More Bad News

Appalling news coming in of arrests in Birmingham under the Terrorism Act. It appears that the police may have foiled an attempt to capture, torture and behead a member of the armed forces.

The terrorist threat in this country is constantly changing and, it seems, growing in severity. We urgently need a dedicated Department of Security to co-ordinate the anti-terrorist response.

I had hopes until recently that John Reid would recognise the case for a Security Department and put the wheels in motion to create one. However, he now appears to be overwhelmed by the Home Office’s problems.

The recent suggestion that his Department be split in two, with one part responsible for enforcement and the other for justice administration is not the right solution. The scale of the threat from terrorism demands nothing less than a stand-alone Department.

Every One a Winner

The Casino Advisory Panel has announced that, subject to the approval of Parliament, Britain’s first super-casino will be located in Manchester.

The announcement will come as a massive disappointment to London’s Docklands and Blackpool, both of which had been thought to be the front runners.

I have mixed feelings about the news. On the one hand, the scheme will bring much-needed regeneration to a run-down part of Northern England. On the other, I have a real fear that casinos tend to bring with them the potential for enormous social problems, including gambling addiction and debt.

If anything, I am sorry that the project is not going to Blackpool. Last time I was there, for a party conference, the town looked tired and shabby. A casino might have given it the boost it sorely needs; it is now hard to see much of a future for what was once Britain’s top holiday resort.

This Government has an unhealthy enthusiasm for gambling of all kinds. Recently, Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, announced that he wanted to make the UK a world leader in online gaming, an even sadder, more solitary activity than playing the casino tables.

Home Truths

If ever there was a poisoned chalice in politics, it must be the office of Secretary of State for Home Affairs. Traditionally one of the three great offices of state below that of Prime Minister, the role of Home Secretary has been a nail in the political coffins of successive Ministers. Over the last few years, Jack Straw, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke have all held the office and have all experienced turbulent times during their tenure.

John Reid is the latest senior Minister to feel the particular pain that the office of Home Secretary can inflict upon its holder.

Last week was, by any standards, an appallingly bad time for Dr Reid. On Tuesday, he told judges that, because the prisons were, in Tony Blair’s phrase, “full to bursting point”, they should be wary of sentencing criminals to custody.

Within 24 hours, in Mold Crown Court, Judge John Rogers QC announced that he would not be sentencing a Blaenau Ffestinog man to imprisonment for downloading indecent pictures of children because of, among other things, Dr Reid’s direction. A day later, another judge announced that he would not send a convicted paedophile to prison pending sentence, again because of the Home Office direction.

Naturally enough, these decisions have caused outrage. People cannot accept that sentences should be tailored to the availability of prison places. Reasonably enough, they wonder why sufficient prison places have not already been provided.

The political damage to John Reid is such that he will probably not now challenge Gordon Brown for the leadership of the Labour Party. It may even cost him his job, although he may be saved by the simple fact that it would be very difficult to find another senior Minister who would be willing to take on the role.

When Dr Reid arrived at the Home Office last year, he pronounced it dysfunctional and not fit for purpose. The events of subsequent months have shown how accurate that assessment was. Clearly, there are such huge problems within the Home Office that fundamental structural changes are called for.

Dr Reid has, apparently, called for the Department to be split in two. Certainly, it is far too big in its present form to carry out its functions efficiently. It remains to be seen whether Dr Reid’s proposals, when they are announced, will have the effect of stopping the rot. Given recent experiences, it would perhaps be optimistic to expect too much.

Waiting on a Jet Plane

Another nightmare journey back to Westminster yesterday. The North Wales coast railway line was closed, so I opted to fly from Manchester to Gatwick. The return ticket cost only £73 – a fraction of the price of the return railway fare, so it seemed a good deal.

At Manchester it was snowing. We were loaded onto the plane at the due time and then told that we could not take off until the aircraft had been de-iced. This was obviously sensible and everyone was happy to put up with what we were told would be a 20 minute delay. In fact, it turned out to be one and a half hours.

At Gatwick, the shuttle between the two terminals wasn’t working properly, so it took over 15 minutes to get to the railway station, where I caught the train to Victoria. This was supposed to be a non-stop service, but in fact we were stuck at Clapham Junction for almost ten minutes, waiting for goodness knows what.

The whole journey took almost seven hours, door to door. It should have taken about five.

We have now reached the point where the transport infrastructure of this country almost ceases to function at weekends. It has worsened significantly under this Government. Every time I travel to Westminster on a Sunday, I am reminded just how much I want them to go.

Mutton dressed as Mutton

Yesterday, the Farmers Union of Wales held a Parliamentary lunch in the House of Lords and were kind enough to invite me along.

The meal was comprised entirely of Welsh produce, and very good it was, too. For me, the highlight was a delicious casserole of Welsh mutton. Apparently, mutton was a staple element of British cuisine until the last century, when it was supplanted by lamb. Representatives of the Mutton Renaissance Club, formed to promote a revival of the meat’s popularity, were present at the lunch and FUW President, Gareth Vaughan, read out a letter from the Prince of Wales urging us all to eat it.

I am ashamed to say that it was the first time I have tried mutton. I became an immediate fan and certainly intend to eat it again – if only I can find a butcher who sells it.

Hell is Other People

The phenomenon of the Channel 4 programme Big Brother is remarkable. It was first aired in the Netherlands in 1999 and since then its format has been adopted in many countries throughout the world.

In the UK, Big Brother comes in two flavours: the original, bog-standard version and the more recent development of Celebrity Big Brother. The latter is notable for the fact that very few of its participants are real celebrities, or at least have not been for many years.

Of late, the two formats have overlapped; last year, Celebrity Big Brother was won by the only contestant who was unarguably not a celebrity (one Chantelle Houghton) and this year one of the participants is Jade Goody, who became a celebrity only by competing in (and losing) an earlier series of the original, non-celebrity, programme.

All the above information I have obtained second-hand. I have never watched Big Brother, save for glimpses when channel-hopping. However, such has been the success of the show that each series has attracted intense media interest. It has been simply impossible to avoid references to Big Brother in the press and broadcast media; the programme in some strange way appears to have captured the zeitgeist of the early 21st century.

This week, Big Brother seized the serious news headlines when Jade Goody and other contestants in the present Celebrity series were accused of racially abusing the Indian actress, Shilpa Shetty. Excerpts were shown on BBC News and they were horrifying. Questions were asked in the House. An Early Day Motion was tabled. Big Brother’s sponsors, Carphone Warehouse, withdrew their support. Most embarrassingly, Gordon Brown’s pre-coronation trip to India was overshadowed by angry demonstrations against the programme.

It remains to be seen whether the general disgust over the treatment of Ms Shetty will lead to the demise of Big Brother or simply increase its audience. However, even if it does survive, it is unlikely that I will start watching it. Big Brother has too much of the theatre of cruelty about it.

Like bear-baiting or the Roman arena, the secret of Big Brother’s success is the torment it inflicts on its (admittedly willing) victims. As a spectacle, it is revolting, but, I suspect, mesmerising.

Sartre observed, in Huis Clos, that “Hell is other people”. I always thought he was entirely, desparingly wrong; but if I were Shilpa Shetty, I might be inclined to agree with him.

Last Throw of the Dice

The front page of today’s Western Mail splashes the news that Labour “intend to send their Cabinet big guns Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to Wales to battle the Tory threat in the Assembly elections”.

The news, if true, is interesting on more than one count. Firstly, it underlines that Labour are giving serious recognition to the Conservative challenge in Wales. Only a few weeks ago, Peter Hain told an audience of Labour activists that they should be prepared for a “bare-knuckle fight” with the Tories in next May’s election.

Labour’s assessment of the Tory threat is well founded. The Conservatives are consistently winning council seats in by-elections across Wales, particularly in constituencies they hope to win (not least Clwyd West). If recent council results are replicated in the Assembly election, the Tories will certainly increase their presence in Cardiff Bay next May and break the Labour stranglehold that has been so damaging to Wales.

Secondly, the news shows a certain desperation in Labour ranks. The days when Tony Blair was an electoral asset are long gone. His disastrous handling of British foreign policy (obliquely criticised by the aforementioned Peter Hain only this week, when he castigated Blair’s closest ally, George Bush) and his lifestyle of conspicuous consumption (directly criticised this week by my colleague Cheryl Gillan in her speech to the Centre for Policy Studies) are a huge turn-off to most Welsh voters.

Blair has become such an electoral liability that he was kept well away from Blaenau Gwent during last year’s by-election, so to wheel him out next May looks a little like the last throw of the dice. The Mail observes, "Some Labour activists and MPs ... fear Mr Blair's continued tenure in Downing Street is harming the party's electoral chances." Quite.

Electric Shocks

The phenomenal recent rise in energy prices has affected most of us. Since 2003, average electricity bills have risen by 56 per cent, principally due to increasing oil prices. Most of this increase occurred in 2006. Now oil prices are starting to fall, but, so far, the energy companies have failed to pass on the savings to their consumers.

The increase in the cost of electricity has been most keenly felt by users of token prepayment meters, whose supply tariff is often the most expensive. Token meter consumers buy credit at Paypoint outlets and are in return supplied with a paper token to insert into their meters.

Prepayment meters are intended to help people budget, but I have recently been approached by a large number of prepayment consumers who have received large bills for arrears because their electricity suppliers have been slow to recalibrate their meters to take into account price increases. One local resident, who is disabled and relying upon incapacity benefit, was dismayed to be asked by his supply company for an extra £250 – money he simply hasn’t got. His meter had not been recalibrated for some years. He feels understandably aggrieved because he had the meter installed in order to keep control over his finances and avoid running up big bills, but that is precisely what has happened to him.

I have spoken to a number of supply companies about the issue. Some have a policy of not increasing their charges until the meter has been recalibrated. Others, most notably Scottish Power / Manweb, have a policy of attempting to recalibrate meters every quarter, so as to avoid arrears building up. A small number flatly refuse to reduce their bills, irrespective of how long it has taken them to recalibrate.

Two things can, and should, be done to address the problem. In the medium term, token meters should be phased out and replaced with more modern key meters or smart meters, with which it is impossible to run up arrears. In the short term, however, electricity supply companies should be required to conform to a code of practice preventing them from charging arrears where the meter has not been recalibrated within a reasonable time after an increase in the tariff.

It is not good enough to leave some of our most vulnerable fellow-citizens praying for a mild winter while they struggle to clear their bills.

Back to School

The new Parliamentary term begins tomorrow and I will be catching the 5.20 train from Llandudno Junction to London this evening. I can only hope that the connection at Crewe is (a) on time and (b) not full to overflowing, as it frequently is.

Speaking of which, I spent an hour or so yesterday checking my electronic diary, to see what the coming weeks have in store for me. I was briefly perplexed by an entry for later this month which informed me that I would be speaking to the “crude Nantwich Conservatives”. I was relieved when it dawned on me that this was in fact an engagement with the Crewe and Nantwich Conservatives. Political audiences are often tough, but Cheshire Conservatives, in my experience, are always unfailingly polite and possessed of impeccable manners.