House Magazine Diary
Friday November 7th
I have two prisons in the constituency: HM Featherstone and the Young Offenders Institute at Brinsford. They are within 200 yards of each other and between them House over 1000 inmates. I visit them both today – something I try and do at least every other year – and do so against the background of a Ministry of Justice application to the Council to build a third prison on the site. This is not a “Titan” but with 1,600 prisoners it will be the second largest prison in the country. No wonder many local residents think this is a cell too far.
I have been visiting Featherstone since the foundation stone was laid in the early 1970s. My first visit to Brinsford was to a brand new institution: my second, a few weeks later, was to one that had been smashed up in a major riot.
Today I came away from my tours and talks with the Governors greatly encouraged. I have never seen Featherstone so clean and I was delighted to see the new classrooms and workrooms that are due to be opened at Brinsford in the spring.
I hold to the traditional view that the punishment is sending to prison. The purpose of prison is to send back into society someone unlikely to offend again. Time and time again we fall short of this and I am constantly reminded of Churchill’s observation (when he was Home Secretary) that you can judge the quality of a civilization by the way it treats its prisoners.
Sunday 9th November – Remembrance Day
Every year our small village of Enville, and the much larger neighbouring village of Kinver, come together for the British Legion service of Remembrance. This year we gather outside Kinver church, perched high on its hill above the village. It is a blustery, squally morning but the rain eases off and I make a rather special presentation before we process into church. I give the Royal Horticultural Society’s long service medal to 86 year old John Mills who, for the last 50 years, has tended the war memorial in Enville.
The service is a moving one, following the familiar pattern. This year I have to give the address and as I look from the pulpit at the crowded church I recall that day in July when those young men and women marched proudly into New Palace Yard, home from Iraq and Afghanistan. After the service we process to the War Memorial where we lay our wreaths.
Monday November 10th
I have been driving to London since 1970 but I do not remember a worse drive than this. The rain is incessant and torrential. Visibility is down to less than 200 yards. There is so much surface water that I seriously wonder whether I will make it as vehicles flash by me, white vans much in evidence, doing eighty to ninety in these atrocious conditions. After 4 hours I am in Westminster and then a marathon session at the desk. In the evening to my Livery Company at Glaziers Hall, by London Bridge, where my cousin Peter, a world authority on early 20th Century stained glass, gives a masterly lecture.
November 11th
Ninety years to the day since the First World War ended and I make my way to the Cenotaph just after 10. It is impossible to get anywhere near and so I return to my room where I observe the silence and watch the incredibly moving sight of the three remaining veterans of the war to end all wars being pushed forward to lay their wreaths.
Then to the Queen Elizabeth conference centre for the annual lunch of the Historic Houses Association – always a convivial gathering. There is an undercurrent of gloom today. How many of those who struggle to maintain historic properties, fighting against leaking roofs and the tax man to do so, will succumb in the encroaching recession?
In the evening to Winfield House for a reception given by the American Ambassador, Robert Tuttle, and his wife, Maria, who gives a thoroughly fascinating talk about the house and its 12 acres, given to the American Nation by Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton during the war. The Tuttles have been very popular and one of our colleagues says with some feeling, “why don’t you joint the Democrats?” There is a nice touch when Ambassador Tuttle produces cut out figures of the new President and Vice President elect to stand either side of him as he makes a brief speech to which Michael Howard very felicitously responds.
Wednesday 12th November
To the Ecclesiastical Committee before Prime Minister’s Questions. The General Synod of the Church of England in its infinite unwisdom has decided to abolish the parson’s freehold and replace it with something called ‘common tenure’. I believe it is a lunatic idea, and potentially very damaging to the Church of England, but I am no longer on the General Synod, on which I did a ten year stint, and the current Synod, and current Ecclesiastical Committee, obviously do not share my deep misgivings – although dozens of clergy who wrote to us most certainly do.
I return to the chamber for Prime Minister’s Questions and to be in my place for the debate on Regional Committees. I am very exercised by the fact that we have one and a half hours on which to debate these but up to six hours to debate the programme motion giving us the one and half hours. I seek to demonstrate the absurd logic of this by speaking for an hour. Colleagues are very tolerant and help out with numerous interventions.
Thursday 13th November
Nearly 25 years ago a group of us had the idea of recognising, rewarding and encouraging craftsmanship. I chair the committee which created the William Morris Craft Fellowship, which are annual awards given to able, young craftsmen and women who show great potential. The scheme has been running for 23 years now and we have 77 fellows. Today Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport, gives the certificates to this year’s Fellows who are from England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. He is very encouraging.
Friday 14th November
Up early and back to the constituency. First a visit to Dunsley House, a local country house turned into a hotel by an enterprising couple just over a year ago. They certainly deserve to succeed but what a difficult climate they are having to operate in. Then I go to the constitutional club in Kinver High Street to launch a little book by a local retired journalist, Bob Clark, in which he tells the story of Kinver Edge, a wonderful escarpment given to the National Trust over 90 years ago, one of the most beautiful spots in the West Midlands. Then to my office in Pattingham for a long series of meetings.
Monday 17th November
Into the office very early and by the time Question Time comes I have had seven hours at the desk. The Prime Minister gives his G20 statement to a fractious House. We are facing the biggest economic crisis in any politician’s active lifetime – possibly the biggest ever. It really will be necessary to cool the rhetoric and try to pull together. It may be galling for an opposition member to admit it but we all need the Prime Minister to succeed. He is the one in power but it is all our futures.
Later to the annual meeting of the Churches and Chapels Group where the talk is of difficult days ahead for charities whose investments have been depleted and donors reduced. Later I take part in a brief debate on amendments to the Education and Skills Bill which make it compulsory for pupils to be consulted on a whole range of matters. Why, oh why, must we legislate for everything? As a former Schoolmaster I feel both angry at this unnecessary intrusion and deeply sorry for those charged with running our schools today, and for whom many of the sanctions available to me forty years ago do not exist.
Tuesday 18th November
A very early start to get some dictation done before a breakfast meeting. My Godson, the Reverend Paul Monk, who, in his first Curacy, is Acting Rector of Oldham Parish Church, comes for lunch and then, after questions, to the Northern Ireland Grand Committee for our debate on organized crime. Then to a very happy occasion at Goldsmith’s Hall. Donald Insall, the doyen of Conservation Architects is celebrating 50 years in practice and the launch of a sumptuous book to mark his involvement in rescuing and restoring some of the finest buildings in the land. I have the honour of proposing his health.
Wednesday 19th November
After a seven o’clock start to St Margaret’s and then, via a brief return to the office, to the National Gallery for a special viewing of Renaissance Faces – a most imaginatively conceived and beautifully displayed exhibition of some of the greatest treasures in the Gallery’s own collection, augmented by many wonderful loans. Northern Ireland Questions is almost drowned in noise before Prime Minister’s Questions begins. What a fractious session that is: I do wish the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition liked each other a little more.
After a meeting with my Northern Ireland Affairs Committee to Marlborough House where I preside at the 9th Annual FIRST Award for Responsible Capitalism, given, this year, to Mohammed Ibrahim. A special lifetime award goes to Sir Sigmund Sternberg, founder of the Three Faiths Forum, and another to Lord Dahrendorf, first Chairman of the judges and the most persuasive advocate of the concept. David Miliband presents the awards and makes a most elegant and thoughtful speech.
Thursday 20th November
In early to complete this diary.
