Sir Ralph Howell: A One Off

The death of Sir Ralph Howell has robbed Norfolk of one of its more colourful political characters. During my time as Conservative candidate in North Norfolk in the runup to the 2005 election Ralph was unfailingly courteous and helpful to me. He was anxious not to interfere but would occasionally phone me with a piece of wise advice. Everyone in politics needs a wise old owl figure to keep them on the straight and narrow, and Ralph filled the role perfectly.

After he stood down in 1997 he was careful to leave the stage to his successor David Prior, but when I made clear I would welcome his involvement he seemed to relish a brief return to the political hustings. He said he would like to come out canvassing for a morning and it became clear to me just how revered he was by the North Norfolk electorate. Lady Margaret would join him and watch him enjoy himself from the car, for by that time she was very ill. It obviously gave her great pleasure to see her husband back in the political ring. Ralph enjoyed it so much that he came out several times during the campaign. Many candidates hate it when their predecessors reappear. I didn’t. I knew how popular Ralph was and valued his wise counsel.

It is true to say that they don’t make ‘em like Ralph Howell anymore. It’s rare for a country farmer to go into national politics, and those that do often find it not to their liking. They struggle to make an impact. Ralph Howell never achieved ministerial office, but he gained tremendous respect for his tenacity in defending the interests of North Norfolk. His ideas on ‘Workfare’, where peoples may only receive benefits if they work for them, were twenty years ahead of their time. Ralph would be amused that some of his ideas were taken up by a Labour government, rather than a Conservative one.

I'll be attending Ralph's funeral at Dereham Church on Monday. It's a certainty that it will be packed.

* This article originally appeared in my EDP column on Saturday. Photo credit to EDP.

The Daley Dozen: Monday

1. Guido reviews Robert Colvile's CPS pamphlet on politics and the internet. As does Douglas Carswell MP.

2. Dizzy reckons Darling's announcement is a Northern Crock of ...

3. Nadine doesn't like being too close to Gordon Brown. He frightens her kids.

4. Red Box reckons Branson might feel life biffing up Vince Cable.

5. Daily Referendum agrees with me on a Vote of Confidence in el Gordo.

6. Party Political Animal reckons politicians should examine their own behaviour before they lecture others.

7. Labour Home reports that Chris Leslie is pulling out of the race to be Prezza's successor.

8. Brassneck on Ian Paisley Jnr's resignation.

9. Edward Leigh questions a commitment to Labour's spending plans.

10. Dizzy asks if something is rotten in the state of Conservative Future.

11. Vicky Ford wants a referendum. Don't we all.

12. Donal Blaney informs us that the Yanks just don't give a damn what we think.

Fayed: The Most Odious Man in Britain

I'm sitting on the train back to RTW (that's Royal Tunbridge Wells for the uninitiated!), feeling disgusted. If you have read the Evening Standard's report of the Phoney Pharoah's so-called 'evidence' to the Diana coroner's hearing, you will understand why. If there is a more odious, despicable man than Mohammed Fayed in public life in this country then I have yet to come across him. He wouldn't know the meaning of the word honesty if it was explained to him by Mother Teresa herself. The man has the moral standing of a skunk.

He reckons that Tony Blair personally ordered the assassination of Princess Diana. He believes the following list of people were involved in the conspiracy. Brace yourselves...

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, Robin Cook, Diana's sister Sarah, the two doctors at the Paris hospital who treated her, Paul Burrell, Sir Paul Condon, Sir John Stevens and Diana' best friend Rosa Monckton.

Most laughably of all, he now reckons his drunk employee Henri Paul had also been paid by Mi6. This rather ignores the fact that he was killed too.

And this is the man who convinced a jury that Neil Hamilton was guilty!

The fact is that there are two people to blame for that crash - and both their surnames are Fayed - Dodi for allowing Henri Paul to drive the car and his father for employing a drunk driver in the first place.

Fayed concocts these ridiculous conspiracy theories in order to mask the guilt he ought to be feeling himself.

Do feel free to join me in my longstanding boycott of the Phoney Pharoah's little grocery store.

How the World is Viewing Northern Rock

From the way Labour spinners have gone into overdrive you'd think the nationalisation of Northern Rock was nothing more than "a little local difficulty". The world's media seem to have formed a different view...

“The Northern Rock debacle has become a major headache for Brown and his Chancellor Alistair Darling, tarnishing the government's popularity and denting the prime minister's reputation for being a guardian of financial stability.
Reuters

“The move to temporarily nationalize the bank could be a blow to Britain's efforts to establish London as the global capital of finance and politically costly to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has staked his career on his stewardship of Britain's economic boom.
LA Times, USA

“The four month old crisis of the bank has seriously damaged the reputation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The temporary nationalisation of Northern Rock continues the fiasco for the British Government.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Germany

“With a national election due by May 2010 at the latest, the debacle is a lingering headache for Brown and Darling and has tarnished both the Labour government's popularity and the prime minister's reputation as a guardian of financial stability.
CNBC, USA

“It was the first nationalization of a bank in more than a decade and a huge blow for the administration of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
New York Times, USA

“The government faced a barrage of criticism on Monday over its decision to nationalise the Northern Rock bank, amid questions over its reputation for economic competence.
Agence France Presse (AFP), France

Is Northern Rock Ron Worth £90k a Month?

Spot the conflict...

"Boards need to ask themselves, 'Are we behaving reasonably? … If you're leaning over the fence talking to your next-door-neighbour, can you justify what you've done?... "There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving somebody a reward but at the present time when people are going through these difficulties that's something the boards have got to look at,"
Alistair Darling, Daily Telegraph, 16 February 2008

The FT reports today that Ron Sandler is going to be paid £90K PER MONTH - a salary agreed by Alistair Darling.

Time will tell whether he's worth it.

Boris: Brown Lied at Press Conference

Boris Johnson is not a happy bunny. At his press conference this morning, Gordon Brown asserted that under a Johnson mayoralty police numbers would be cut. Boris has just issued this rather forthright statement...

The first time Gordon Brown said this he misled the House and I demanded an
apology. Now he uses his Northern Rock press conference to spread the same
lies. When I am Mayor of London, police numbers will increase in their
hundreds in the Capital, as I explained in my 36 page crime manifesto. For the
Prime Minister to say different is just plain rubbish. Mired in
maladministration, Labour are just trying to deflect attention away from
themselves at a time when the public are crying out for change. I offer that
change in London - clearly the Prime Minister doesn't like it one bit.

Cameron Should Table a No Confidence Vote

Tabling a vote of no confidence in a government is something an Opposition should do very sparingly. But if now is not that time, I don't know what is. As far as I can recall, David Cameron hasn't tabled one in his two years as leader. It wouild give him the chance to explain why this government doesn't deserve to remain in office, and it would get a lot of media coverage - something rare for any parliamentary debate. He would lose the vote, of course - but so what? Holding the government to account is what an Opposition is supposed to do - and there is no better way of doing that at the moment than tabling a vote of no confidence.

Why Northern Rock is Worse Than Black Wednesday

Labour Ministers are understandably keen to avoid comparisons between the Northern Rock fiasco and Black Wednesday. Yes, there is a very crucial difference. Trying to keep Sterling within the ERM cost the taxpayer £10 billion at the most, whereas the public liability for Northern Rock is eleven times as much. There is another crucial difference too. Black (or White, depending on your viewpoint) Wednesday and leaving the ERM laid the foundation for the strong economic performance for the rest of the decade and beyond. Sure, I'm the short term Britain"s reputation was damaged, but nothing like it has been over the last few months during the Chancellor's dithering over Northern Rock. Today in the Commons he will have his day of reckoning - aided and abetted by the Liberal Democrats.

Nick Robinson adds to the Chancellor's discomfort HERE.
Guido says Seventies style socialism is back.

Why The Speaker Will Get Away With It (Again)

The Speaker of the House of Commons has cost the taxpayer more than £2500 by using airmiles to pau for flights for his family. These airmiles were clocked by him and should have been used to pay for his own future flights. Could anyone please explain how this is different to the Conway case? One difference is that The Speaker is unlikely to be referred to the Standards and Privileges Committee? Why? Because only MPs can refer cases to the Committee, and turkeys don't generally vote for Christmas. Norman Baker, on the other hand...

Who Did You Say You Were Again?

Prescott warns critics of China, screams the BBC News headline. I am somewhat bewildered. Why on earth should we care what the old goat thinks (or warns) any longer? Some of us never did in the first place. All of which reminds me of an old joke...

Knock Knock

Who's there?

John

John who?

That's politics...

The Daley Dozen: Sunday

1. Conor Ryan has a guilty little secret. He drinks mineral water. Whisper it.

2. Norfolk Blogger is getting Eurosceptier by the day. Well done.

3. Rupa Huq rejoices over the death of Respect. Rather than respect. If you see what I mean.

4. Burning our Money's Wat Tyler has dinner with Dr Crippen. No, really.

5. Tartan Hero says the SNP should take heart from Kosovan independence.

6. Rosa Prince reckons The Speaker's coffin has had its final nail banged in.

7. Rupert Read tells us why he is a Green. Too much info?

8. Party Political Animal ruminates over councillors' pay.

9. John Redwood's Top Ten Reasons Northern Rock Should Not Have Been Nationalised.
10. Spin Blog on why Big Brother Government doesn't work.

11. Cranmer has some stark warnings over Kosovan independence.

12. Tracey Crouch goes aaaaaaaaaaargh! And not for the first time.

All Change in the World of Political Magazines

Continuing my trawl through the Sunday papers I have found an excellent piece by The Independent on Sunday's Joy Lo Dico on John Kampfner's exit from the New Statesman, which I blogged about last week HERE. She also charts the demise of The Business, which closed last week. It will restart in a new guise as a monthly magazine, The Spectator Business - no doubt designed to build on the Spectator brand. Reading Joy's piece, it wouldn't surprise me at all if the New Statesman changed hands soon.

So after reading that article, you'd think I'd be mad to want to start up a new political magazine, wouldn't you?


Luckily TOTAL POLITICS has a very different business model to the New Statesman or The Business, but I am under no illusion about how many magazines fail in their first year. Restaurants are probably the only businesses which have a higher first year failure rate.

I'll be telling you more about TOTAL POLITICS next week, but suffice to say it is definitely happening and we have just put up a holding page website, which you can sign up to for email alerts or ask any questions. The magazine is meant to be a kind of trade magazine for the political sector - no editorial slant, aimed at politicians and those hooked on political process. It will be light, accessible and colourful - no articles on PFI by John Hutton or anything similar! It will appear monthly (from June) with a cover price of around £3.50 (annual subscription £37.80) and will be sent free to all elected politicians in the country down to district councillor level. So if you work for an organisation that has a message for every politician in the country, advertising in TOTAL POLITICS will be the best way to get to them. We'll also have a super new website, which will have all sorts of things to interest a political audience. We've already recruited six staff and have a couple more to find.

Anyway, that's just a taster. More next week.

No Speaka Di Lingo? No Worries...

I only just caught the end of a piece on the BBC News. Did I really hear right that Sir Ron Dearing (a professional writer of idiotic reports) has seriously suggested that oral exams in languages should cease as pupils find them "too stressful"? It seems I DID. Whatever next. Does it not occur to him that language is first and foremost a form of spoken, rather than written communication? Of course an oral exam is stressful. All exams are stressful to one degree or another. Or is that the real agenda - to abolish exams? I'm sure there are plenty of trendy lefty educationalists who would be prepared to argue for that to happen.

PS I write as someone whose original career choice was to be a language teacher, and was trained as such.

Darling Humiliated by Northern Rock Nationalisation

Even the most devout Labour spinner cannot disagree that the nationalisation of Northern Rock represents a total humiliation for the government. Alistair Darling's dithering and uncertainty have made even Gordon Brown look like a man of decision. I do not trust the government to run a whelk stall, let alone a bank. And they will be doing it with our - my (!) - money. God knows what hit the taxpayer will take now. And it will get even murkier when the government is sued for mismanaging the whole process, as it surely will be. The whole tri-partite regulatory system, which the Tories warned Gordon Brown would fail when he set it up, has been a disaster. And we're the ones picking up the bill. Plus ca change...

Has Digital Radio had Its Day?

Juliette Garside has a good piece in the business pages of the Sunday Telegraph on the future of digital radio. She reckons DAB has reached is Freeview moment and the launch of Channel 4 Radio will determine whether it's set to succeed in the long term. The problem seems to be the expense of the licences. When they were awarded they were given in tandem with FM licences. If you took a DAB licence you were given a 12 months extension to your FM licence at the same time.

When Oneword Radio went out of business at the end of last year I tentatively looked at how much it would cost to set up a current affairs, talk based, DAB Radio station and the practicality of taking over the Oneword licence. The last bit might have been relatively straightforward - OFCOM were indeed optimistic and helpful. Yet the cost of it rendered the project strangled at birth. The licence cost around £1 million a year. Add on equipment and staff costs and it's easy to see why DAB Radio is a difficult commercial project. There's little prospect of recouping the cost through advertising. As the Telegraph piece makes clear, advertisers are just not keen on DAB.

The launch of Channel 4 Radio has now been delayed on two occasions, I believe. I hope they don't get cold feet. They have invested a lot in the project and it would be a great shame, particularly viewed through the prism of listener choice, it it foundered now.

POINT OF INFO: Juliette Garside asserts: "DAB is compatible with mobile phones and good for portable radio sets and - in theory -cars, although no carmakers install it yet." Not true. I have it in my car.

Nightmare Scenario for the Democrats

Democratic Party managers are already staring into the abyss. Many doresee a scenario in which the Convention in Denver at the end of August is deadlocked. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will have enough delegates to be nominated (currently it's 1300 ro 1220 in Obama's favour). The votes of the 796 Superdelegates then become crucial. It is said that these delegates are overhwelmingly white men. Can you imagine the consequences if they voted solidly for Hillary Clinton? Chicago 1968 might look like a vicar's tea party. As Nancy Pelosi has said: "It would be a problem for the party if the verdict would be something different than the public has decided." That may turn out to be the understatement of the year.

Still, it's OK, according to the very well informed Sarah Baxter in the Sunday Times, Al Gore has already offered to broker a deal ... in return for what, we may ask?

UPDATE: Great quote from the same paper: "Hillary is so divisive that McCain could beat her with Britney Spears as his running mate."

The Daley Dozen: Saturday

1. Guido takes Newsnight to task for another idiotic error.

2. EU Referendum analyses why more Poles are going home than are coming here.

3. Norfolk Blogger has a right old go at Harriet Harmthem.

4. Donal Blaney asks why the Liberals aren't liberal anymore.

5. Po-faced James Lyons seems to have lost his sense of humour since he joined the Mirror.

6. Devil's Kitchen says we're going to have to cough up £3k each pa for public sector pensions.

7. Ellee Seymour evaluates the pros and cons of Starbucks.

8. Quaequam has some advice for David Heath. And the second word is off.

9. Cranmer discusses the Madness of Prince Charles. And he's not the first.

10. Athletes will be allowed to blog from Beijing, according to the IOC. That's if the Chinese play ball.

11. Mr Eugenides on the freedom to enjoy deep fried Mars bars - and fags.

12. Waendel Journal asks if anyone can beat the idiocy of the Daily Mirror. Rhetorical.

By the way, I'm doing the paper review on News 24 tonight at 11.45pm.

The Most Beautiful Bloggers? Shurely Shome Mishtake...

Oh dear. I knew I would regret the Most Fanciable Journalists post and the Iain Martin follow-up. NHS Blog Doctor has posted THIS response to Iain Martin and has now launched his own Most Beautiful Blogger competition. Oh dear, indeed.

Julien's Less Than Grand Stealth Tax

I've heard of some crackpot goverment initiatives in my time, but this idea for a Smoker's Licence takes some beating. Would it deter a single person from smoking? No. Would it be a bureaucratic nightmare? Yes. Would it increase the power of the State? Yes. Would it raise £150 million? Yes. Ah, I'm beginning to understand now... It's the brainchild of the Chairman of Health England, someone called Julien Le Grand. Only someone with a name like that could come up with such utter b*******. He describes the idea as "libertarian paternalism". ROFL. Nanny Statism gone mad, more like it. I need a lie down.

The Daley Dozen: Friday

1. Tory Radio wonders how a gambler can sue a bookmaker for making him addicted to gambling.

2. City Unslicker predicts an Enron type domino effect for the economy. Slitting wrists time...

3. Crossed Pond on five hostages in Colombia

4. Conor Burns on how the MoD failed his friend Captain James Phillipson.
5. Dizzy smells Peter Hain's smoking gun.

6. Party Political Animal looks into a statement of the bleedin' obvious.

7. Norfolk Blogger wins 'anorak of the week' for his 'chiming clock'* observation in Ashes to Ashes.

8. Shane Greer pays tribute to the Taxpayers' Alliance.

9. Sam Coates on Red Box tells you everything you needed to know about the mayoral debate on the environment ... and much you didn't.

10. Westmonster on four things Barack needs to do in February.

11. Paul Linford on the 'quintessence' of Englishness.

12. Cassilis on HEFFER CONFRONTED ... by Joan Bakewell. Come again? have I been sacked?

* There was a chiming clock in Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR. The only trouble was, there were no chiming clocks in Ancient Rome.