Ed Vaizey

This morning we had Business Questions in the House.  This is conducted by the Leader of the House (currently Harriet Harman) and the Shadow Leader (Theresa May).  The idea is to discuss the next week’s business, but MPs use it to raise local and national issues.  The usual form is “Can we have a debate on [fill in blank]”.  As you can imagine, a lot of fun was had (or attempted) at Harriet Harman’s expense, although the Speaker was up frequently to rule questions on Labour funding out of order.

Another interesting point emerged during questions. Parliament’s procedures have recently changed to include topical questions and topical debates.  Every day, Ministers come to the HOuse to answer questions, but these have to be tabled a week in advance.  Now we have topical questions.  Although you have to request one a week in advance, you can actually choose the subject on the day.  All well and good.

Topical debates are meant to fulfill the same function, allowing Parliament to debate a topical matter every Thursday.  The first one we had a few weeks ago was on immigration.  Today we are debating apprenticeships.  Important?  Yes, very.  Topical?  I would say not, particularly as it will form a part of our debates on the Government’s education reforms.

Why are we debating apprenticeships?  Because it turns out the person who chooses the topic for debate is Harriet Harman, as leader of the House, not the Speaker, even though the rules are completely silent on who gets the choice.  So while the nation debates party funding, Parliament will debate apprenticeships.  Yet another reform designed to take power from the Executive and give it to the legislature has been undermined by this Government.

The resignation of Labour’s general secretary over the latest party funding scandal loses the last shred of credibility Labour has over this issue.  If they try now to limit pre-election spending in order to reduce the Conservatives’ ability to fight incumbent Labour MPs, it will be the greatest constitutional scandal of the last 100 years.  We will wait to see just how shameless they are.

I enjoyed the editor of The Spectator Matthew d’Ancona’s talk on the Westminster Hour last night about how the internet will change politics.   Matthew thinks it will change politics fundamentally, but I disagree.  The first example Matthew cited was the saving of a local market from developers.  Apparently it was all down to the web, until the interviewee revealed it was old-fashioned petitioning. And our own (ie Wantage) John Betjeman saved Covent Garden (thank God) before the web was invented.

The web is a new medium, but it won’t change politics.  If anything it will make politics more distant.  If politicians are going to be secretly filmed and shoved on You Tube, you will simply get more stage-managed events.  The internet hasn’t changed my life politically, except I get a few more letters because it is easier to send an e-mail than lick a stamp.  We have been doing democracy along roughly the same lines (give or take the size of the electorate) since the ancient Greeks, and will continue to do so for centuries to come.  

My colleague Julian Lewis has resigned from the Oxford Union because of their decision to invite Nick Griffin from the BNP and David Irving, the Holocaust denyer.  I have been a member of the Union for 21 years, and I won’t be resigning, though it was a tough call.

Students like to shock and be outrageous.  This is clearly a stunt, although there is aserious point behind the idea.  One of the most memorable debates I went to at the Union when I was a student was when the Union asked Gery Adams along.  I remember Tim Hames, now a Times columnist, taking him on, as well as a man whose diplomat father had been murdered by the IRA.  It was a hugely emotionally charged occasion, but enormously worthwhile.  I don’t think any of us felt we had crossed a moral line. 

The BNP and Irving sit in a kind of limbo land - neither ignored, but not engaged with and defeated.  If I was a student now, I would go, and I would look forward to their ideas being defeated in open debate.  It is a bit silly to deny Irving a platform, when the Iranian President is just as bad and is free to trot along to the UN.  Similarly, however unpalatable Griffin’s views, his party wins seats.  He will continue to win if we ignore him.  By engaging them we defeat them. 

Just after I got elected, I had dinner with Alex Downer, Australia’s now ex foreign minister, just after England had won the Ashes (so a long time ago).  Alex, who is an Anglophile and a Conservative, gave me some tips on what the Tories should do to win, quite rightly so, as his party had been in power for a decade.  But I did remember thinking that nothing lasts forever, and one day I might have to give him tips on how to survive opposition!

And so it has come to pass, with the Labor party ousting the Liberals with a swing reminiscent of Tony Blair’s against us.  So here are my top tips on how to make a sucecss of opposition, based on ten years’ experience of how not to do it…

1. Accept the verdict of the electorate.  They are always right, no matter how unfair or illogical it might seem. Whether it was time for a change, Iraq, Aborigines, immigration, climate change, analyse why you lost and do not complain.

2. Which means do not be pushed off the centre ground.  If the opposition won by nicking your clothes and moving to the centre, do not think the right response is to move to the right.  Stay put, even if it means supporting some of the things your conquerors are now proposing.

3. Stay united.  Politics abhors a vacuum and what normally fills it is a prolonged bout of navel gazing and in-fighting. That is a huge waste of energy.  You may not win the next election, but if you fight amongst yourselves, you won’t make any gains either.

4. Choose your next leader very carefully.  OK, this is a bit of pointless advice as (a) you can only choose from a limited pool and (b) you have no idea what kind of leader your leader will be until he (or she) is your leader.  But do not choose one on factional ideology.  Choose someone with energy, vision, charisma and from a new generation.  Then support him (or her) to the hilt, no matter how bad the polls get.

The English are mildly ambivalent about Scotland at the moment, to put it mildly.  With a Scottish PM, a Nationalist parliament, and a regular diet of stories about subsidies and sneering from north of the border, one could be forgiven for hoping Scotland would crash out of Europe. Actually, my feelings were entirely the opposite.  I found myself rooting for Scotland, who against the odds in one of the most difficult groups, had a real chance of qualification. And I found myself intensly depressed when they failed.  By contrast, I feel mildly ambivalent about England, with its hugely well-paid Premiership stars, and now finding itself in a nail-biting finale.  If only England could be more like Scotland, at least as far as football is concerned!

I went to Birmingham last week, to find a city buzzing with energy.  I don’t know where it gets it from, but I suspect it might be the Council leader, Mike Whitby.  Mike talks at 100 miles an hour, and if we plugged him into the mains, we’d solve Britain’s energy problem overnight.  In just three years, Mike has transformed the council, which presides over Europe’s younest city, and one of its most diverse.  Mike was showing me around Birmingham’s central library, which he wants to demolish and replace with a new one that is more fit for purpose.  With the debate on libraries in decline, it is good to see a local authority preparing to commit £200 million to a new one (incidentally Birmigham’s current library is Europe’s busiest).  It’s also good news for those who care about archives - one of the reasons for the plan is to enable Birmingham to show off some of its amazing treasures, which include a first folio of Shakespeare’s plays (Birmingham has a huge Shakespeare collection) and a Caxton.

I also went to the Ikon gallery, the Birmingham Museum and the Birmingham Rep (Mike is planning a new theatre to add to the Rep’s two auditoria).  The Ikon wants a new contemporary art gallery in Birmingham, a Tate for the Midlands if you will.  Everywhere I went (and I have previously visited the Symphony Orchestra and the Dance School) I found a City that is full of confidence and putting culture of every kind at the heart of its regeneration.

A small company in my constituency, Regenatec, has just won a National Business Award - the Oscars of British business, under the category “Engineering the Future”.  They make technology for biofuels, and they beat off multinational to win the award, despite operating out of small offices in Milton Park and only haveinga  few employees.  Congratulations to Mike LAwton and his team!

They were visited last year by Blair (who didn’t ask me along).  Subsequently, I asked Blair a question about it at PMQs - not “why didn’t you ask me along when you came to my constituency, you ill-mannered so-and-so”, but “why don’t you chage the fuel duty on biodiesel to make it more competitive”.  The fact is that although there is a differential in fuel duty, boidiesel is more expensive to make than diesel, so they end up costing the same to the consumer.  Even more perversely, because bus operators can claim back duty on diesel, it is actually more expensive for buses to use biodiesel.  Let’s hope the Government changes this odd situation at some stage.

Tomorrow I was due to achieve a lifetime’s ambition - appearing live on the Today programme.  But I have been bumped off for being too right wing.  I am being replaced by Jonathan Yeo, the osn of Tim Yeo, as he is presumably left wing.  Let me explain.  On Wednesday night I am appearing with Grayson Perry, the artist, along with others, to debate the motion “Modern Art is Left Wing”.  It hardly needs debating.  Modern art is obviously right wing - it sells for millions and is the play thing of hedge fund managers.  Apparently Grayson agrees with me, so in order to have an argument, Today have asked Jonathan on instead. Although he is the son of a Tory MP, he recently did a portrait of President Bush made up of pornographic images.  So he must be a left wing modern artist.  Oh well, i’ll just have to make do with arguing with John Humphreys when I next see him in Ravenscourt Park.

This morning, I attended the remembrance day service at Wallingford.  It is beautifully done.  The market square was packed, and RAF Benson, which has the freedom of the town (along with The Rifles) organsied a fly past witha Puma helicopter and two Merlins.  As the last post sounded, the clock struck eleven, and as the two minute silence ended, the helicopters flew over.  At Wallingford the names of those who gave their lives are read out - 80 in the First War, and half as many again in the Second, plus a soldier killed in Northern Ireland.  In addition, they read the names of two Canadian aircrew who flew their stricken aircraft over the town before crashing on the other side of the river.  They gave their lives literally for Wallingford.

This afternoon, I attended Didcot’s service, where the Rifles and Royal Logisitics Corps were on parade.  For reasons lost in the mists of recent time, Didcot’s service is always at 3pm, and includes the Oxford and Caledonian Pipes and Drums.

Attendance seemed to be high at both events, despite the weather.  Wallingford has a close relationship with RAF Benson, who have lost several members in recent months.  And there is no doubt that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the public keener than ever to pay their respects to the three services.