Queueing to get into the House of Commons usually takes about five minutes, if that. Yesterday, it was taking surprisingly longer. Even after all the security checks (which involved being lightly patted down), I was told it would take me quite some time to actually get to the viewing chamber.
But surely there’s nothing major going on, I thought: surely it’s just a matter of a few maiden speeches being made, and so on?
Well, no. As it turns out, the Prime Minister was at the despatch box.
And fortunately, 30 minutes after I joined the line, he still was. Because, as I remembered belatedly, the Saville Report was being published.
I’ve been to the House of Commons before, but actually seeing David Cameron stand up to field various questions was something altogether different. It was also a moment of history. The events of Bloody Sunday, which took place over 38 years ago, never make for pleasant reading; but Conservative governments have usually tried to shy away from the event, seeing as it occurred under the premiership of Edward Heath, their former leader.
Cameron, however, was making no excuses.
“That is why I reached my conclusion about there being no equivocation. When one reads the summary, whatever preconceived ideas one brings to the whole area and to what happened, one is given an incredibly clear sense of what happened and how wrong it was. I hope that, whatever side of the argument people come from, a report as clear as this will help them to come to terms with the past, because it puts matters beyond doubt. In that way, as I said, I think that the truth can help to free people from their preconceived ideas.”
So, in a word: the British army messed up, and it was unjustified. The 13 victims were, in a word, innocent.
Even better was Cameron’s response to a question from the Lib Dem MP Bob Russell…
“It is not in their interests, and nor is it in our interests, to try to gloss over what happened on that dreadful day.”
Considering this is such a hot potato for a Conservative PM - who you would normally expect to protect the Armed Forces from any controversy - he handled most questions impeccably.
But the best piece of speaking was left to Dr William McCrea, MP for South Antrim, who certainly left me moved, and Cameron a little raw:
“I am sure the Prime Minister would not like to support a hierarchy of victimhood. On 17 January 1992, eight innocent civilian construction workers at Teebane were murdered by the Provisional IRA, and six others were seriously injured. On 9 April 1991, my cousin Derek was gunned down and his child was left to put his fingers into the holes where the blood was coming out to try to stop his father dying. On 7 February 1976, my two cousins were brutally murdered-one boy, 16, and his sister, 21, on the day she was engaged to be married. Therefore I say this to the Prime Minister: no one has ever been charged for any of those murders, and there have been no inquiries. Countless others, including 211 Royal Ulster Constabulary members, were also murdered.
Saville says: “None” of the casualties “was posing any threat of causing death or serious injury”, but that could be said of Teebane, of Derek, of Robert and of Rachel. How do we get closure, how do we get justice, and how do we get the truth?”
To which Cameron replied:
The hon. Gentleman rightly speaks with great power and emotion about how people on all sides in Northern Ireland have suffered, and people in the community that he represents have suffered particularly badly. Some horrific things have happened to people completely unconnected with politics-people who are innocent on every single level-and there is nothing that you can do to explain to someone who lost a loved one in that way that there is any logic, fairness or sense in that loss. The hon. Gentleman asks how we try to achieve closure on such matters. There is no easy way, but we have the Historical Enquiries Team, which goes through case after case, and if it finds the evidence, prosecutions can take place.
I hope that the inquiry report published today will give some closure to those families from Londonderry, but one way for families who have suffered to gain more closure about the past is for terrorists or former terrorists to come forward and give information about those crimes. However, in the end, we have to move forward and we have to accept that dreadful things happened. We do not want to return to those days, and that sometimes means - as he and I know - burying very painful memories about the past so that we can try to build a future.”
So all in all, stirring stuff, and I’m glad I decided to go along for a few hours.
And bizarrely, Nick Clegg sitting next to Cameron doesn’t look that odd. Hmm.
The Evening Stanners
Showing posts with label dianne abbott. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dianne abbott. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
A Message to South Africa and Mexico
GET IT ON TARGET!
Muppets.
South Africa appear to have misunderstood the importance of being the hosts. Hosts! You are not allowed to be horrendous. So ideally, keep doing what you did for the last five minutes of the half, and keep firing it towards the Mexican goalie. Because, quite frankly, he's not quite tall enough to stop everything.
But yes, at the moment, the Labour Party leadership contest looks more interesting than this: and that, as I recently found out, is a contest between five people who ALL went to Oxbridge. Oxford and Cambridge are awesome, yes: but bizarrely, neither are Labour strongholds. Paradoxical stuff!
Ah, they've re-started. And when this match is over sirs, I shall be orf to Cambridge. Cheerio!
The Evening Stanners
Muppets.
South Africa appear to have misunderstood the importance of being the hosts. Hosts! You are not allowed to be horrendous. So ideally, keep doing what you did for the last five minutes of the half, and keep firing it towards the Mexican goalie. Because, quite frankly, he's not quite tall enough to stop everything.
But yes, at the moment, the Labour Party leadership contest looks more interesting than this: and that, as I recently found out, is a contest between five people who ALL went to Oxbridge. Oxford and Cambridge are awesome, yes: but bizarrely, neither are Labour strongholds. Paradoxical stuff!
Ah, they've re-started. And when this match is over sirs, I shall be orf to Cambridge. Cheerio!
The Evening Stanners
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Labour Leadership Contest...
JUST.
GOT.
INTERESTING.
Taken from that raging leftie machine of death... I mean, the Guardian :-)
Diane Abbott today became the first black person to contest the Labour leadership after a flurry of late nominations secured her place in the race alongside four other contenders.
The leftwing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington will fight for the leadership alongside David Miliband, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, who were already confirmed as contenders.
She is joined by Andy Burnham, who this morning notched up the last two nominations from Labour MPs he needed to reach the threshold of 33.
Abbott entered on the closing day for nominations with the support of just 11 MPs – 22 short of the threshold. Amid unease that the race would be made up exclusively of white, male, Oxbridge-educated candidates, support for Abbott soared in the final hours before today's 12.30pm deadline when her fellow leftwinger John McDonnell withdrew and key figures such as David Miliband revealed that they were nominating her.
Abbott's campaign had already received a big boost when Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, took the unusual step yesterday of nominating her to ensure a woman's name on the ballot paper. As acting party leader, Harman does not intend to cast a vote in the election.
Today, McDonnell revealed he was withdrawing from the contest because he could not secure enough nominations and wanted to ensure the presence of a woman on the ballot.
The MP for Hayes and Harlington, who chairs the Socialist Campaign group, which Abbott attends, made his announcement just three hours before the deadline.
Harman was rumoured to be lobbying party colleagues to lend their support to Abbott in the final hours before nominations closed, with the remaining MPs required reportedly signing her nominations during the final minutes, as prime minister's questions was under way at noon.
Balls had asked MPs who had yet to cast their vote to throw their weight behind Abbott, since he had already received 33 nominations.
Miliband, the shadow foreign secretary, made good on his promise last week to offer his nomination to any candidate if it might make the difference to them appearing on the ballot paper.
In a Twitter message, he said: "Gather John McDonnell pulled out. I'm going now to nominate Dianne [sic] myself. Encourage others to do the same."
Jim Murphy, the shadow Scottish secretary, revealed that David Miliband had lobbied in favour of Abbott. "Good that David Miliband spent morning on phone persuading MPs to nominate Diane Abbott," Murphy said on Twitter. "It worked and good for contest."
Two of the last people to nominate Abbott were Jack Straw and Phil Woolas. Woolas was asked to nominate her by David Miliband. Straw and Woolas were keen to get her on the ballot even though she has condemned the Labour policy on immigration they strongly supported.
Abbott said she would stand out from the other candidates because of her "very different view on immigration", her record of opposition to the Iraq war from the start and her determination to recapture the civil liberties agenda from the Tories.
"The important thing is to have the best possible debate and then to regroup and lead the battle to protect our communities against Tory cuts," she said.
Citing 23 years on the backbenches, Abbott said she knew the importance of taking party members seriously and reconnecting with the party's grassroots.
Abbott, a Cambridge graduate, said: "I have never been a policy wonk. My parents left school at 14 and emigrated here in the 1950s. I am a single mother and I have spent 23 years working at every level in this party."
Confirming the candidates, Harman said: "This will be the biggest and most widespread election of any political party or any organisation in this country. The contest will be open, engaging and energising. It will be a chance to invite supporters to join the party to have a vote."
McDonnell's decision to withdraw from the race means he has now twice been thwarted in his attempt to represent the left in a leadership debate. His attempt to challenge Gordon Brown in 2007 failed after he did not manage to secure the necessary number of nominations.
His latest campaign was marred by his joke earlier this week that he would like to have gone back in time and assassinated Margaret Thatcher, the former Tory prime minister.
Shadow environment secretary Hilary Benn, who backs Ed Miliband, denied the last-minute race to secure enough nominations for Abbott meant the contest had become a shambles.
"It's not a shambles at all," he told BBC Radio 4's The World At One. "It's going to be a good contest. There's going to be an open political debate because we are not just choosing a leader, we are determining the future of the party."
Abbott denied she was the beneficiary of positive discrimination. "Not at all," she told the BBC News Channel. "I have been an MP for 23 years and if, after 23 years, I haven't earned the right to stand for the leadership then nothing counts for anything."
Abbott said her senior colleagues had responded to the mood within the party for a contest with a greater diversity of candidates.
"This isn't an artificial thing," she said. "There is real support out there, both in the party and the public, for the broadest possible slate of candidates and for a proper debate about the future of the Labour party."
Abbott, who appeared on the BBC's late-night This Week politics show prior to throwing her hat in the ring, cited opinion polls which indicated that was the second most popular candidate among Labour voters and the top choice of the public at large.
"My support came from across the party and I believe in the contest I will get support from across the party also," she said.
The successor to Gordon Brown will be chosen by a complicated electoral college system in which three sections – MPs and MEPs; affiliated organisations including trade unions; and party members – each wield one third of the vote.
The postal ballot will be conducted over the summer, with the result announced on 25 September at a special conference ahead of the party's annual autumn gathering in Manchester.
Voters will rank candidates in numerical order of preference on ballot papers, with a "transferable eliminating" system used to redistribute votes until one contender has more than 50% support.
Labour is hoping that interest in the leadership contest will spark a surge in membership applications, with anyone joining the party before September 8 entitled to vote.
Exciting stuff, no? It's definitely a good day for democracy, because this leadership contest was in danger of becoming horrendously boring. As it is, we now have five people running instead of three, two of whom are relative unknowns, and one of whom (Abbott) is on the left of the party, voted against the Iraq War and is a backbencher. Burnham will also make things more interesting, whilst the performance of Ed Balls, David Miliband and Ed Miliband will show just how dead or alive New Labour is.
Also pleased that Harman backed Abbott. Another triumph for Women's Lib, perhaps?
The Evening Stanners
GOT.
INTERESTING.
Taken from that raging leftie machine of death... I mean, the Guardian :-)
Diane Abbott today became the first black person to contest the Labour leadership after a flurry of late nominations secured her place in the race alongside four other contenders.
The leftwing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington will fight for the leadership alongside David Miliband, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, who were already confirmed as contenders.
She is joined by Andy Burnham, who this morning notched up the last two nominations from Labour MPs he needed to reach the threshold of 33.
Abbott entered on the closing day for nominations with the support of just 11 MPs – 22 short of the threshold. Amid unease that the race would be made up exclusively of white, male, Oxbridge-educated candidates, support for Abbott soared in the final hours before today's 12.30pm deadline when her fellow leftwinger John McDonnell withdrew and key figures such as David Miliband revealed that they were nominating her.
Abbott's campaign had already received a big boost when Harriet Harman, the acting Labour leader, took the unusual step yesterday of nominating her to ensure a woman's name on the ballot paper. As acting party leader, Harman does not intend to cast a vote in the election.
Today, McDonnell revealed he was withdrawing from the contest because he could not secure enough nominations and wanted to ensure the presence of a woman on the ballot.
The MP for Hayes and Harlington, who chairs the Socialist Campaign group, which Abbott attends, made his announcement just three hours before the deadline.
Harman was rumoured to be lobbying party colleagues to lend their support to Abbott in the final hours before nominations closed, with the remaining MPs required reportedly signing her nominations during the final minutes, as prime minister's questions was under way at noon.
Balls had asked MPs who had yet to cast their vote to throw their weight behind Abbott, since he had already received 33 nominations.
Miliband, the shadow foreign secretary, made good on his promise last week to offer his nomination to any candidate if it might make the difference to them appearing on the ballot paper.
In a Twitter message, he said: "Gather John McDonnell pulled out. I'm going now to nominate Dianne [sic] myself. Encourage others to do the same."
Jim Murphy, the shadow Scottish secretary, revealed that David Miliband had lobbied in favour of Abbott. "Good that David Miliband spent morning on phone persuading MPs to nominate Diane Abbott," Murphy said on Twitter. "It worked and good for contest."
Two of the last people to nominate Abbott were Jack Straw and Phil Woolas. Woolas was asked to nominate her by David Miliband. Straw and Woolas were keen to get her on the ballot even though she has condemned the Labour policy on immigration they strongly supported.
Abbott said she would stand out from the other candidates because of her "very different view on immigration", her record of opposition to the Iraq war from the start and her determination to recapture the civil liberties agenda from the Tories.
"The important thing is to have the best possible debate and then to regroup and lead the battle to protect our communities against Tory cuts," she said.
Citing 23 years on the backbenches, Abbott said she knew the importance of taking party members seriously and reconnecting with the party's grassroots.
Abbott, a Cambridge graduate, said: "I have never been a policy wonk. My parents left school at 14 and emigrated here in the 1950s. I am a single mother and I have spent 23 years working at every level in this party."
Confirming the candidates, Harman said: "This will be the biggest and most widespread election of any political party or any organisation in this country. The contest will be open, engaging and energising. It will be a chance to invite supporters to join the party to have a vote."
McDonnell's decision to withdraw from the race means he has now twice been thwarted in his attempt to represent the left in a leadership debate. His attempt to challenge Gordon Brown in 2007 failed after he did not manage to secure the necessary number of nominations.
His latest campaign was marred by his joke earlier this week that he would like to have gone back in time and assassinated Margaret Thatcher, the former Tory prime minister.
Shadow environment secretary Hilary Benn, who backs Ed Miliband, denied the last-minute race to secure enough nominations for Abbott meant the contest had become a shambles.
"It's not a shambles at all," he told BBC Radio 4's The World At One. "It's going to be a good contest. There's going to be an open political debate because we are not just choosing a leader, we are determining the future of the party."
Abbott denied she was the beneficiary of positive discrimination. "Not at all," she told the BBC News Channel. "I have been an MP for 23 years and if, after 23 years, I haven't earned the right to stand for the leadership then nothing counts for anything."
Abbott said her senior colleagues had responded to the mood within the party for a contest with a greater diversity of candidates.
"This isn't an artificial thing," she said. "There is real support out there, both in the party and the public, for the broadest possible slate of candidates and for a proper debate about the future of the Labour party."
Abbott, who appeared on the BBC's late-night This Week politics show prior to throwing her hat in the ring, cited opinion polls which indicated that was the second most popular candidate among Labour voters and the top choice of the public at large.
"My support came from across the party and I believe in the contest I will get support from across the party also," she said.
The successor to Gordon Brown will be chosen by a complicated electoral college system in which three sections – MPs and MEPs; affiliated organisations including trade unions; and party members – each wield one third of the vote.
The postal ballot will be conducted over the summer, with the result announced on 25 September at a special conference ahead of the party's annual autumn gathering in Manchester.
Voters will rank candidates in numerical order of preference on ballot papers, with a "transferable eliminating" system used to redistribute votes until one contender has more than 50% support.
Labour is hoping that interest in the leadership contest will spark a surge in membership applications, with anyone joining the party before September 8 entitled to vote.
Exciting stuff, no? It's definitely a good day for democracy, because this leadership contest was in danger of becoming horrendously boring. As it is, we now have five people running instead of three, two of whom are relative unknowns, and one of whom (Abbott) is on the left of the party, voted against the Iraq War and is a backbencher. Burnham will also make things more interesting, whilst the performance of Ed Balls, David Miliband and Ed Miliband will show just how dead or alive New Labour is.
Also pleased that Harman backed Abbott. Another triumph for Women's Lib, perhaps?
The Evening Stanners
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
