Quality | 2009.10.07
Hugh Muir's Diary
Yes, yes! We know the man has friends. But what about his enemies?
Good news. Mandy. What a performer. More good news. Four more weeks of excitement from Barrow-in-Furness. For the Labour selection did not reach its denouement last weekend, as we rashly predicted , but will fizz along until October 24. John Woodcock, one-time adviser to the retiring MP John Hutton, real-time adviser to Gordon, heads the pack. But this will be a transparent procedure, so one wonders what the impact will be of an email, frothing with indignation, that has been sent to party members in Barrow from Woodcock\'s home turf down south in Enfield, north London. It was written by Jeff Rodin, chair of the Labour group on Enfield council. Labour has been making "serious mistakes", he says. Selecting Woodcock "would be another serious mistake". Though a member of the local party, "he has rarely been seen, and as far as I know has played little part in local campaigning activity," says Rodin. He sat on the executive committee "but as he took little part, I suspect that he took the position for purely CV purposes". Rodin has, he says, no "personal axe to grind", but tells his friends in the north that "it is important that you are aware of the deep disappointment that many of us down here felt with his lack of interest in any party work that was not directly related to the acquisition of power". Woodcock himself responds with the hope that members in Barrow will decide on the basis of what they have seen of him, rather than on the accounts of "outsiders making things up". Powerful friends, troublesome enemies. Four more weeks.
Yes, Mandy. What a performer. Didn\'t he preach, as they say in the fiery black church. He was all they were talking about last night; a much preferred experience to that of Sunday, when a security guard failed to recognise him. A much, much better experience than the occasion when his conversation with the comic Steve Coogan was interrupted by an interloper seeking a commemorative photograph. The man stood proudly next to Coogan and handed a deflated Mandy the camera.
Happy days these are for Peter Davies, the rightwing English Democrat mayor of Doncaster who rules with a little help from Cameron\'s Tories, the TaxPayers\' Alliance and the Campaign Against Political Correctness . The more he wages war on the -isms – racism, sexism, etc, the more they like him. His Doncaster is that sort of place. But there may be less happy days ahead, for his comments about the rights of the "indigenous", his moves against the town\'s premier gay event, and threats to scale back on equality work, have been made the subject of a formal complaint suggesting that he may be failing in statutory obligations to promote community harmony. His antics are also being closely watched by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and senior civil servants. He is a plain speaker. Nobody minds that. The problem is what he says.
Difficult, perhaps, to measure a life well-lived; but if the criteria include landmarks and the things we leave behind, maybe Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson (pictured) has cracked it. Just back from Kazakhstan, his 10th visit, taking aid to those affected by Soviet nuclear tests , the Conservative visited Znamenka, one of the villages blighted by radiation. He has been there eight times, and this time he unveiled a plaque renaming the village thoroughfare, known henceforth as Struan Stevenson Street. It was formerly Lenin Street. They need something to believe in. Straun Stevenson is it.
Finally, the 10:10 campaign to cut carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010 gathers pace, with 20,000 individuals signed up, almost 1,000 businesses and 500 bodies including the government and the shadow cabinet. All over the country, people are doing their bit. This ad from a recycling website in Sussex. "An opened pack of 10 silver Silk Cut, with seven left. I\'ll give priority to those picking up with minimal use of fossil fuels (eg by bike, on foot, or by public transport)." Someone has really thought this through.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/29/peter-mandelson-peter-davies
