Press columns – 1999
The 'View from Westminster' columns originally appeared in the Stevenage Mercury, and are listed in reverse order – most recent first.
A home health service
December 1999
The holiday season is the worst time to get ill – but lots of people do. Perhaps its’s the stress of all that preparation, the shopping and cooking and hanging the decorations. Or maybe it’s the strain of having your relatives come to visit...
Revoltingly nice
November 1999
Last Thursday I took part in a revolution. A very orderly and very British revolution but a revolution nonetheless. There were no tumbrils and no guillotines. Just Black Rod marching into the House of Commons in black stockings and patent leather slippers to demand our presence in the House of Lords. Dutifully, we followed him...
Better than a lottery ticket
October 1999
Almost five thousand people in Bandley Hill and Poplars had the right to vote in the recent council by-election – but only six hundred bothered. I wonder why?
Heading for the seaside
September 1999
It’s that time of year again. The nights are drawing in, the leaves are falling and the politicians are heading for the seaside. This year it’s Bournemouth if you are Labour. Last year it was Blackpool. The year before that it was Brighton. Every autumn for the past 16 years I have spent the last few days of September and the first few days of October in some English coastal town. I would not miss it for the world.
Winners and losers
June 1999
There was one small piece of good news amidst the dismally disappointing results of this month’s European elections. If June 10th 1999 been a general election I would have held onto my seat – just. But the number of people who voted was so abysmally low that it made even this hollow victory meaningless. Only 21% of the electorate in Stevenage turned out to vote – 3% less than the national average. The real winners that night were the stay-at-homes. The loser was democracy.
Kosovo
April 1999
Early on Monday morning I will be landing at Skopje, not far from the Kosovo border. I don’t mind admitting that I’m a bit nervous. With me will be other members of the International Development Select Committee including our Chair, Bowen Wells, the Conservative MP for Hertford and Stortford. The group will be visiting emergency camps in Macedonia and Albania, to make sure we are doing all we can for the refugees.
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