Letter from Westminster
February 14, 2006 1:38 PM
By Stephen Williams MP in Clifton Chronicle
By Stephen Williams MP in Clifton Chronicle
This week I was meant to be out of the country on an Education Select Committee visit to Dutch and Spanish schools. But the trip was cancelled as the Labour whips are now paranoid about too many of their members missing votes!
As it turned out, it was a good week to be in Britain to commemorate the last Liberal landslide and witness a few earthquakes in the current political landscape.
A hundred years ago the voters of Britain delivered a sweeping victory for the Liberals. The governments that went on to be led by Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith and Lloyd George laid the foundations of the modern state. The Liberal government also included Winston Churchill. There have been few cabinets since that have included such an array of talent.
The Liberal led governments of the first quarter of the twentieth century created the welfare state by such measures as old age pensions, sick pay, unemployment pay and free school meals. Workers were protected by minimum wages, rights for trade unions and fixed hours in certain industries. Democracy was advanced by restricting the powers of the House of Lords, votes for women and payment for MPs (£400 per year compared to £59,000 now in case you're interested!) which opened up Parliament to ordinary people.
The 1906 election also saw the establishment of the Parliamentary Labour party, with its first twenty nine MPs. So both Labour and the Lib Dems had reason to celebrate this week. I have to say that my party has not had the most cheerful of times recently but I think the leadership election has now pulled the party back together. The special edition of BBC's Question Time showed that in Ming Campbell, Chris Huhne and Simon Hughes we have three men who have the skills to take the party forward.
The political earthquake of the week came later that night when it was confirmed that the Liberal Democrats had snatched victory in the Dunfermline by election. It was just the tonic that the party needed and a great 100th anniversary present. The Labour party's leader-in-waiting now has a Lib Dem MP! An embarrassment for Gordon Brown but a humiliation for David Cameron, as the Conservatives came fourth.
In fact it was a bad week for the Tories as Cameron got his first mauling at Prime Minister's Question Time. Mr Blair was able to reel off a list of Tory policy about-turns by "flip-flop Dave" who seems to have given his party a smiling face but no principles. Cameron's extraordinary honeymoon is now over.
The week ahead promises further thrills and spills as we vote on ID cards, the smoking ban and the terror laws. In a hundred years the events of 2006 will surely be remembered as another extraordinary year in British history.
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