Monthly Archives: January 2006

Breaking the mould, 25 years on

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They said they were going to break the mould of British politics. For a time, it looked as if they might just succeed.

Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rodgers made clear their intention to launch a new party when they made the Limehouse declaration in January 1981. The so called Gang of Four went on to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP) weeks later. It was a break away from the Labour Party, which had been all-but captured by Tony Benn and other left wingers after the party lost office to Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 general election.

For a time, the SDP threatened both Labour and Tory seats. Jenkins and Williams won famous by-election victories in Crosby and Glasgow Hillhead in a few heady months in the winter of 1981-2. Few now remember how vulnerable Thatcher’s Government was as the brutal 1981 budget led to mass unemployment not seen since the Thirties. But her fortunes changes when a south American dictator straight from central casting invaded the Falklands and a last gasp of empire saw Britain go to war over a colony 8,000 miles away.

As a result, the Tories won the 1983 election by a landslide, Labour narrowly held on to second place and the SDP’s chance had gone.

They say that breakaway parties never succeed. For a time the SDP looked like breaking the rule, as well as the mould. But as the Gang of Four plotted, we might have taken a lesson from history. Just months before, the notorious leader of another failed break away from Labour died. Sir Oswald Mosley was a Labour minister but he left to create the New Party in 1931 – Britain’s fascist party. 

Cry, freedom

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Freedom of speech is a fragile flower in Britain.

Fortunately, our Governments have rarely sought to take advantage of our lack of constitutional safeguards to restrict what we can say. And to its credit, the Labour Government took the long-overdue decision to incorporate the European Convention on Human Rights directly into our law.

Bizarrely, that Government has since tried repeatedly to restrict our right to criticise religions. Its Racial and Religious Hatred Bill has a highly misleading title: it would actually threaten comedians with prosecution for making fun of religion. 

As comedian Rowan Atkinson said this week: "No one deserves a right to freedom from criticism."

Atkinson came to fame 27 years ago as part of the satirical show Not the Nine O’Clock News, whose sketches poked gentle fun at the Pope and Iran’s Ayotallah Khomeini. If the Government had its way, the sketches may never have been seen again. 

Happily, sanity prevailed as the House of Commons defeated the Government’s attempt to overturn sensible amendments made by the House of Lords.

Lies, damned lies and committees

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Remarkable thing, the English language.

BBC News Online today reported that the House of Commonds standards committee has cleared former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers of lying to Parliament about Railtrack but told him to apologise for telling an "untruth".

Most people will ask: what’s the difference? Cynics will shrug their shoulders and say that telling porkies is part of a politician’s job description.

My dictionary tells me that a lie is an intentionally untruthful statement. MPs decided that Byers may have been economical with the actualitė but didn’t do it knowingly.

A very charitable explanation. Would a committee of voters have let the disgraced minister off so lightly?

London’s whale

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It’s not every day a whale swims past your office. Not if you work in London.

Yesterday, we thought we’d spotted a hoax online report. The BBC reported that a whale had been spotted in the river Thames in the heart of the city. As the world soon discovered, this was no leg-pull.

Today, the world watched as a dramatic rescue unfolded. The whale was lifted onto a barge, and plans made to release it into the sea off Kent. BBC News 24 beamed continuous footage, showing the barge against London familar sights. The anchorman audibly sighed in disappointment when one of the vet’s said the whale’s release would be at nightfall.

Sadly, the whale seems to be fading fast, so it looks as if there won’t be a happy ending to this remarkable story.

Celebrate and you’re off

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It won’t ruin their season.

Arjen Robben was sent off for celebrating his match-winning goal against Sunderland.

Sky Sports’ pundits united to condemn the red card. The satellite operator splashed the rule on screen, claiming it showed the striker shouldn’t have been given his marching orders.

As a viewer, I saw the ref’s dilemma. The rule suggested that a player shouldn’t leave the pitch to celebrate with fans. True, it added common sense should prevail. But Robben had already been booked. Had a riot resulted, no-one would have defended him. Luckily, Sunderland fans are true soccer afficionados, despite their team’s position at the bottom of the league.

Will Chelsea falter in the title race as a result? Don’t hold your breath!

Gongs for sale!

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The Sunday Times was outraged.

"Revealed: cash for honours scandal" screamed its front page lead headline.

"Private donors to Tony Blair’s controversial city academies can obtain honurs and peerages by sponsoring the schools", the paper claimed.

As a lazy columnist might say, hello!

The honours system is inherently corrupt.

Remember Sir NIcholas Lloyd? Sir John Junor? Sir David English?

All newspaper editors knighted by Margaret Thatcher for services to the Conservative party.

Remember Sir Marcus Fox? Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith? And a dozen other Tory knights of the shires?

Not to mention all those civil servants who get a gong with their index linked final salary pension.

Honour? They wouldn’t know the meaning of the word.

Remembering the Rhyl four

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Today, cyclists across Wales and Britain paid their respects to the four cyclists from Rhyl Cycling Club who died last weekend in a tragic accident.

Many wore black armbands in silent tribute.

Cycling is an amazingly safe sport. You’re far safer on a bike than living a sedentary life, scoffing KrispyKreme doughnuts and knocking back Coke. But like any activity, pure chance sometimes mocks the stats. We grieve when loved ones are taken from us, whatever the odds.

Rhyl Cycling Club were back on the chaingang today. It was the best possible tribute to their fallen friends.

It’s a red card for Football Echo

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Saturday saw the final whistle for Cardiff’s Football Echo.

The birth of the internet and the death of universal 3pm Saturday kick-offs led to a red card for the pink paper.

Ken Gorman, Welsh football writer for the Sunday Mirror, told BBC News online that reporting for papers like the pink was "very hard work". Reporters had to phone in copy constantly during matches – sometimes as often as every 15 minutes.

Mr Gorman said: "I think you have to be of a certain age to appreciate what these football pinks right over the country – not just Cardiff – really were about."

That makes me feel my age. Back in the 1970s, Dad and I made a habit of picking up the Foorball Echo after a game at Ninian Park. I still have the reports of the Bluebirds’ FA Cup run in 1977. Those fading cuttings record the exploits of Peter Sayer and John Buchanan as City knocked out First Division Spurs and Welsh rivals Wrexham before losing narrowly to Everton.

The surprise is that Saturday sports papers lasted into the 21st century. A generation has grown used to Sky Sports and the internet. Fanzines are going online. But millions of fans will look back on them with nostalgia. And thousands of journalists will recall racing to an icy GPO box to phone in their copy.

The next generation of 40 somethings won’t have an album of fading cuttings to remind them of their teenage days following their team. But they’ll still have the memories. And that’s what counts.

Wanted: a good sub

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Simon Jenkins is everywhere.

Open a newspaper, and he’ll be there. Another day, another publication, another column.

He’s so busy churning out views that he can hardly be expected to spell names correctly.

But he needs a lesson in Welsh places. In recent weeks, he’s twice referred to ‘Caernarvon’. There’s no such place. It abandoned that anglicised style for Caernarfon around the time 21 year old Prince Charles was invested as Prince of Wales in the town in 1969.

Just a little respect

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Respect. It’s the new buzzword.

It sent the Prime Minister to Swindon last week as Tony Blair unveiled his respect campaign. But it’s not just a campaign: it comes with a ‘respect action plan’.

According to the 10 Downing Street website, the proposals will "deter bad behaviour and invest in good behaviour."  The PM said respect was about the consideration that other people are due.

He could have saved himself a 150 mile journey. London SW1 would have been a better place to start a respect campaign. Low level disorder has long been a feature of that failing institution called the House of Commons. At Prime Minister’s Questions, boorish MPs shouted down Lib Dem leadership-hopeful Sir Menzies Campbell. ‘Ming’ can look after himself. But how can MPs expect anyone to listen to a anything they say about anti-social behaviour?

In a word, how can they expect respect?