In every pub in the country; at every dinner party; at every committee meeting; there’s a grumpy old git in the corner who will miss no opportunity to tell you that ‘Thing’s ain’t what they used to be’ (nor is nostalgia!); ‘’They’re all mad and out of touch in Government’; ‘The Nation is going to H.... in a handcart’, and so on and so forth. They will nearly always have very clear views (to say the least) about Europe, Law and Order, and immigration; and they will be delighted to share them with you. Well, Parliament’s in Recess for a week, which gives me a chance – very refreshingly – to do the same!
The clever people in Government tell me that Andrew Lansley’s NHS Bill is essential if we are to save a free-at-the-point-of delivery health service. We all want patient-centred, GP-led delivery of our health services. We want to see improvements in our hospitals and a reduction in bureaucracy and layers of management. None of us will shed any tears at the disappearance of PCTs and Strategic Health Authorities. (I never quite worked out what they were for anyhow!) But do we really need the bill? Could we not have done all these things by Ministerial dictat without risking an unreasonable backlash? I’m not really opposed to it, and will doubtless vote with the Government on it when we get back. But I am just puzzled about why we really need it at the expense of so much political capital?
Then we have the magnificent juxtaposition of Abu Qatada on the one hand and a judge preventing prayers in a North Devon council on the other. The European Court of Human Rights (you remember them- the ones who told us to give prisoners the vote) tell us that we cannot deport Abu Qatada to his native Jordan for fear of violating his human rights. Well what does Osama Bin Laden’s number two know about human rights? He should be on the next plane out to Jordan, and the ECHR can fly up and bust.
And if we can stick the silly old Devon judge on the same plane it’ll serve him right too. Of course we must allow Christian prayers at the start of Council meetings, and the beginning of the day in Parliament too. No matter what one’s personal convictions, these things are both part of the tradition and of the ceremony attached to the offices of state. We remain a Christian country and can jolly well say prayers if we want to.
And while we’re on our rant, let’s just make sure that we allow our children to be lightly smacked if they need it; let’s get a load of powers back from the EU, and allow Greece to default if it prefers that to the unacceptable – and undemocratic –pain which Brussels seems intent on inflicting on her people; let’s announce a zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration; let’s kick unreasonable and absurd political correctness into the long grass; let’s cut taxes, improve freedoms of all kind, especially freedom of speech; and let us preserve and enhance the traditions and values which have always marked us off as being British. We are a proud and independent nation state, with the greatest of democratic and legal traditions. Let’s make sure we keep it that way.
There - call me a grumpy old git if you want. But at least you know where I stand!
It's very easy at a time like this to slip into a Private Fraser-style despondency. "Ye're all doomed," as he used to say. Yet the reality of everyday living - at least by comparison with so many parts of the world – is that we are really extraordinarily lucky. Economic life – at least in this area, and with a fair degree of touching wood going on – is still remarkably fine. The problems are those associated with prosperity rather than poverty. There are, for example, current planning controversies, with pressure for more and more new houses, business parks and supermarkets. In a sort of way, that's a nice problem to have – symptoms of prosperity rather than depression.
Is money really the root of all evil? We certainly need it –even the most primitive of Papua New Guinea tribes have a form of currencybased, if my memory serves me right, on cowrie shells. But how much of it do wereally need?
The new Parliamentary year has opened with a whirlwind of issues to chew over.
Parliament’s back to work (we MPs, of course, have been working all through the Christmas Recess in our constituencies with a few days off here and there for a bit of R and R) and there is a distinctly New Year’s spring in our step. A rash of new announcements from the Prime Minister, very properly determined to make sure his Ministers hit the New Year ground running.
I have always loved the feeling of the New Year. Festivities past, hangovers cleared, it’s back to ‘Old clothes and Porridge’ as my Father used to describe it. ‘Out with the Old, and In with the New’ - a time to look back on the year that’s gone – with pride, nostalgia, regrets; and a time to make plans for the year ahead – firm plans, vague aspirations, dreams.
