Published: Thursday 10th November 2022

Are policemen really getting younger, or is it just that we are getting older? Some very dear friends gave me the most wonderful birthday present - two pencil sketches by an Illustrated London News artist who happened to be in the Commons Gallery on Churchill’s last day, 27 July 1964. In one he is sitting listening, and the other shows the great man walking out of the Chamber for the final time -after 64 years’ service.

My friend Sir Peter Tapsell reminisced about how- as the junior whip- it was his job to look after Churchill after PMQs one day. He took him down to his usual seat in the Smoking Room, plied him with a brandy and a cigar, and tried to make conversation - about the War; about brick-laying; about the Royal Navy. Not a squeak emanated from the old man until after an hour he rose to his feet, fixed (merchant banker) Tapsell in the eye, grunted “Never trust a banker” and shuffled off…... Those were the days.

What a contrast with my colleagues Matt Hancock making a fool of himself in the jungle, Gavin Williamson being exposed as an alleged bully and Labour’s Matt Western accusing Jeremy Corbyn of ‘being senile.’ Are these childish playground antics new, I wonder, or are we just getting older and less tolerant of them? History will tell.

Remembrance Sunday reminds us of true greatness and self-sacrifice. As well as Remembrance services in Calne and Royal Wootton Bassett, I was glad to plant a cross in the Speaker’s Garden of Remembrance. It was especially in honour of my predecessor Captain Victor Cazalet who was the MP from 1924 to 1943 when he was killed in the General Sikorski air crash in Gibraltar. I have been asked to serve on the Speaker’s Advisory Committee planning a National Arboretum memorial to MPs and peers like Captain Cazalet killed serving their King and Country.  Like those whose bodies passed through Royal Wootton Bassett, they obeyed their orders, suffered terrible privations, injuries both physical and mental, and in so many cases gave their lives. “Greater love hath no man…’’

Remembering those great people who sacrificed their lives for the greater good of the Nation perhaps puts current day shenanigans into perspective. Remembrance tide invites us to try to follow their example, to lift our vision above the horizon, to do what is best for the greatest number. Politics should not be about Party, most definitely not about self. It must be about the Constituency and its people and about truly serving the Nation. Churchill- and those who gave their lives in the wars - should set today’s politicians an example of service and self-sacrifice. We who are lucky enough to have avoided wartime military service and have lived into middle age and beyond salute the young men and women who served and died.

At the going down of the Sun and in the morning, we will remember them…..

Published: Thursday 27th October 2022

In most weeks for the last five years or so, I have sat down to write my update with a fog of thoughts and crises, problems and events swirling around my head. I try to vary the subject matter from week to week; but almost always immediate events dictate what the subject matter will be. It’s amazing nonetheless how often my readers question “why are you talking about x,y,z. Isn’t a,b,c more important at a time like this?”

Well, my earnest hope is that from now for at least couple of years I’ll be hard pressed to think of anything to write. I hope that politics will be dull as ditch water, that the great ship of State will steady herself and glide smoothly through untroubled waters; that Rishi Sunak and his Administration will find fair and workmanlike solutions to the myriad problems the world and the UK face; and that we can look forward to a decent period of peace and prosperity, and calm reflectiveness. Let’s hope.

I was delighted that the ‘100 supporter’ threshold for the leadership of the Conservative Party which Sir Graham Brady thought up and carried out so effectively, meant an end to blood-letting, and to navel gazing within the Tory Party. There are enough problems in the world without making it all a whole lot worse by internal squabbles.

All reshuffles produce winners and losers – the winners are convinced that their elevation to greatness has come about because of their own innate worthiness; their policy brilliance and their ability to communicate it. The losers look bitterly at those promoted above them, who they inevitably feel are not worthy of the promotion. The only real winners are those - like me – who love our jobs and seek no reward save the approval of our electorate. There’s an old army expression GOPWO - Grossly Over Promoted Warrant Officer” - usually levelled at some of our most senior Generals. There are a few GOPWOs in the new Government, but overall it is a strong and competent group of people – from a wide diversity of backgrounds. Is it not ironic that it is we Conservatives who have had three women Prime Ministers and now one of a South Asian heritage. Despite their protestations to the contrary, all Labour Leaders have been “pale, male and stale.”

So after what by any standards has been a turbulent few months; I would like the world to steady; I would like Rishi and his Government quietly to address some of the great concerns of the day; I would like them to do what must be done for the greater benefit of all of the people, even if there may be some tough and unpopular decisions inherent in that.

Sunlit uplands to come, clear blue water to get there, and a steady hand on the tiller of the ship of State.

Published: Friday 4th November 2022

‘Celebrating’ is a good thing to do, and we seem to be multiplying occasions for it. Birthdays (mine is on Monday- no cards or presents, thank you all the same); Christmas; births and marriages. All are worthy of celebration. Halloween now seems to be a joyous celebration as does the ritual burning of Guy Fawkes on 5 November. We even celebrate someone’s long and happy life at their funeral. Should we really be ‘celebrating’ Remembrance Sunday, so much as ‘marking it’. “Celebrate good times c’mon…”

Why then, is it that we tend to despise “celebrities” so much, especially ‘B-Listers’ and those desperately trying to escape the jungle. We admire a ‘personality’ – some like David Attenborough even become National Treasures. We long for leadership and role models; but we dislike pompous self-regard, are always keen to ‘knock people off their perches’ and strongly respect those who are ‘down to earth, common-sense sort of folk.’ We tend to resent the cigar-chomping billionaire as he swishes past in his Rolls Royce. “What gave him the right to be so rich?” we ask; unlike our American cousins whose reaction is “if you work hard, you too could have a gold-plated Cadillac.”

Some of these mixed emotions are becoming ever more commonplace in Parliament, and politics, and may be harming respect for our Parliamentary democracy as a result. Matt Hancock plainly thinks he’s a ‘celeb’ and warmly deserved being chucked out by the Conservative Party. What a plonker. Those who self-importantly lord it over each other are asking to be brought down a peg or two, and there are plenty of sacked ministers around who prove it. They should remember that the people you see on the way up are the same ones you will see on the way back down again.

However, the cult of the personality –‘celeb politics’ - seems to me to have gone too far. It increasingly looks as if we are not so much interested in what the new PM, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary are doing from a policy perspective to deal with the very many major problems which confront them. Instead we are increasingly concerned about their personality, their background, their perceived failings or foibles. It’s a Strictly Come Dancing approach to great National matters of state, with routine instant phone-ins adjudicating on whether or not the Budget has got it right; or what we can do about the migrant crisis.

We need to get back to the old concept of a five-year Parliament, during which the Party in Government do what they have to do - some of which may well be unpopular with some or all of the electorate; and who will then be judged at the following General Election as to whether or not overall they have got things right, or at least get them more right than the other lot. Let’s get away from Celebrity Big Brother, get you out of the Come Dancing jungle; and get back to long, cold, intelligent consideration of policy and politics. Ours’ should be a carefully considered, modest and sober profession. Celebrity (and too much celebration) undermines it.

Published: Thursday 20th October 2022

I am deeply sorry- on a personal level- for Liz Truss, who has had such a short and turbulent time as PM. No doubt she set off with all the right intentions, but for a whole variety of reasons was simply unable to deliver.

It is only right to acknowledge that the last few months in Government have been shambolic. The demise of Boris (only 4 points behind Labour in the polls- we look back nostalgically),  Liz Truss’s election (I was never a supporter) and now demise; the mini -Budget which may or may not have been the best thing for the economy, but which was so badly delivered and explained that it crashed and burned within a week or two, the new Chancellor surgically reversing most of its proposals; the turmoil in the Cabinet and in junior ministerial ranks, the briefings, sackings, resignations; the Parliamentary shambles over the Labour motion on fracking; these and more are matters over which, as a Conservative MP, even one not involved in any of them, I can but say ”Sorry.” It’s been an unedifying sight, and really not a very good way to run a country.

Attention now turns to what we should do about it? It looks as if there will be an immediate election (perhaps a ‘coronation’?) of a new PM. That will be conducted within Parliament, avoiding the unseemly battle we had over the Summer. I will be considering each of the candidates who will now emerge very carefully. Here’s a flavour of what I will be looking for.

We have two years until the General Election (it will not be sooner than that) to re-establish the Conservative reputation by getting a grip and sorting ourselves out. We must be the party of “sound money.” To that end we simply have to ‘balance the books’. What we spend must be no more than what we have earned. If that means unpopular tax rises, a tight grip on inflation, and perhaps cuts in Government spending, then like it or not from an ideological perspective, that is what we must do.  Second, we are duty bound to look after those who cannot look after themselves, especially at a time like this of high inflation and rising energy costs over the coming winter. But the ‘safety net’ could well be much closer to the ground, and perhaps better targeted than it has been in recent times. Third, our primary duty is to defend peoples’ safety and security- both overseas with a strong military capability (perhaps counter- subsidised from the Aid Budget), and at home where we need firmness and clarity on policing and immigration amongst so much else.

These, and so many other Government departments need clarity of vision, firmness and pragmatic competence. People look to we Conservatives for straightforward down to earth effectiveness and delivery. Every decision of every Government minister must be sound and sensible; well thought-through and well explained. The people need to be shown that we are competent and able, and if so, they will accept what we say and do.

So I will be looking for a PM who can re-unite the Conservative Party, who will support Jeremy Hunt in his efforts to return to sound money; who will achieve the respect and support of the electorate very probably despite taking some very difficult decisions on a whole variety of topics. I will keep you up to date as my thinking develops.