The Telegraph's lead story today is suggesting that Labour is trying to stitch up a typical 'smoke filled room' deal in which the Speaker would agree to stand down at the next election and in return his son Paul would be his guaranteed successor in his Glasgow North East seat. He is currently an MSP for the area.
No doubt the story will be officially denied, and dismissed as ill informed speculation. My practice in these cases is to look at who has written the story and judge it from there. In this case, the story is written by James Kirkup, who was political editor of the Scotsman before he joined the Telegraph. His contacts in the world of Scottish politics are excellent.
So, what do we think of this unique form of nepotism? Or is it that unique? Nepotism exists in all parties. It ought not to, but it does.
45 comments:
is this not called a Boothroyd?
The worse are the Windsor family - they always seem to give each other jobs.
I cannot get too wound up by this type of thing (as much as I feel I ought to). As you say it happens in every political party but also in every walk of life. It is no different to helping your mates out otherwise knows as cronyism.
Both main parties are experts in the field.
Even a cursory review of the regime benches in the Commons, not to mention the House Of Lords will reveal a substantial cohort of offspring, nieces, nephews, grandsons/daughters etc. that have benefited from labour's hereditary principle in one form or another. Whilst you're at it, take a look at the number of offspring of union fat cats that have enjoyed an Oxbridge education.
i know that some elements in our modern 'fractured' society fail to recognise that those in authority have rights that we proles do not enjoy butit is possible that the electors in glasgow east may not go along with this and vote in another candidate
It's happened elsewhere.... North Korea, Haiti, Syria, Iraq......
So why not in the Peoples Democratic Proliteriat of Glasgow North East?
Pitt, Churchill, Jenkin, Hurd, Maude, Callaghan (Jay), Benn, Kennedy, Bush, Clinton. There's hope here ... Clinton #2 lost!
Would this be anything like the long line of Churchills, Soames, etc, we have witnessed lazing on the comfortable backbenches of the Tory Gentleman's Club sometimes known as the House of Commons?
It's obviously not something we should encourage amongst the workers though.
Davidc - don't bank on it. I wish I had a tenner for every time someone said the local voters are going to wisely reject the manipulated candidates of party HQs, only to see that candidate win by a wide margin. People vote for parties almost all the time, not individuals. This must be true, because how else do we explain the existence of Geoffrey William Hoon?
Fairly standard for New Labour. Stitch up rather than principle.
Is this not known as doing a Dunwoody? or an Arbuthnot? or an Armstrong? or an Atkines? or a Benn? or a Benyon? or a Grieve? or a Hogg? or a Hoyle? or a Hurd? or a Jenkin? or a Maude? or a Mitchell? or a McCartney? or a Soames? or a Wiggin?
How many Conservative 'sons' have inherited their 'fathers' seats??
Labour have quite literally tried this once , in Crewe, with disastrous results.
One wonders ...
In this latter case this was presumably down to Browns innate grasp of strategy.
Now he is so weak as to be relying on Manderlson and Campbell - just how long can the 'three in a bed' situation last?
Does the Speaker need to be "bribed" in this way in order for him to do the honorable thing?
First he blames everybody else for his mismanagement of the Green, then the silver spoon is passed to his son.
Next he will get a "haringay" payoff or will it be taxis for life paid for by the taxpayer !!
This is not, as many commenters seem to have misunderstood, the case of a child following in his famous father's footsteps. Far from it: that would be logical and by no means unworthy.
This (if true) is nothing more than a repulsively squalid way of bribing a incompetent man to leave office in return for a family favour.
An honourable man in an honourable profession would not require this, he would just quietly leave, but heck, why raise irrelevant concepts such as honour when discussing MPs?
The large sparkling turd on this cake of sleaze comes from the tradition of a retiring Speaker standing down as an MP. This would force a By-election, which Labour fear they might lose. Therefore the self-interest of a political party ensures that a ridiculous man, widely acknowledge as incapable of doing his job, remains in office until the GE.
It's hard not to see the Commons as a steaming pile of corrupt dung and MPs the disgusting beetles infesting it.
(aspirant North Norfolk MPs excepted)
Glasgow, Labour, Nepotism, These are the three words the socialists love. How else could they manage to control poorest and weakest people in Scotland.
Colin: "Whilst you're at it, take a look at the number of offspring of union fat cats that have enjoyed an Oxbridge education"
a) how many is that then, do you know?
b) how does that relate to nepotism?
c) are the children of union officials not allowed to apply to Oxbridge?
'Or is it that unique?'
Iain. I'm surprised at you. It is either unique, or it is not.
I'm rather sorry that Stanley Johnson didn't get Henley - perhaps it doesn't work this way round, though.
There's evidence that very many of us will end up, on our own merits, doing what our parents did; law, medicine, the army, politics, journalism, private enterprise or public service. Or feckless chav.
But only Michael Martin would have the nerve to make a deal out of it, and only Labour to consider it.
As a member of the constituency in question, I can tell that David succeeding his father at Westminster isn't a new prediction. In fact it's been the expectation for a long time.
It's certainly not a situation I am happy with. As far as I've seen, David Martin has shown himself to be a mere sheep who follows the party line without stopping to even think of a decent argument to do so.
His father was useless to me as an MP, even before he was made speaker, and his son will continue the tradition. At least in the Scottish Parliament I have list MSPs who are polite enough to respond to letters and intelligent enough to make up their own minds about legislation.
It works for me.. but then so does Simony
This isn't the big story today.
The big story is that Boris Johnson's personal appointment to the Board of London 2012, co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, David Ross, has been forced to resign from Carphone for misusing his shares to obtain personal loans without the company making an official announcement that this had been done.
Oh dear, what with this and the news that Boris is facing an investigation over his role in the Damian Green saga, how long can Boris' days as mayor last? He always seemed an unlikely candidate and nobody initially thought he would win. Now, all the manipulation, money and media games that went into that victory appear to be unravelling.
Boothroydism in the Labour Party and elsewhere..
Peter Mandelsohn is the grandson of Herbert Morrison, Loony Benn and son…we know , Baroness Jay is the daughter in law of Jim Callaghan , Frances Maude and Nicholas Soames and David Heathcote Armory are their father`s sons, but this is the misleading tip of the iceberg. To get a better idea have a look at the 1997 intake . Nineteen of these were the children of MP`s but turn the magnification up on the famous Blair-babes ,and you can see the typically close familial links common to the political class especially Labour
The Blair babes
Hilary Armstrong represented the same seat in Durham as her father had held before her. The Potteries MP Llin Golding sat for a seat formerly held by her husband . Her father had been a Labour MP for 30 years . Irene Adams sat for Paisley South, another seat held by her husband. Charlotte Atkins , the Staffordshire MP was the daughter of 1960s firebrand Ron Atkins. Estelle Morris was an MP`s daughter . Dari Taylor of Stockton South had grown up the daughter of the MP for Burnley. Gwyneth Dunwoody , then on her first quarter century, had been married to an MP, and her father Morgan Phillips, was General Secretary of the Labour Party.
Fiona Mac Taggart of Slough had grandparents in parliament .Ann keen , in Brentford, had a husband Alan, who represented the next door constituency of Feltham, and a sister , Sylvia Heal, who was the MP for Halesowen. Bridget Prentice , ( Lewisham East), had been married o the MP for Pendle. Julie Morgan( Cardiff North) was married to the MP for Cardiff West. Angela Eagle , ( Wallasey ) had a twin sister Maria sitting for one of the Liverpool seats ..and so on and on it goes ….
Conservatives are somewhat more meritocratic but the Liberal Party do best of new blood .Incidentally Harriet Harmanisation is a near relative of Lord Longford and guess what, my Auntie looked us up and we are related to him as well. Harriet Harman is therefore related to me …….. AAAAAAAAAARGH
Speaker Martin should go! He is completly unfit for the office of speaker, he has been offered a dignified way out but failed to take it! He should be forced out!
Despairing Liberal
Please take a look at my Blog, I am sure you will love it! LoL
He should have to resign his Edinburgh seat before standing for Westminster. No safety nets to be available in the real world.
By the way Iain, is Salmond still drawing two salaries and double expenses. Not a very good example in these difficult times for the "hard working families".
HarryF
Martin Day, I couldn't help noticing that your blog appears to have zero followers. Does that perhaps tell you something?
The tragedy is that the most of the people of Glasgow think Labour help them.
They do everything but help. When Iain Duncan Smith came to Glasgow and gave a decent report on how Glasgow can be improved, the then sitting MP David Marshall in Glasgow East said he was condescending and insulting.
IDS was not condescending or insulting. In fact, he couldn't speak highly enough of people who were friendly to him and were trying to improve their own and their neighbour lives.
The icing on the cake was when David Marshall got a chance to ask a question at PM's questions. You might suspect he wanted to discuss education, housing, drugs or poverty.
No, he decided he should ask whether the ex-Celtic manager Jock Stein should get a posthumous Knighthood when he knew no-one can get such a thing.
Ho-Hum.
I suppose in future we will have sons taking over blogs. "One day son, all this mindless pap and confusion will be yours". But not (presumably) in Iain's case.
So thats it then - son becomes MP and Dad trots off to the Lords. Good system
pickle @11.43
'As far as I've seen, David Martin has shown himself to be a mere sheep who follows the party line without stopping to even think of a decent argument to do so'.
sounds like an ideal candidate who would fit in well
Fatty Prescott tried to impose his son David on Hull East but thankfully he failed.
And then there's Jack Straw whose son, previously caught selling drugs in a south london pub, was sneaked into a cushy job at the Foreign Office while Straw was foreign secretary.
Look we are talking Glasgow City Labour Party here. Within that toxic cesspit, nepotism seems to be part of the rules.
I accept that there are Tory MPs who father's seat as MPs but I cannot think of the son "inheriting" the parental seat since 1959 when Southend West adopted Paul Channon to replace Henry.
Now inheriting the father's seat in the Labour Party has certainly happened twice since then. Greville Janner inherited father Barnet's Leicester seat in 1970 while Hilary Armstrong inherited North West Durham after her father, Ernest retired.
Smells like Cyldeside socialism, so its probably true.
A fulfilment of the prophecy 'and the meek shall inherit'
It didn't work out well for Luke Skywalker either.
Meanwhile Paul Martin states he no interest in becoming an MP. Another torygraph scoop bites the dust.
A commenter on Political Betting sums this up :
"if the Speaker is angling for favours from the Labour party, it’s more difficult for him to be impartial.
by Robert of Sheffield December 8th, 2008 at 8:10 am".
To the Troll @11:30
I personally know of 6.
My point being that these fat cat union dinosaurs typically rail against excellence in education at all levels. But, like the typical regime henchman, they have no qualms about availing themselves of the quality they seek to deny the rest of us.
It might backfire horribly like Crewe and Nantwich did.
If I recall, the Member for St. Helena Central died shortly after losing office but Napoleon III was returned in an uncontested by-election for Paris Central a few years later.
A step-son retread maybe, but still keeping it in the family.
Colin - exactly which union leaders have railed against Oxbridge?
What did happen was that NuLab used a few arguments over places for bright working class kids in an unconsidered way to score a few votes. On close inspection, those cases trumpeted by NuLab hypocrites as being examples of class privlege turned out to be a croc.
All of which leaves the truly entrenched privileges of Oxbridge (and there having had a father, grandfather, etc in a college really does score!!) effectively untouched.
Another round to the Dons!
Wasn't Napoleon III a nephew?
Jimmy, he was the son of Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoléon I, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Napoléon I's wife Josephine de Beauharnais by her first marriage.
Which probably makes him just about every sort of relative all at the same time. However I will concede your accuracy on this particular thread!
I must, however, get on with some work, so our (personally for me) entertaining sparring must be more subdued for a bit.
It is highly likely that Paul Martin would be selected in Glasgow North East anyway, regardless of any 'promise' made.
I do not know if the appalling Mr Newman of Lewes (formerly Islington) is referring to me or to the former Speaker but in either case he is way off. My own father is a Liberal Democrat.
This lad as a local MSP would surely have a fair chance anyway? But it is up to the LP members in the constituency. And, while there is a chance they will pick this Paul, there is also a chance they will not do so.
The NEC would have to decide to waive rules on an AWS, if MM's decision to not return were not an emergency last minute choice. I'm not sure the NEC could be relied on to do that.
And if such a thing were to be a last-minute choice that would not provide a means to deal with the situation in the short-medium term.
I expect James has been more careful in language and sense than Iain?
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