View From The House - 5th February 2004

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

Parliament has become interesting again. It had become the accepted belief that all the power and interest had been swept from Parliament and into Downing Street. But this not the first time. The former Conservative MP, John Biffen, made himself unpopular with Prime Minister Thatcher for saying that large majorities in Parliament are unhealthy for democracy. Mind you, he did say this in the run-up to a general election so I have some sympathy with Mrs T’s anger.

But it has been Tony Blair’s huge majority in the House of Commons - 161 more Labour MPs than all the other MPs of all the other political parties combined - that has enabled Downing Street to act as if it were a the home of a president sending orders down by decree.

All that changed last week. For a brief moment at least. The vote on university top-up fees showed that, just occasionally, Parliament has a voice. Many Labour MPs were enraged that an election manifesto promise had been ignored by Tony Blair and they voted against the proposed law while some others abstained. The Government won by just 5 votes and the nation looked on.

But the law makes no sense anyway. At £3000, the cost of the collection of top-up fees exceeds what might go to the universities. Top-up fees only make sense to universities if they are well in excess of £3000. Some universities have talked about £11,000 and more for some specialised courses. Meanwhile the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and others have all shown that university fees and the consequent debt deter able students from attending university. Our nation cannot afford to waste talent.

Instead, the Government has set itself a target of 50% of all students studying full time university degrees. I believe that university degrees are being degraded by this. Because of the nature of some degrees, employers no longer have faith in a British Bachelor’s degree. Up until recently a BA or BSc meant something. Now, many employers simply ignore job applicants from some universities because they just don’t have the time to enquire more fully into the degree’s status. At the same time, the Government is ignoring the importance of vocational qualifications. One or two year diplomas are often more valuable than some three year degree courses. We have a major skills shortage in our country. Setting a 50% target for degrees does not address this problem and its cost deters able students from studying after they leave school. This is not good for our nation.

Hutton, Blair, and the BBC

Lord Hutton has given his verdict and many found it strangely black and white. But Hutton deliberately restricted himself to looking only at the immediate causes surrounding the death of Dr Kelly. Accordingly, he did not address much of the evidence given to his inquiry: it did not apply to his remit. So the fact that Tony Blair said that he had nothing to do with the decision to release the name of David Kelly to the press, yet it then transpired that he had chaired the very committee that made the decision to give out Kelly’s name, was not addressed. So it now ill behoves Tony Blair to behave as if he and his ministers were vindicated by the Hutton Enquiry and are latter day saints.

And one consequence has been the witch-hunt within the BBC. Whether you like the BBC or not, its independence from Government is a valuable, but fragile gift to our nation. The heavy handed and arrogant approach by the Government and individuals like Alistair Campbell is worrying. Notwithstanding the undoubted errors made by Andrew Gilligan, it is vital that BBC journalists be allowed to carry on with their work of probing the truth and questioning politicians. It may not be fun being interviewed by the likes of John Humpreys or Jeremy Paxman, but it would be a national tragedy if journalists like these were now unable to seek after the truth though persistent and probing questioning.

We may not have a written constitution, but freedom of speech and a free press is one of the anchors that sustains our democracy. Neither broadcast nor press journalists should feel intimated in the face of a hostile Government. The loss of Greg Dyke is serious. He was a very capable BBC director general - I knew him well both at the BBC and when he was with the commercial station, LWT . He will be very hard to replace. Whoever does so must not bow to Government pressure. He or she must maintain political impartiality and uphold the best traditions of BBC news to probe into the truth.