Stephen's Week
March 28, 2006 12:00 AM
By Stephen Williams MP
By Stephen Williams MP
You may recall at the end of my last Letter from Westminster that I was feeling groggy with "flu like" symptoms. Well I still felt completely drained last Monday and stayed in Bristol.
TUESDAY 21 MARCH
On Tuesday I felt a bit better, but looked a bit spotty. But I went up to London as we had more votes on ID Cards.
The vote was the latest rally in ping-pong with the Lords. The amendment this time was a rather smart one that had been proposed in the other House by Lib Dem Lord Phillips of Sudbury. The affect of the amendment was to delay any compulsion to supply information for the ID cards database until after the next general election. This means that Labour would have gone to the polls with compulsion in its manifesto, as compared to the voluntary approach that was in the 2005 manifesto.
But my trip was in vain and the Commons rejected the amendment again. Quite a lot of Labour MPs abstain on ID Cards but too few vote against.
WEDNESDAY 22 MARCH
I looked even spottier today but was determined to stay for the Budget. I have listened to or watched umpteen budgets over the last 25 years from a mixture of political interest and professional duty. When I worked as a tax consultant from 1988 to 2001 each Budget and subsequent Finance Bill would be pored over in great detail and presentation packs would be sent out to clients.
Now in 2005 I could sit and enjoy the spectacle. Kick off was at 12pm with normal PMQs, a rather perfunctory occasion as we all looked forward to seeing the NEXT PM. Gordon Brown spoke for just over an hour. The usual fusillade of statistics and self praise but interspersed with at least two jokes. Gordon obviously realises he needs to lighten up a little. There are two eye catching initiatives that seem to be good news.
First, the extension to age 25 the right to free tuition at school or an FE College for courses equivalent to A level. Second, the idea of an annual schools Olympics in the run up to the real thing in 2012.
Of course, budget speeches always sound good. The detail comes later when the Finance Bill is published. This is scrutinised in detail by a committee and this was my first duty in May 2005 as the general election immediately followed last year's budget.
When Gordon sat down it was time for flip-flop Dave. Mr Cameron, you will recall, had promised to banish punch and judy from his performances.
We've seen him abandon this at PMQs. Today I saw a bellowing, arrogant public school boy rant across the despatch box for barely 8 minutes. It was the shortest budget response on record. Devoid of economic analysis but full of personal invective hurled at Brown.
Ming Campbell spoke for longer, in his measured way, and made pertinent points that were relevant to the budget that we had heard.
By mid afternoon I wasn't feeling well so headed back to Paddington. I was able to watch the news programmes at home and the Tory party's friends in the BBC obviously thought Cameron was wonderful...
THURSDAY 23rd MARCH
I went to the doctors and it was confirmed I have chicken pox!! It will take 10 days for the spots to clear and another week before I "feel right". So I've been at home since then, looking like someone with bubonic plague. But I have slept a lot and this has probably done me good.
The party funding row has sprung up in the last week. Labour has come off worst so far, but the Tory party has always had shady finances and their refusal to disclose the source of their £20m borrowings will hopefully cause them great embarrassment.
Two reforms are needed. An elected House of Lords so that there is no great reward for a donation. A cap on donations and an injection of state funds. This may enable us to compete on a playing field that at least approaches a level appearance, rather than being totally out-spent as we have been for decades.
Anyway - I'm likely to go back to London tomorrow for the day so I can take part in a series of votes. My spots have dried out so and I feel a lot better.
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