The death of Senator Edward Kennedy was a moment when even his most hostile critics sat up and acknowledged the passing of a formidable political figure. Teddy Kennedy was the last in the line of the Kennedy brothers and sons of Joe Kennedy. What ifs are a great game to play in politics and as the TRG Board is composed largely of History graduates, it is a game we are often prone to.
All the newspapers ask the same what if…What if the tragedy at Chappaquidick in July 1969 had never happened? Would there have been a second President Kennedy? Well the truth is that we will never know. Ted Kennedy’s 1980 bid for the Presidency fell flat, largely (but not only) because voters were not satisfied by his explanations for the tragic incident.
But as the world remembers Teddy Kennedy, they remember a great legislator – the champion of civil rights, of voting rights reform, of freedom of information, of a more liberal immigration policy and recently a renewal of his campaign to make health care universal.
The liberal lion’s influence and skill as a legislator made him one of America’s most recognisable and prominent political figures and here there is a lesson for us across the pond.
The past twelve years have seen the emergence of an overly powerful Executive which has showed near contempt for Parliament. This must change. We need Kennedy figures in our legislature as well. Our select committee chairmen should be chosen by Parliament and not by the whips. The position should be given the same pre-eminence as that given to cabinet ministers. Chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Home Affairs Committee, Public Accounts Committee, Liaison Committee etc should be the culmination of a Parliamentary career and a position of huge power and influence. These chairmen (and women) should be household names. In short we need some Teddy Kennedys over here please…!
Yesterday’s announcement from National Rail of the proposed new high-speed rail link along the West Coast route, is an apt prompt to think about transport policy. This may bore many people senseless, but those that know me well enough will tell you that I have a little propellor on my head that goes round when the subject of transport comes up for debate and have written elsewhere on this before. I should stress that I am not a Lord Adonis-type, train spotting my way around the country for fun. It is just that I believe that as an area of public policy, whether it is about investing in national infrastructure as a key part of being a competitive economy or just at the human level of getting to work and to see family, transport really, really matters.
Read more of this post and join the discussion on ConHome…
Conservative shadow immigration minister and TRG Vice-President, Damian Green MP, has succeeded in his bid to have the police remove his DNA record following his arrest last year.
Conservatives are campaigning to ensure that all those whose DNA is taken by police but are then not convicted of a crime, will be removed from the record, not just those who, as in Damian’s case, have political clout that allows them to apply pressure that ordinary members of the public cannot utilise.
Well done, Damian, and best of luck in your fight to win equality for everyone under the police!
Dan Hannan has done the NHS, its staff and the millions of people who use and rely on it a great disservice. His negative and distorted view of the NHS is misleading. Not to mention that his rose-tinted impression of the US system ignores its massive failings and inequalities. What’s more, Hannan’s comments have undermined the excellent work that has been done by David Cameron, Andrew Lansley and the health team to show that not only can the Conservative Party be trusted with the NHS but that we will improve it. Cameron has said that three letters matter to him: NHS. The Party supports the NHS 100%. Under our proposals, more money will go to patient care, doctors and nurses will be trusted to use their professional judgment and the wasteful, damaging target culture that this Labour Government has imposed will be removed.
Andrew Lansley was excellent on the Today Programme this morning. You can listen to the interview here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8201000/8201011.stm
