The Spectator's Notes

17 March 2007

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A friend of mine who lives in a north London street where there have recently been several burglaries was alarmed by a noise outside his house at two in the morning. Looking out, he saw men in black woolly hats creeping round near his dustbins, shining torches. He was about to ring the police when one of the men turned round, and revealed a sign on his back announcing that he was from the council’s refuse collection department. The men were checking for infractions of the new rules about sorting your rubbish into different, environmentally friendly bins. Truly, the price of greenery is eternal vigilance.

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Last week, MPs voted for a wholly elected House of Lords. The Times described this as ‘historic’ and the end of a 700-year tradition. The Daily Telegraph explained that in fact nothing would happen. I hope it is not mere partisanship for the paper which employs me to say that the Telegraph got it right. To cut a very long story short, it will not be possible for the Houses of Parliament to reach agreement on a wholly elected House (where would poor, dear ex-Cabinet ministers, judges, bishops, generals, Cabinet secretaries go?). Without agreement, there is not enough time to get anything sorted out before the next election. Nor is it worth making any plan shortly before we have a new prime minister. Nor will that new prime minister, if he wins the next election with a small majority, want to plunge his party into all this wrangling. And if the Tories win the election, they will not want their first term wasted with such stuff. Because of our strange political situation at present, almost every issue is like this — a matter of positioning or ‘legacy’, not of action. By the same token, there will be no reform of party funding after Sir Hayden Phillips’s report this week.

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