “bullying” in the new book by Observer columnist Andrew Rawnsley.
Andrew Rawnsley is a respected political commentator, who talks regularly to the most senior politicians in the country, so there is little doubt that most of his book will be well sourced. The picture he paints of our Prime Minister is likely to be an accurate one.
And the picture is not a particularly pleasant one – it is of a Prime Minister who regularly shouts and screams at staff, and whose henchmen are used to destroy political reputations with off-the-record briefings, in order to protect and enhance the position of Mr. Brown himself.
But does this tittle tattle really matter? Some people will say that Prime Ministers do operate under immense stress, and that throwing objects around the room is not a big deal.
And which politician, others will say, does not brief against political enemies, and seek to get their own “spin” into the press?
But the problem with Mr. Brown is, I think, serious. Firstly, because we have a portrait of a man who does not listen, and who cannot tolerate dissent or differences of view. One insider is quoted as saying: “He does not listen to argument. He just tries to bully you.”
This rings many bells for me, because I well remember visiting Gordon Brown in his Treasury office in 2007, with Vince Cable, to talk about the flaws in his tax credits system – flaws that had driven many people on low incomes deeply into debt. Was Mr. Brown interested in debating the issue or discussing the solutions? Sadly not. He bullied. He blustered. He tried to change the subject. He claimed the flaws were not flaws. And then that that they might be flaws, but that they were already fixed. What he did not do was listen. And as we argued with each other, I noticed that the single civil servant who was sitting in on our meeting to take notes was looking increasingly surprised that anyone should stand up to the “Iron Chancellor”. Clearly this did not happen often. Legitimate comment and criticism of a failing Government policy was about as welcome to the then Chancellor as a night out with Cherie Blair.
Having a Prime Minister who will not listen to advice or criticism is very dangerous, and it has long meant that Mr. Brown relies only on a tiny inner core of loyal Brownites, who no doubt tell him what he wants to hear.
And then there is the vicious briefing against colleagues. Now this has long gone on in Government, but under Mr. Brown and his henchmen it has become particularly vicious and destructive. Recall the demise of Peter Mandelson, before his extraordinary restoration under Mr. Brown. On the first occasion, Mr. Mandelson was brought down because of the revelation of a hidden loan from Geoffrey Robinson MP, a close friend of Mr. Brown.
The revelation, by one of Mr. Brown’s spin-doctors, caused Peter Mandelson to have to resign from the Cabinet. It also prompted the departure from Government of Mr. Brown’s so-called friend, Mr. Robinson. To use a “friend” in such a way, to destroy a potential rival, suggests a degree of brutality which is unusual even in a politician.
And we now know that the current Chancellor, Alistair Darling, once one of Mr. Brown’s closest friends, has received the same brutal treatment from “friends of the Prime Minister”.
This is a standard of behaviour which demeans our politics, and undermines good Government. Mr. Rawnsley’s book is more than political tittle tattle. It sheds light on a style of politics that this country would be better off without.
Ever,
David.