I was back on Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour last night – a nice quite political time to appear, not! If you missed it, you can listen again on the BBC website.
Tag Archives: the westminster hour
Parliament: it's like a badly behaved playground
Sunday night – so did my stint on Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour again. It was reasonably lively tonight. No prizes for guessing the main topic – leadership! Both Brown at PMQs and Ming.
I am so fed up with this Prime Minister’s Question Time (PMQs) rubbish. The House loves it. The media loves it. It is a great spectator sport (blood sport that is) but it is not the way to judge leadership or to hold the PM to account – at least, not if you are a grown up. It’s boys behaving like boys do – and I don’t mean that as a compliment!
Can you imagine anyone in the real world behaving like that? Can you imagine in your workplace that sort of shouting and disorder passing for normal at meetings where the manager answers questions from staff or the directors answer to shareholders? I think not! Yet in the majesty of Parliament – we have the behaviour of the playground. And our political system is meant to rest on this sort of behavour. Not impressed!
Anyway – my verdict on this week was that I thought Brown did his best (following his delivery of his own mortal blow in terms of bad judgement) and Cameron just appeared like an upper class bully boy – famed of public school films.
As for Ming – yes Simon Hughes said what he said. But the way it was portrayed in the media was OTT. It was a statement of the bleeding obvious for any party – you always want to do better. So – pooh to all of that!
One sure way to tell if Cameron means what he says
So – David Cameron’s been all over the media criticising Gordon Brown over general election dates. But whilst he’s happy to criticise Gordon Brown for what he did (and didn’t!) do, he’s dodged one question: would he behave the same way himself if he were the Prime Minister? In other words – is Cameron really sincere in what he is saying, or just going for the cheap points?
Well – his bluff, if that it is, is about to be called! As Ming Campbell announced in a TV interview today, the Liberal Democrats will be tabling a bill calling for fixed-term Parliaments tomorrow (the first day Parliament returns). We will see whether or not a certain Mr D Cameron is at the front of the queue to support the bill, or if he really secretly thinks, “actually, I’d quite like to abuse our electoral process myself too”. Over to you David!
I might also have a bit of fun teasing Ed Vaizey, my new Facebook friend (!), when we appear together on The Westminster Hour this evening on this!
The show is starting up its regular MP panel again, so expect to hear me on a fair few Sunday evenings between now and the end of the year. It’s on Radio 4, 10pm – or if you miss the show you can listen again on their website.
Iraqi interpreters: 9th October meeting
The campaign over asylum for Iraqi interpreters who worked for the British armed forces and who are now in fear of their lives has organised a cross-party meeting in Parliament for 9th October – backed by Amnesty International, The Refugee Council and others.
I’ll be speaking, along with Conservative MP Ed Vaizey (a regular jousting partner on Radio 4’s Westminster Hour!) and a so-far unnamed senior Labour MP. Will be interesting to see who pops their head above the parapet from the Labour side on this!
There is some good lobbying advice over on Dan Hardie‘s blog (though I would very much echo his point that personal letters have MUCH more impact on the receiving MPs than messages which are simple copying and pasting of a standard message), and the Liberal Democrats’ petition is here.
I become a Labour MP
Last of the Westminster Hours before recess. They have all three of us (one MP from each main party) in to chew over the by-election, housing, floods and so on. Ten minutes between three doesn’t go very far – and it was a bit of a gallop. Mark d’Arcy kept referring to me as Lynne Jones (a Labour MP). I didn’t comment at first – and then thought perhaps humour would be best – but as it was Radio 4 I settled for hissing under my breath. It happens. I have been called in the chamber as Julia Goldsworthy before now – and given the disparity in our ages (she’s half my age) am simply grateful!
Ed Vaizey's dress sense
Just got back from the Westminster Hour. Ed Vaizey (Conservative MP), now clearly desperate to put me off my stride on our weekly Sunday tryst, has taken to wearing strange outfits. Tonight’s little number was a bright yellow phosphorescent jacket and shorts. That boy will try anything! So if I seemed distracted … perhaps next time I should bring a camera!
First up was the Opposition Day motion on an Iraq enquiry coming up this week in Parliament. The Scot Nats had a debate asking for an enquiry not that long ago – and whilst we Lib Dems voted for an inquiry – the Government (just) won the vote.
This time however, the interesting issue for me is the timing. With Gordon about to ascend the throne – if I was he and trying to put a bit of distance between myself and TB – I might very well in my first hundred days announce an Iraq inquiry. So let’s spoil it for Gordy and vote for one before he gets the chance to spin his involvement in taking us to war.
In fact, listening to a package before I went on tonight, several of the would be deputy leaders of the Labour party were – at one of their hustings in Oxford that the Westminster Hour’s Carolyn Quinn had been to – wringing their hands in grief over how misled they had been over the war (even though most were in the cabinet) and how wrong the intelligence must have been. Spare me the tears. We, the Lib Dems, were the only party asking the hard questions and we were reviled in the House for our stance. Those Labour MPs can’t get away with saying “we were misled”. The truth is – they not only failed to answer the right questions, they reviled those who did ask questions.
And those Tories are being very cheeky (if not somewhat opportunistic) having a debate for an Iraq inquiry as they were very much cheerleaders for the war (though boy David has flipped and flopped back and forth on the issue – saying he was for it, then saying he agreed with the Lib Dems, then changing his mind again, and now – I presume! – will be voting for an inquiry).
Anyway – we also had a chat about my colleague Tom Brake’s 10 minute rule bill on Freedom of Information – coming up on Tuesday. It really extends the original powers to request material under the Freedom of Information Act so that when the Government tries shenanigans to avoid giving up information the ultimate decision will be in the hands of the Information Tribunal or Commissioner – and not in the hands of ministers.
Interestingly, the Bill would also bring private contractors who work for public bodies into the realm of FoI. Quite right! Now virtually everything is outsourced – the companies to whom previously public sector contracts are now awarded should be subject to proper scrutiny and come under the FoI banner.
The Westminster Hour: 10 June
I’m on The Westminster Hour again on Sunday (Radio 4, 10pm or if you miss the show you can listen again on their website).
What's happening to Alexandra Park School?
Came home after Westminster Hour to ponder how to help Alexandra Park School (APS). Out of the blue, and after they had been told there were no more bills to come, the school has been presented with a bill for over £400,000 for alleged ‘variations’ in the PFI contract going back up to seven years. Similar bills are with several other Haringey PFI schools.
This is on top of an expected increase of £120,000 in the annual PFI charge for the future. As the school is already managing its way out of an agreed deficit budget caused by earlier under-funding this news is not welcome – to say the least!
Haringey Council has been predictably useless, though all the schools signed up to PFI at the Labour Council’s insistence. George Meehan (Labour leader of Haringey Council) thinks he can find a few grand here and there or persuade the Government to cough up a bit more and expects the schools to make staff cuts to find the rest.
I am in receipt of a long and excellent letter from the Chair of Governors at APS, one paragraph of which I quote:
3 The Governing Body has not been notified, or given any detail, about the items that apparently now make up these ‘previous years’ variations,’ currently estimated at £414K for APS, or the rate at which these have been charged. It has no basis to confirm that these current costs relate to instructions by the school to vary agreed building plans and no evidence to support such a claim. In fact the Governing Body and the school had every reason to believe that any PFI variation costs that had been incurred had been fully discharged.
This is really too much for any school to tolerate and I fear this demonstrates only the start of PFI chickens coming home to roost in Haringey. I will try to get a meeting with the Head and Chair of Governors as soon as possible.
Double dose of media on Sunday
I’m doing the paper review with Adam Boulton at 10:15 on Sunday morning and in the evening it’s The Westminster Hour (Radio 4, 10pm or if you miss the show you can listen again on their website).
Margaret Hodge and housing
Westminster Hour tonight – where we discussed Margaret Hodge’s thesis that ‘indigenous’ families should get housing priority over newly arrived people.
I think Margaret’s language is ill-advised – as it is about fairness and transparency in the allocation of housing and not about race. But I wrote a chapter in the book Britain after Blair on this very issue, as in Haringey – where we have a desperate housing need and high immigration – these issues walk into my surgery week after week. What is actually the case is there is a clash – but it’s not racial – anyway not here in Haringey.
It’s a clash between the ‘already here’s’ – and they are of every race and culture – versus the ‘newcomers’. And the system of points for housing that gives priority to number of children, illness, etc often results in what either is or looks like queue jumping. That does cause resentment. What we need is a system that is both fair and transparent. It’s difficult to balance the rights of those who have already been waiting with those newly in need, but it’s a balance we have to strike – and in an open, transparent way so that people can have confidence in the system.
(For the wider contrext, see my speech at the book’s launch).
Lynne Featherstone 