Balgreen Halt reborn

The ever excellent Liberal England - possibly overstretching his geographical remit - dug out some excellent footage of disused railways in Edinburgh, including footage of Balgreen Halt on the Corstophine branch line.

But Balgreen Halt is not really disused anymore with a tramstop of the same name on the increasingly successful Edinburgh tramline.  And my visit to Edinburgh last week wouldn't have been complete without a ride on the tram coincidently to Balgreen:

Friday favourite 133

Had an interesting work trip to Leicester earlier in the week, and was rather disappointed not to bump in to the estimable Lord Bonkers.  But anyway its really just an excuse to feature Leicester's finest, Kasabian...

Reshuffle speculation

Given all the speculation about a cabinet reshuffle I thought it's time to re-enter the debate.  Here's a reminder of my suggestions from January last year...

Cabinet reshuffle.

A period of silence from Lord Steel would be welcome...

Newsnight carried a debate this evening between a Conservative MP and Liberal Peer on Lords' reform.

One argued for a democratic chamber elected by Single Transferable Vote as promised in his party's manifesto. The other said his party's manifesto was wrong, the primacy of the Commons was vital and said that reform should be limited and evolutionary - carrying on the baby steps started by the Parliament Act in 1911.

The former, of course, was the Conservative MP and the latter undemocratic prevaricator was Lord Steel.

It is available on i-player here.

Lord Steel was MP for Roxburgh South West 1906-1910.

Friday favourite 51

The Strange Death of Liberal England - one assumes the noble Lord Bonkers will have something to say...

Former Kingston councillor loses out as Helmer defects

Rupert Mathews - a former Conservative councillor in Surbiton - has had his hopes of becoming a Euro MP dashed with the announcement that Roger Helmer has left the Tories to join UKIP. Conservative Home has the story.

Mathews has a colourful history in Kingston - but probably an even more colourful one in the East Midlands as Jonathan Calder reports.

Former Kingston councillor to become MEP

Right wing Tory MEP Roger Helmer has announced he is quitting the Conservative Party and the European Parliament at the end of the year.

Liberal England reports that his place on the list will be taken up by one Rupert Matthews - an eccentric writer and self styled expert on alien abductions.

This Rupert Matthews is the same Rupert Matthews who was a councillor in Surbiton and managed to lose his seat twice in eight years to the Liberal Democrats.

Matthews was one of the young(ish) very right wing Tories who took over the Conservatives in Kingston and Surbiton in the early 1990s. Their extreme views and ousting of the moderate old guard meant that a 15,000 Conservative majority at the 1992 election was overturned by Edward Davey in 1997 by just 56 votes - despite the seat not being targeted by the Liberal Democrats centrally. Instead of learning the lesson Matthews and his cronies persisted in picking even more right wing candidates - resulting in Davey's massacre of former Tory MP David Shaw by 15,000 votes in 2001 and Kevin Davis by nearly 10,000 votes in 2005.

In the interim they split the local Conservatives in two - resulting in Matthews's ward colleagues resigning the party and the two factions ending up in the courts over plans to sell off their Surbiton HQ and club.

Matthews is a worthy successor to Helmer and shows that the old unacceptable face of the Tory party is alive and well - but worrying about imaginary aliens rather than European ones.

Incidently Matthews prodigy Kevin Davis - who lost to Ed Davey in 2005 - went on to be soundly beaten by David Laws in 2010.

And in other news....

As an occasional cricket fan I was saddened to hear of the death at just 52 of Graham Dilley.

Dilley was integral in that amazing summer comeback by England in 1981 against the Aussies and as is usual on these occasions the Telegraph's obituary does the honours.

Jonathan Calder reckons the next Ashes series was his finest hour.

Chris Huhne - the new Gerald Nabarro?

With the Tory press doing their best to try and pin a driving offence identity swap on Lib Dem Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, one can't help be reminded of a previous case involving an MP.

In this case the MP was outspoken Tory right winger (and Lord Bonkers lookalike) Gerald Nabarro. In 1971 a Daimler bearing the registration number 'NAB 1' was seen to be driving dangerously on the wrong side of the road in Totton Hampshire. An eye witness claimed a moustachioed man was behind the wheel and Nabarro was fined and banned, despite claiming his secretary was driving.

He appealed and new witnesses came forward to corroborate his story, but unfortunately he suffered two strokes and died shortly after. The Daily Echo has a good account of the story here.

In another twist his parliamentary secretary at the time was Christine Holman - better known now as Christine Hamilton.

I doubt whatever the outcome of the Huhne case - and it looks more and more like simply the fallout from his messy divorce - it is as unlikely to be anything like as colourful as the protagonists in the Nabarro case.

Friday favourite

This week'sFriday favourite shows Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart at their pomp. But it's not the Eurythmics. It's with the late Pete Coombes as part of the ultimate post punk pop band the Tourists.

And one of the bizarre things about this video is it's filmed at the semi derelict Quainton Road station on the old Great Central mainline. And as a result I hope Lord Bonkers and his representative on the interweb - Jonathan Calder appreciate it.

My coalition reshuffle

Caron Lindsay has kindly nominated me to play fantasy cabinet and suggest how the coalition cabinet might be reshuffled. But before naming names I thought it might be interesting to look at the make up of the current government.

According to the No 10 website there are 23 ‘full’ cabinet ministers, plus five who are ‘in attendance’, plus the Attorney General who also attends on an ad hoc basis.

Outside of the cabinet there are a further 97 ministers at various levels (including the six who attend the cabinet).

There are 18 ministries, plus the cabinet office (who service David Cameron), two leader’s officers (Commons and Lords), two sets of whips offices and the law offices.

So it’s easy to see how the tentacles of government reach into every corner of the political sphere and how difficult it is for backbenchers – with hugely limited resources in comparison – to call them to account.

So my first reshuffle would be a cull of ministries and ministers – particularly as the number of MPs are about to be reduced (Lords filibuster not withstanding). I’d also strengthen the power of select committees to make it easier for government to be properly held to account.

I’d abolish seven ministries that appear to duplicate other areas of government or where what little power they actually have could be exercised elsewhere:
· Scotland
· Wales
· Northern Ireland
· Culture, Leisure and Sport
· Local Government
· DEFRA
· Transport

I’d create a new infrastructure department to oversee housing, transport, rural affairs, Olympics and strategic planning policy (basically the bits of the seven abolished ministries that can’t be done away with completely).

I’d merge Business Innovation and Skills (dropping the innovation bit as it’s not the government’s job to pick winners) with Education. I’d take the green stuff from DEFRA to a new Energy, Climate and Environment department.

The food agenda can be safely despatched to Brussels (CAP and tariffs etc) with food standards to local government

However the most glaring omission from the current governmental arrangements is support for the Deputy PM – the PM has the Cabinet Office so an Office of Deputy PM should be created to provide Nick with the policy, research and communications support that has been so obviously lacking over the past 9 months.

With a reduced number of portfolios I’d envisage a Cabinet of 19 split 15:4, with an additional 13 other Lib Dems serving as junior ministers. Sadly under my scheme Tory casualties would include Eric Pickles, Michael Gove and Caroline Spelman…

Obviously there would be Lib Dem casualties too, but I’d go further and bring in new blood and try to do something about the party’s lack of gender balance. So out would go Vince (once he’s smashed up the banks) – there’s a place for him on the Strictly Come Dancing judging panel. Chris Huhne could return to Brussels as UK commissioner and with the Scottish office gone Michael Moore could go back to looking rugged and sweet talking the ladies of Lauder.

I’d promote Sarah Teather to Secretary of State for the enlarged Environment department and Ed Davey to the new enlarged Business and Skills and Learning department.

Danny Alexander would stay at the Treasury.

I’d promote Norman Lamb from whip to head the ODPM and coordinate Lib Dem policy in government, ably assisted by Jo Swinson (with a particular remit to look at lifestyle issues) with the political grit provided by Lord Greaves (communications and campaigning)

There would be no change at Justice (Lord McNally as junior minister), Home Office (Featherstone), Defence (Harvey), Work and Pensions (Webb) and Health (Burstow), Norman Baker would switch to the new infrastructure department.

I’d bring in John Thurso into the Foreign Office to replace Jeremy Browne – for the beard if nothing else - (and because like many I’ve been deeply unimpressed by Browne).

I’d keep the whips – Alistair Carmichael and Mark Hunter – and David Heath in the Leader of the Commons’ office.

This would mean there would be a Lib Dem in every department – apart from International Development.

There would of course be one vacancy left and given the need for the parliamentary party to put the splits of the tuition fee debacle behind I would bolster the Whips Office (replacing Norman Lamb) with the inestimable Lord Bonkers – the party’s last remaining link to the Liberal landslide government of 1906, Bonkers is the epitome of loyalty to the party over the years, can recite the Areopagitica backwards and comes with unpaid support from Meadowcroft. I’d reckon he’d clampdown on the slightest sniff of rebellions as quickly as you can say ‘counterfactual’.