Shared opinion

13 December 2008

It is very British to pass a law making it illegal to create a nuclear explosion

And yet, in China and France and South Africa, they do. There, they think our laws are so weird that they report them in columns specifically designed for reporting weird things. I appreciate that foreign laws can seem peculiar just because they are foreign (in Alabama, says Google, it’s illegal to wrestle a bear) but there is nothing particularly British about trains or eggs or nuclear bombs. So my only conclusion is that we must just expect a little more official intervention in our lives than the South Africans or the French or even the Chinese expect in theirs. And that’s not a thought I like at all. Gaaargh. Gaaargh and aaargh.

Is it time to start getting annoyed, do you think, with the Labour party’s hereditary principle? There’s plenty to find irritating about Speaker Martin, especially now he has started speaking only in that special, high voice he uses when he knows he is in the wrong, but what has irritated me most of all was that report in the Telegraph about a supposed plan for persuading him to stand down. ‘Senior Labour figures,’ it said, ‘are now discussing plans to persuade Michael Martin to step down as Speaker by offering his Glasgow North West seat to his son.’

To his credit, Paul Martin (an MSP) has already ridiculed the notion. Still, in the wider Labour context, it wouldn’t exactly be unprecedented. They shoved Tamsin Dunwoody into the fray in Crewe and Nantwich, didn’t they? Because on the Left, you see, you are allowed to brazenly cash in on familial political heritage without even being accused of nepotism. It’s probably something you put on your CV. Mandelson and the Milibands virtually boast about being descended from left-wing grandees, and the opportunities it afforded. Hilary Benn is afforded an extra dose of gravitas, and his niece Emily (the UK’s youngest ever parliamentary candidate, at 19) didn’t exactly come from nowhere, did she?

Should this sort of thing happen on the Right, the Labour machine would be apoplectic. Hence, there is a wariness. It took Nick Hurd so long to land a candidacy that the Telegraph dubbed him the ‘perennial Tory bridesmaid’. A Thatcher or a Major or a Heseltine would face the same sort of problems, as I suspect, will the next generation of Churchills or Soames. Indeed, anybody with a recognisably Tory name and an interest in politics should probably think about changing it. Or try journalism.

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Geoffrey Transom

December 14th, 2008 12:25am Report this comment

I agree that the descendants of Tories get a rougher shake than those of Labourites. Odd isn't it.

It's like comparing lumgworm larvae to heartworm larvae... both are the offspring of non-symbiotic parasites.

I wish they would ALL get jobs in journalism - instead of sucking at the paps of the taxpayer. Better yet - use the advioce of papal legate Arnaud Amaury at the siege of Beziers: "Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius".

Perhaps 'Dominus' should be replaced with 'Satanus' above, given the target group...

Cheers

JohnAnt

December 16th, 2008 2:09am Report this comment

"wilfully pretending to be a barrister" - someone's just done that.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/3774005/Man-who-impersonated-barrister-faces-jail.html

Roger Inkpen

April 18th, 2009 9:41am Report this comment

Tory Boy Rifkind has some weird fantasies about us LibDems. I think most people – if they have an opinion at all – probably think of us as dull but worthy people, such as Mr Huhne, Vince Cable and Ming Campbell. We’d like some less sober (whoops!) types such as Charlie Kennedy.

One reason I read the Speccie is because is usually on the button on the question of civil liberties, so unlike Tory Boy I’m not a fan of these thousands of new Labour laws. Why have a new law on impersonating a barrister when contempt of court has served us well for probably centuries? What is so peculiar about Docklands railway workers that they need extra protection?

Because Chris Huhne wasn’t reported in this country doesn’t mean his fellow citizens are not concerned. I sincerely hope this is not the general view of Conservatives to promote more laws for every circumstance.

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