Ed Vaizey

One of my onerous duties as Shadow Arts Spokesman is to visit fantastic arts venues run by amazing people.  To this list I can now add MAO.  Modern Art, Oxford, formerly the Museum of Modern Art Oxford is on the site of a former brewery in Pembroke Street.  I last visited twenty years ago, when I was a student.  It’s been opened up and revamped, and has a beautiful installation by Daniel Buren there at the moment.  Like all arts organisations, it struggles for funds.  Its director Andrew Nairne (he who revamped MAO) is incredibly enthusiastic, and brimming with ideas.  It was a real pleasure to spend an hour with him in MAO’s cafe - even if a member of the public told us to be quiet because Andrew was getting so carried away!

I bumped into the Bishop of Reading last night (as you do).  He told me that the night before, he had been speaking on a panel at a public meeting on Trident.  The local MP, Rob Wilson, was due to speak, but as the meeting got underway, he had not appeared.  As you would expect, there was some muttering.  A few minutes into the meeting Rob arrived, apologised and spoke.  What people hadn’t realised was that he had been delayed because his wife had given birth that morning!  Now that’s dedication!

Actually, Rob missed the start of another meeting earlier in the week - the debate I initiated on the appalling service First Great Western is currently giving commuters.  The reason?  You guessed it - he was stuck on a First Great Western train at Reading! 

I always wait with eager anticipation for the annual environmental edition of ES magazine (the Evening Standard’s very good Friday glossy).  I am always dying to know what the rich and famous can teach me about being green.  Last year, a prominent New York socialite revealed she was holding an eco ball in New York to save the Hudson River (great!).  She and a few close friends were flying by private jet to Italy the week before to get their dresses from Donatella Versace (fab - why bother with Bloomies for such an important cause!?).  This week’s does not disappoint, as the face of M&S reveals the new eco-friendly company is doing a photo shoot to emphasise its green credentials - the shoot’s in South Africa.

The House of Commons held a debate on heritage last week, following the publication of the first Select Committee report on the subject for a dozen years.   Every heritage organisation is united in condemnation of what they describe as the Government’s complacency.  English Heritage has had its budget cut, and is still without a new chairman. (The two leading candidates were both Tories, so they were rejected, natch.)   The Government’s (well Tessa Jowell’s) neglect is pretty disgraceful when you consider the huge importance of asector which stretches from Stonehenge to Upper Heyford air base, with quite a lot in between.

Just discovered a blog being written by a Hansard reporter HERE.  One of the first and most entertaining things to happen to you when you become an MP is to discover the workings of Hansard, the official journal of the Houses of Parliament (ie where all the debates appear).  As you sit down after a speech, an envelope is passed to you by a doorkeeper. It is from a Hansard reporter, asking for your “notes and quotes”.  One often gets amusing notes passed from them in the guise of ensuring factual accuracy - “Was it you who shouted “cobblers” in the middle of the Secretary of State’s speech?”  And the best bit is you get to go up to the Hansard office after the speech and correct your appalling grammar before it is published.  Anyway, I discovered the blog through Google Alert.  The unassuming gentleman from whom I borrowed a Members’ Recognition Book is in fact a secret blogger.  Read him to discover another side to Commons’ life.  May be it’s time for an official Hansard blog.

I bumped into pensions minister James Purnell today - on the tube.  Impressive, not using the ministerial car.  He had a gym bag on his shoulder - even more impressive.  On the day of the second reading of the pensions bill, he was showing commendable insousiance.  Even though his Government has destroyed pension provision in this country, James is a fine man and will no doubt be an effective Secretary of State for Culture under Gordon Brown’s all too brief tenure as Prime Minister.

Gorodn Brown is due to make his (first?) visit to India quite soon.  I learned today that India does not have a cultural partnership agreement with this country, something it has with 74 other nations.  So what, I hear you ask?  What bureucratic nonsense is this?  Well, it may just be a piece of paper, but it’s important.  Already it has meant that an important exhibition of Indian art sourced in the UK was stopped from going to India.  It would be a nice gesture for Gordon to sign the agreement when he goes out there, not least to emphasise the incredibly important cultural links between India and the UK - currently being highlighted by Celebrity Big Brother.

I was delighted when I heard that David Cameron had defended Ruth Kelly.  It would be wrong to pillory her for making a decision which she feels is in the best interests of her child.  Others - Diane Abbot, Tony Blair and Harriet Harman - have done the same.  But, as I think Dominic Lawson pointed out today, it is equally wrong for the Government to pillory the private sector and assume it has nothing to offer.  That is why the decision to scrap the assisted places scheme, which would have provided valuable opportunities to Ruth Kelly’s constituents, was so wrong.  From now on, I hope every Labour Minister will acknowledge the valuable and vital contribution the independent sector plays in education.  

Wow! The new Tory regime at Hammersmith and Fulham has cut its council tax by 3 per cent.  It’s been able to do so by cutting back on back office costs (eg sharing services with other boroughs) and increasing its income by selling its commercial services more effectively, as well as contracting out some services.  Needless to say, the council taxpayer may not notice - free spending Ken Livingstone is poutting up his precept again by at least 5 per cent.

A standard attack from some commentators on David Cameron normally reads: “David Cameron has completely sold out and betrayed Tory voters by refusing to [fill in policy from list below]

(a) pledge to abolish inheritance tax

(b) bring back grammar schools

(c) introduce school vouchers

Given that no previous Conservative government introduced any of these three policies, why is David Cameron betraying Conservatives?  Indeed, sad to say, a previous Conservative government abolished more grammar schools than its Labour predecessor; Keith Joseph flirted with vouchers and rejected them; and David Cameron, on pretty much his first day in the job, changed Conservative policy on tuition fees so that it is much more in line with, dare I say it, Conservative principles, something neither of his two more “right wing” predecessors had done.

So what, exactly, are these people objecting to?  Or are they simply spinning, by dressing up what are essentially policy proposals as timeless Tory principles?