Ed Vaizey

The Art Newspaper has an interesting and disturbing report on its front page in its April edition.  It concerns a well known contemporary artist, Gregor Schneider, who is a real person.  And a woman called Roswitha Franziska Vandieken, who runs a clinic in Dusselfdorf, who may or may not exist.  Apparently Gregor Schneider wants to create a piece of art which consists of a person dying - described by the newspaper  as “the ultimate performance piece”.  Not a video either, but a live person dying as an exhibit in a museum. And he has apparently approached Dr Vandieken for a suitable subject.

Plausible?  Yes.  So out there that it could be a hoax?  Quite possibly, and as it hasn’t been in the Daily Mail yet, it may well be.  In bad taste?  Most definitely…

I bumped into a Minister on the tube yesterday, which is always interesting (well, for me anyway).  I asked him where his chauffeur was, and he revealed he had refused to have one.  He’s not one of these unpaid jobby’s either, but a proper Minister of State.  He had a battle to turn down the use of car, but he won.  The first day without a car he got stuck on the tube for 25 minutes and missed a meeting, but since then it has been plain sailing.  He now saves the taxpayer £50,000 a year, he uses an Oyster card and has a taxi account.  He leaves the red box in the Minstry, as he says it is anti social to take work home.

May be the Tories should pledge now that, when we win the election, there will be a presumption that no Minister outside the Cabinet will be automatically entitled to a car, and that they should justify the need for one before they get one. 

So.  Six hundred MPs, peers and journalists trooped into the Royal Gallery in the Palace of Westminster on Wednesday to get a good look at Carla Bruni.  Apparently she is exceptionally beautiful, but I could not tell, as I was sitting behind the Labour MP Jimmy Hood, so I couldn’t see anything.  Once we had finished looking at Carla, we listened to her husband, who is apparently the President of France, deliver a speech.

The President got a very warm reception from the assembled gathering, including prolonged applause when he came in and a standing ovation at the end.  It surprised me, not because he necessarily didn;t deserve it, but because I hadn’t really known what the British thought of him.  Anyway, judging by Wednesday, we like him (and her).  His speech ticked all the right boxes - fulsome praise for Britain, including thanks for our role in saving France in the war (which will have annoyed the French); a passionate defence of the European Union (which annoyed the Tories); and a call to work together on nuclear power (which will have annoyed Labour).

The President’s visit also showed the importance of glamour in politics.  It is often said that politics is show business for ugly people, and his speech had the feel of a political “gig”, as various MPs put their mobile phones in the air to take photos.  If the speech had been in the evening I think some might have waved cigarette lighters in the air.  But I think that one of the reasons he is popular here (and why MPs liek programmes like the West Wing), is that they like the glamour that comes with strong executive office, as well, of course, as a glamorous consort.  MArrying Carla may have damaged the President’s popularity in the short term, but given their reception over here, I think it will be to his long-term gain.

The NUT lived up to ints acronym, in passing a resolution to ban troops visiting schools.  How utterly, utterly depressing.  Of course, the leadership of the NUT is really a political party, and it is fighting the decision to go to war in Iraq by proxy, using our troops as a political football.  Apparently the army targets young people from deprived areas of the country.  It may well recruit in some of our poorer areas, outrageously offering the young people there a life of aspiration and discipline, with the chance to learn skills and see the world.  But they also recruit in affluent areas - the cadets are extremely well represented in my constituency.  It is so sad to see this union give the teaching profession such a bad name, they do not represent the knd of teachers I know.  My uncle was on the execuitve of the NUT in the 1960s - a very different union then.

Spent part of Bank Holiday MOnday at the Lockinge point-to-point, the annual meeting which raises thousands of pounds for the local Old Berks Hunt.  It snowed, and it was freezing, but there was still a very good turn out (including three MPs spotted).  It last snowed there in 1985, when people tobogganed merrily down the lanes of the car park.

My attack on the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority’s spiralling costs earned me a stinging rebuke from the chief executive, Tim Jones.  He sent me a letter denying that costs were out of control or 300 per cent over budget, and asking me for a meeting.  To be fair, the article I quoted does not suggest running costs are out of control.  What it does suggest, and is a rumour doing the rounds in pensions circles, is that the cost of building the systems has risen from £500 million to £2 billion.  The analogy would be if your house cost four times more to build, but your costs to run the house remained the same…

I replied to Tim’s rebuke and demand for a meeting with four questions for PADA to answer:

My last blog was ten days ago, so Vaizey is guilty again of letting you down.  I have a good excuse this time, though.  Our daughter Martha, a sister for 18 month old Joseph, arrived on 12th March at 2.44pm.  She is, as you would imagine, very beautiful and delightful.  Her brother has astonished us by being as equally delighted with her as we are.  Martha may well have a political career ahead of her.  She was born on the same day as Viriginia Bottomley, Baroness Peta Buscombe and David Mellor.  She also shares a birthday with the sculptor Anish Kapoor and the singer Liza Minelli.

Martha delayed her arrival from 29th February, so that I could vote for a referendum on the European Constitution, and started to arrive just as Alistair Darlimg got to his feet, thus ensuring I missed the most boring Budget in history.  So she has acute political antennae.

Martha was born on the NHS, and the care we received was first-class during the delivery.  (I’ll pass over the three hour waits every time we had an ante-natal appointment.)  Thank you to every one involved in delivering her safely into the world, your care and diligence was wonderful.

Ok this probably isn’t newsworthy, because it is so common under this Government.  If I had asked you twelve months ago of the Government’s new quango, the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, would be able to run on budget, you would have said “pull the other one”.  And you’d have been right!  We learned today it is a whopping 300 per cent over Budget, with costs rising from £500 million to £2 billion.  Read it HERE. Unbelievable.  A friend of mine worked there and resigned in disgust - he said the building was full of consultants on four figure day rates who were doing bugger all - in fact some were working for other clients, they had so little to do.  The waste and mismanagement of Government never ceases to amaze and shock.

My initial thoughts on Lord Goldsmith’s proposal that all school leavers should swear allegiance to the Crown was that it was little more than a gimmick.  It is one suggestion in a 150 page report, but it ensured it got coverage.  The irony about the current debate about Britishness is that everyone is falling back on Americanisms - swearing allegiance, flying the flag and so on.  It’s not really part of our tradition, and it cannot necessarily be imposed from above.

And yet.  Some of this stuff does work.  I, for one, am delighted that Government buildings fly the Union Jack, and I would be delighted if all public buildings, from Job Centres to Council Offices, either flew the Union Jack or had one on a flagpole inside.  Citizenship ceremonies are also a very good idea.  I attended one at Wallingford School in my constituency the other day - apparently it is the first school in the country to host one.  It was organised by Year 9’s.  The school band played, “British” food was available (scones and cocktail sausages among other treats), and the High Sheriff turned up in full rig (I also wore the British national costume - the stuffed shirt).  The forty or so people who were getting theri citizenship all swore their allegiance.  They came from dozens of different countries, and all looked delighted by the ceremony and their new status as British citizens.  All in all a wonderful occasion.

So I won’t dismiss any of these ideas as gimmicks just yet.  And my wife definitely wants the extra bank holiday.

Hot on the heels of Prince Harry’s return from Afghanistan, comes the story that RAF personnel were advised not to wear their uniforms in Peterborough.  Again, thanks to the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme (see previous post) I have some experience of the public’s reaction to uniform.  Members of the scheme get their own fatigues and a nifty belt, specially designed for the “regiment”, and they are encouraged to wear it when visiting troops.  So it was that at 4am I popped into an all night garage in Faringdon, on my to Brize Norton, where I was leaving for Afghanistan, wearing my fatigues.  The chap behind the counter promptly gave me a free coffee and newspaper and wished me luck.  I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was an (his) MP.  He probably would have charged me double!

At our Remembrance Day services, in Wallingford, Didcot, Faringdon, and Wantage, attendance has been going up every year.  There is a huge pride in our troops and their efforts, regardless of people’s views of the rights and wrongs of the war.  We have quite a local presence - RAF Benson, which has suffered sad losses; the bomb disposal team in Didcot, where a couple fo squadrosn have just left for a tour; and Dalton Barracks in Abingdon, where, to thank them for their almost constant presence in Iraq, the Government has decided to close their Post Office.  You couldn’t make it up.

PS for those interested, no baby yet.  Ten days late and counting!