I've got a whole page to myself in The Guardian today. Steady on. They're running an extract of my book The Wit & Wisdom of Tony Banks. I'll link to it later if they put it on their website. Here's a couple of tasters..."I am a former piscatorial participant. I do not wish to sound immodest, but I was known in my day as a piscatorial artist – one of the finest."
June 1997 On fishing
"Do you ever get that scary feeling that there’s more than one Peter Mandelson? What are they really doing in Millbank Tower? They tell us it’s a communications centre. Well, I reckon they’re making Mandelsons up there and getting read to store them in that Millennium Dome in Greenwich. When the clock strikes midnight on December 31 1999, millions of Mandelsons will emerge from the Dome and civilization as we know it will be at an end." Tribune rally, 30 September 1997
If that's the best on offer, I'm afraid there was little wit and even less wisdom on offer. Being a rude iconoclast shouldn't be confused with wit and wisdom.
ReplyDeleteI know we are not supposed to speak ill of the dead,but I always thought Banks a bit of a fool.He was a terrible Sports Minister who seemed only interested in football.
ReplyDeleteWell, he was wrong about Mandelson... fortunately.
ReplyDeleteIain,
ReplyDeleteany truth in the rumour Ive heard that you may be planning to make more use of the frewuent trains from Tunbridge Wells to Orpington? Old Mr. Horam's not going to last foever, as Im sure you're aware.
Orpingtonian
Anonymous, I'd love to know where that one came from! Not true!
ReplyDeleteYou know,I always thought Banks' comments on constituency work were taken out of context. For any of you have done it recently you will know that a great deal of it is about 'issues' such as wheelie bins, blocked drains and planning permission - all of which are really council issues. However the Lib Dems have lowered the game considerably in their quest to be electable and as a result, many MPs are now glorified local councillors.
ReplyDeleteGod knows there are enough urgent issues that MPs must take up on behalf of their constituents such as those affected by the tax credit debacle, the CSA debacle, being unable to secure a bed at the local hospital, closure of local hospitals, not to mention the 'universal' issues such as terrorism, crime, anti social bheaviour,education, environment etc.
There are also the 'social services' aspect - I remember spending hours in dealing with a local authority to obtain a ride for a vulnerable old lady in their care, to a relative's funeral. This is something they should have done off their own backs but it took an MP's intervention to do it.
Mind you, it is not the MPs who do this but the constituency caseworker. Still, I take his point about how the role of MPs have changed since he first became one - it has and I'm afraid that old school MPs are still frankly puzzled by it.