Wednesday, December 30, 2009

John Gummer to Retire

Graham Dines of the East Anglian Daily Times has the exclusive that John Gummer is to retire from Parliament at the next election. By announcing his retirement before the end of the year, he saves his Suffolk Coastal constituency from having a three person shortlist imposed on them. Gummer is almost certain to get a peerage, and is going to concentrate on his environmental work.

Following Michael Lord and Richard Spring's departure, Gummer becomes the third Suffolk Tory MP to quit. Tim Yeo and David Ruffley are hanging in there. So far!

Full story HERE.

21 comments:

Peter said...

Hooray! That's bottoms up to gender equality nonsense!

Tapestry said...

another europhile splattering.

mind you he had to balls to eat a beefburger during the BSE scare.

That was a worth a peerage.

Stephen Glenn said...

So this is the big Tory news promised early doors is it.

It doesn't really warm me up much, though sitting at the depot for 15 minutes this morning while they changed a wiper on the bus in the snow didn't help much either.

Onwards through the whiteness of East Central Scotland.

Sigh said...

With all these old timers leaving the commons it is in danger of becoming a creche after the next election.

Sceptical Steve said...

Tapestry,

Did he actually eat one himself or just feed it to his daughter for the cameras?

As Iain suggests, he's almost certainly destined for a place in the Lords and a possible paid position in an incoming Tory administration. Does this mean he'll still get his full "redundancy" package on leaving Parliament?

FireForce said...

Perhaps this time they will pick a Conservative,,
RE the Burger incident,,,
There was never a connection to the human equal of BSC and it still not proven, remember the warnings that 100,000 would die in the streets?
So it took no balls at all, except that burger's are tasteless!

Anonymous said...

Tapestry - if I remember the event correctly, John Gummer fed his daughter a beefburger to show that there was nothing to fear from BSE!

Is she still alive?

True Belle said...

Well, John Gummer is retiring. How many of us have a PAID job untill we are 70?

I am amazed that he is so ignorant about rural parish matters-

He quotes-'As an MP for a rural constituency, Mr Gummer knows communities need the incentive of sustainable transport to enable them to reduce their dependency on cars.'

“I would like to see every parish clerk with their own laptop so that they can organise transport,” he said. “For instance, lists could be made available which would enable car-sharing to become a reality for work and shopping.”

Almost every parish clerk has a laptop now, it belongs to the parish , very useful for the enormous workload that filters down to VOLUNTEER parish councillors from local government.

John and the many retiring MPs of all parties would do well to wise up on an unseen , untalked about layer of dedicated very active community minded councillors, and the planning/local decisions that have to be discussed / implemented campaigned for/against!

Does he really understand what really goes on at local level? You blooming well bet he doesn't.

And that , Iain , is the trouble with politicians.

media scum said...

Iain, the best way for you to get to his constituency given the weather is by train from Liverpool Street, chaging at Ipsswich for the East Suffolk line

Anonymous said...

A bigger wet is hard to find. Good riddance!

Unsworth said...

Shame, really. I've watched Gummer in the Commons debates giving some truly astoundingly good speeches. I hope he'll continue to do so in the Lords.

Still, he's probably had enough of the stupidity in the Lower House.

judith said...

I'm delighted that yet another old codger is making way for a younger generation.

Bring on a compulsory retirement age for MPs, say I (an old codger myself).

Jabba the Cat said...

Such a nonentity, he will not be missed.

Glyn H said...

The man is an utter creep. Suffolk Coastal is quite a decent sort of a place. Perhaps the local association might care to pick someone with Conservative views and a future; they don’t need another slippery wet toad with a despairing eye to what Britain can no longer achieve due to the Fred Kite/Butskellite/Heathish EU drivel they have so long been a’stuffed with. Yeo is well past his sell by date as well. These jokers must drive voters in hoards to other parties every time they squawk.

JuliaM said...

Who..?

Anonymous said...

Good riddance Selwyn.

Sandy Jamieson said...

This is the man who turned up at the Scottish FCS Conference at Middleton Hall, Gorebridge, Midlothian in January 1971 with Arianna Huffington (then Arriana Stassinopoulos.
Two lefties together.Isn't that sweet?

Glyn H said...

Another thing about the ghastly Gummer is that although he espouses the entire lefty-environmental authoritarian we-know-best and Co2 will eat your babies and man is quiet incapable of doing anything to adapt for himself (except of course if the Government does it for you) he also sits with the nasty authoritarian right of the anti abortion movement. See that Gummer? Count your spoons!

David Lindsay said...

John Gummer may be a Europhile and a Green, but he opposed the Iraq War, used his then column on the Catholic Herald to issue thunderous denunciations of Bush, and is as pro-life and pro-family as anyone can be who was a Minister continuously between 1979 and 1997, the only other such record being that of Ken Clarke. He is the third Suffolk MP to announce his retirement, with a fourth widely rumoured to be on the cusp of doing so before midnight tomorrow, thus guaranteeing local control of the selection process. Or what little remains of such control.

For the high number of Suffolk retirements, plus the goings on in South West Norfolk, provide an opportunity to test out across those two counties candidates, probably billed as Independents this time, who are serious about agriculture, manufacturing, and small business. About national sovereignty, the Union, economic patriotism, local variation, and historical consciousness. And about traditional moral and social values, the whole Biblical and Classical patrimony of the West, close-knit communities, law and order, and civil liberties About academic standards, all forms of art, mass political participation within a constitutional framework (“King and People” against the Whig magnates), and conservation rather than environmentalism.

Candidates who are serious about a realistic foreign policy, the Commonwealth, the constitutional and other ties among the Realms and Territories having the British monarch as Head of State or other such constitutional links, the status of the English language and the rights of its speakers both throughout the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and the rights of British-descended communities throughout the world. And about the longstanding and significant British ties to the Arab world, support for the Slavs in general and for Russia in particular as the gatekeepers of the Biblical-Classical civilisation, and a natural affinity with Confucian culture.

And candidates who are serious about exactly as much central or local government action as is required by these priorities, with a profound suspicion of an American influence and action characteristically defined against them.

The candidates should nlt be hard to find. But what of what may delicately be called the resources? Sir Jeremy Bagge, over to you?

lavrentiy beria said...

A deranged Europhile global warming alarmist bites the dust. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Rush-is-Right said...

Good riddance to an oxygen thief.