Party Political Animal

I think that the good selectors of SW Norfolk are right to be concerned about Elizabeth Truss, but not on “neanderthal” grounds, as one blogger put it.

Let’s get this one out of the way. Politicians private lives should be just that – private – unless they have acted illegally, hypocritically, or chucked their kids and families at us as electoral props. Truss’ ex-shag, Mark Field, is still an MP. He has not been asked or forced to resign, so why should Liz Truss not stand?

People are sexual animals and they get into scrapes. I don’t recommend affairs with married men or women, especially where families are involved, but it’s perfectly possible for someone, driven by their hormones or whatever,  to be unfaithful and dishonest in their private lives and yet be pretty much straight and honest in their public ones.

The reverse is, of course, true. Tony Blair, I have no doubt, was 100% faithful to Cherie – he wouldn’t have dared do anything else. But he was one of the most prevaricating, dodgy and devious politicians of the late 20th and so far, 21st centuries – and God knows, there’s some competition.

What worries me about Liz Truss is something else. The Commons is already rammed with career politicians. Checking out the Truss CV, she does appear to have spent a little time in the oil industry, but it’s all a bit hazy and for most of her working life she’s been in, yes, public affairs and a think tank. So Truss seems to be yet another member of the politocracy.

Truss was also an an A-lister. Now I’m completely onside with the Cameron project to change, or “modernise” the tone of the Tory Party. But affirmative action programmes for women are unnecessary and contrary to the rights of people to be treated as individuals rather than members of groups. It also runs counter to the principle of choosing the best person for the job, regardless of gender etc.

Cameron could have changed the tone and modernised the party without this sort of thing. Promising that one-third of his ministers will be women may gain cheers from the media, but its no alternative to developing a real modern narrative for the Conservatives, which he has largely failed to do.

After the next election, at least a third of the new MPs will be freshers. Central Office has had it’s clammy paws all over Tory selections so that most of the new Tories will be beholden to David Cameron.  Like Blair, Cameron will have a pliant, inexperienced and careerist parliamentary party and an unelected and unaccountable Lords offering the PM loads of patronage.

Of course, no governing party can operate if significant numbers of its own MPs are always slagging it off – as Gordon Brown knows. But no government works well when it can shovel its policies and legislation through without too much thought or real discussion.

It all seems horribly reminiscent of Tony Blair. The feeling that they are being taken for granted and controlled for not wholly desirable ends is what, I suspect, is really getting the Norfolk Tories a bit twitchy.

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