Triesman, Millibands and Nigel Mills – what’s the connection?
Last weekend, Ed Millipede announced he was standing against his brother for the Labour leadership. Lord Triesman made the headlines too – and less well-reported, on Saturday evening Amber Valley Conservatives celebrated the election of Nigel Mills after a massive swing.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of people reporting private conversations – Liam Byrne’s private letter to his successor was another victim of our cavalier attitude to privacy – Lord Triesman represents much of what has gone wrong with our politics.
Triesman has done virtually nothing in his 67 years outside of politics. A union official and then general secretary of the Labour Party, this former communist turned very new Labour and became yet another unelected member of a House of Lords which his party had come to power promising to “democratise”.
He then became an unelected minister and thence, a few years ago, chairman of the FA – a post formerly reserved for people who had spent their career in the FA. Presumably the Football Association thought that appointing a Labour time-server would buy them influence. That is symptomatic of the politicisation of large sections of life and the way in which political patronage has created a cadre of time-serving careerists.
On to Ed Millipede – capable, bright, personable. Also glib, a bit oily and a career politician with absolutely no experience of work or life outside of politics – like his brother. Like, some might point out, Dave and Nick. Like so many in the outgoing and incoming Cabinets. Like too many of the new intake of MPs.
And Nigel Mills? Sure, he’s been a local councillor. But he has spent his working life as an accountant. He comes from the the area he represents. No A-list for Nigel – and no financial help from Lord Ashcroft’s pot.
So while A-listers were being trashed in the metropolis with low, single figure swings, Nigel, who has worked the area for years with a dedicated band of local people, got a double-figure swing and swept aside a Labour MP who thought she was in for life.
Thank God we’ve got one or two real people in the Commons.
