Monday, December 11, 2023

SIX SOLID CITIZENS


     Politicians are deeply unpopular these days throughout the democratic world, as our economies struggle and the pace of change demands rapid action - not easy for most systems. Britain is much affected by this malaise and admittedly the political talent-pool is not deep; but I here pay tribute to 6 politicians who are by no means universally cherished, but who are “consequential” in that they have got things done and have influenced the lives of many of their fellow-citizens in a positive fashion. My selection is fairly wide and I have tried to suppress my personal prejudices!

1.     Michael Gove

 



 

I do not cite Michael Gove, now 56, just because he is Scottish or that, like me, he was born into the purple of the Aberdeen commercial classes. He is the adopted son of an ultimately struggling Aberdeen fish processor, but he has the Protestant work-ethic to a marked degree and has marked out a varied and fruitful political career. He won a scholarship at Robert Gordon’s College and then read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Moving from Labour to the Conservatives, he developed his eloquence at the Oxford Union and succeeded Boris Johnson as President of the Union in 1988, a pinnacle of undergraduate achievement.

Rejected when applying for a job at Conservative Central Office, he worked in Fleet Street rather obscurely before joining the Aberdeen Press and Journal (275 years old now) honing his skills before finding his niche as a leader writer and later columnist at The Times. He married the well-known journalist Sarah Vine in 2001, divorcing in 2022.

Entering Parliament in 2005, he quickly climbed the greasy pole, becoming a friend of David Cameron and his set, shadowing Ed Balls. He has had a succession of Cabinet offices, Education Secretary, Chief Whip, Justice Secretary, Environment Secretary, Duchy of Lancaster and Cabinet Office, and finally Levelling-Up Secretary. The portfolios hardly matter as Gove developed into a kind of Pooh-Bah without the arrogance, the Tory fixer who would get things done. In education he broke the dead hand of local authorities over state schools, by introducing independent Academies and other free schools and he drastically revised syllabuses, concentrating on traditional basics, much to the ire of the educational establishment. At the tricky Levelling-Up ministry he has subsidised local businesses and infrastructure projects, created several free-ports and even pushed the ENO to move to Manchester.

Yet to me, Gove’s finest hour was as one of the 3 Brexit leaders with Johnson and Farage. Gove and Dominic Cummings led a brilliant campaign in 2016 outwitting Cameron and the hopelessly Eurofanatic Establishment – who can forget Sunderland declaring for Brexit and the die being cast? Moreover, he snookered Boris’ candidature for Tory Leader – had he penetrated Boris’ bluster and realised he did not have the requisite prime ministerial qualities?   



Uneasy political allies, but winners all. Gove, Johnson and Farage.

I rate Gove very highly and pay tribute to his talent and integrity in the rough old game of politics.

2.     Sir Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer is not really my cup of tea, but he is likely to be our next Prime Minister and he has some real merits. He is 61 years old and was born into a Labour-supporting family (father a toolmaker, mother a nurse) in Surrey; indeed, he was named Keir after Labour Party founder Keir Hardie – what a suffocating legacy for a child!



                            Keir Starmer

After education at one-time state school Reigate Grammar, now independent and fee-paying, he read law at Leeds and took a postgraduate DCL at St Edmund Hall, Oxford (my college 60 years ago, so he must be a good egg!). Admitted to the Bar, he specialised in criminal and human rights cases and rose in the legal profession being appointed Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008-13, for which he was awarded his knighthood. In 2013 he was wooed inevitably by the Labour Party, then under the leadership of uninspiring Ed Miliband and soon to be defeated in the polls by a resurgent David Cameron. Starmer became the MP for the safe Labour seat Holborn St Pancras in the general election of 2015.

The advent of the Jeremy Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party in 2016 ushered in a violent move to the hard Left (Corbyn a lifetime admirer of the former East Germany!), Wokery unbounded, shameful obeisance to the BLM agitation and all the insanity of utopian crypto-communism. Corbyn even got a boost from Theresa May’s misjudged snap general election in 2017. Starmer dutifully fulfilled Shadow roles, whatever he privately thought of Corbyn.

Corbyn’s Labour Party was duly thrashed by Boris Johnson’s Tories in December 2019 and Corbyn resigned as Leader. Starmer comfortably won the ensuing leadership election 2020. There was a purge of Corbynites and their dogmas, who had so damaged the Party and Starmer began to rebuild Labour into an electable entity. Starmer is a sensible barrister, without much political guile, who is successfully re-aligning Labour policy and rhetoric in a centrist direction. The inept weakness of the Tories under Johnson, Truss and Sunak has eased his path.

But Starmer has spoken out strongly against Labour’s bouts of anti-Semitism (his 2 children are being brought up in the Jewish religion by his wife Victoria), against tax and spend fantasies, against uncontrolled immigration, against Russia’s war in Ukraine and against the barbarity of Hamas. He even broke a Party hoodoo with some kind words for the blessed Margaret Thatcher’s attitudes. A promising omen for the future! He has done the country a service by bringing Labour back into the mainstream.

I will be much briefer with the remain 4 solid citizens!

3.     Suella Braverman


 

Suella has had a meteoric career, serving as Home Secretary 2022-23, after being Boris’ Attorney-General. She has an exotic background with a Hindu Indian father and a Mauritian Christian mother, who was a Tory councillor. She is married to an Israeli-born Jew and is herself a Buddhist, brought up in Wembley. Her rise to high office underlines the “inclusiveness” of our nation.

Suella is no respecter of convention and expresses her views with refreshing clarity and candour. She has challenged the pro-immigration lobby, favours deportation of boat people to Rwanda, supports pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights (“all that Woke nonsense”), believes legal immigration is far too high and, no doubt like her erstwhile colleague Robert Jenrick, considers the Sunak government weak and indecisive on this vital issue.

She is a doughty and admirable right-wing Tory.

4.     Rachel Reeves



                                                                       Rachel Reeves

Starmer had the good sense to promote clever Rachel Reeves to Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. Now resident in Leeds (Bramley), Rachel is the daughter of two teachers and her sister Ellie is also an MP. Born in Lewisham, Rachel read PPE at New College, Oxford and after a spell at HBOS, became an economist at the Bank of England.

She has identified herself as a believer in “securonomics” an airy Bidenesque concept, involving an interventionist state, strict control of government spending and taxes, and stimulants to business. Coupled with Rachel’s promise not to raise any personal taxes, this sounds quite promising. But politicians easily renege on promises, so we will probably see in time what substance underlies her professions of fiscal virtue.

5.     Penny Mordaunt



                           Penny holds the Sword of State at the Coronation in May 2023

Penny Mordaunt, aged 50, entered Parliament in 2010 and is now Lord President of the (Privy) Council, a Tory pin-up, who handles herself with commendable dignity. She has had a succession of ministerial positions and was briefly Liz Truss’ Defence Secretary. She is a socially liberal Brexiteer and is much identified with support for the armed forces and their charities. She represents a Portsmouth constituency and was herself in the Royal Naval Reserve. She has stood twice for the Tory Party leadership, probably a bridge too far. She is a quintessential modern Tory, wholly resistant to wokery, despite being a constant target of hostile social media.

6.     Frank Field.



                                                 A younger Frank Field

I have to be quick to fit in a tribute to Frank Field as the poor man is suffering from terminal cancer and is in hospice care. Frank was MP for Birkenhead for 40 years from 1979 to 2019 and then became a life peer on the crossbenches after leaving the Labour Party in 2018. Born in London of Tory working-class parents, he was originally a conservative but moved to Labour in 1960 due to Tory equivocation about opposing apartheid in South Africa.

He long championed Birkenhead (where my parents were married oddly enough) and Merseyside. Most of his political life has been devoted to the alleviation of poverty fortified by his Anglican Christian faith. He remained socially conservative, even as a minister, deploring the payment of benefits without any contributions and advocating a small state. He was a long-time friend of Margaret Thatcher. He was respected in Labour circles for his expertise in the minutiae of social policy and his energetic advocacy but his support for Brexit and opposition to immigration made him many enemies. Field resigned the Labour whip in 2018 protesting about “intolerance, nastiness and intimidation.”

Our system should be able better to nurture independent, maverick characters like Frank Field who contribute much to public life.

 

SMD

10.12.23

Text copyright © Sidney Donald 2023

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