And another thing…

QUITE a lot of condemnation in the comments to the last post (I’m still surprised at how much bile is injected into these comments by people who would clearly never use such language in polite company, but hey — that’s the internet for you) about the prospects of Jack Dromey becoming an MP.

“Outrageous nepotism”, seems to be the conclusion for most hate-mongers of the Right. Yet when they cite examples of such nepotism in the Labour Party, they tend to fall rather short. The case of the recent selection of a candidate in Erith and Thamesmead, where the daughter of Lord (Philip) Gould failed to win, seems an odd example, for obvious reasons. Another favourite example of Labour nepotism oft quoted by the hard-of-thinking is Glasgow North East, where there were rumours that Michael Martin’s son, Paul, wished to succeed his father at Westminster. Such rumours were more than enough to start the mouths foaming, even though Paul had no intention of standing and an altogether different candidate was subsequently selected.

Another equally-laughable example of Labour nepotism is in Hull, where retiring MP John Prescott was almost succeeded by his son. Almost. Mr Prescott Jr. lost out in the selection, but that didn’t stop the Right claiming it was only Prescott Jr’s relationship to the former Deputy Prime Minister that got him… er, beaten. Or something.

But let’s turn our atention to the Conservative Party, shall we? To Douglas Hogg, perhaps, the son of a former Tory Lord Chancellor? Or to Henry Bellingham MP, the 17th of his line to enter the Commons? Francis Maude’s father was an MP, as was Bill Wiggin’s. And there are plenty of other examples on both sides of the House. Who honestly thinks Hilary Benn should be excluded from office just because his father (and grandfather) was also an MP?

The point, surely, is that there is absolutely nothing wrong in politicians’ sons and daughters following them into parliament. Those of the rabid tendency seem to believe that it is undemocratic to allow such offspring to compete for party nominations. Or to be more accurate, they believe that it is undemocratic to allow such offspring to compete for Labour Party nominations. If you’re a Tory politician whose parent served in the House, you obviously achieved office by hard graft and through being eminently qualified for the job. If you’re a Labour politician, however, and your mother or father was an MP, well, that’s nepotism, that is…

I would suggest that it’s pretty unavoidable that the sons and daughters of politicians enter politics themselves. In fact it should be welcomed: political sons and daughters are probably better prepared for the media scrutiny and demands of constituents previously visited upon their parents.

Given that Jack Dromey has lived his entire life in the Labour movement, and given that his wife is a long-serving, prominent MP, wouldn’t it be stranger if he didn’t consider seeking election as an MP? As to being “parachuted” into a safe seat, if Jack is selected, he will have had to plead his case against other candidates in front of a selection conference which includes every paid-up member of whichever local Labour Party is looking for a new candidate. And please don’t bother whittering on about Totnes and open primaries; that won’t happen in many — if any — more Tory selections this side of a general election, and pretending that open primaries are now the “norm” in the Conservative Party isn’t going to wash.

IT’S UNLIKELY that the issue of our membership of the EU will figure prominently as an issue for debate in the run-up to the European Parliament elections on 4 June; I rather suspect other political issues may dominate.

Nevertheless, I’ve been intrigued to read, occasionally, comments on this blog from the wild-eyed tendency insisting that 70 per cent of the UK’s legislation is decided in Europe. As far as I have been able to ascertain, this claim is, in political terms, a huge big pair of stinky pants.

The claim seems to have originated from an article by Roman Herzog, German President from 1994 to 1999, who wrote in German newspaper Die Welt that 84 per cent of legislative acts adopted by the German Bundestag were of EU origin (anyone know the German for “a huge big pair of stinky pants”?).

But the American academic experts on EU affairs, Andrew Moravcsik, and Annette Elisabeth Töller, found that, as a percentage of all (state and federal) German laws, those implementing EU directives were 34.5% in 2005 and 34.6% in 2006. Even on laws adopted by the Bundestag, a further study undertaken by Töller between 1983 and 2005, looking at Bundestag laws with a “European impulse ” (a wider concept than EU directives) produced a figure of 39.1 per cent — less than half the figure claimed by Herzog.

As for the UK, two studies exist: a paper by Edward Page in 1998, which analysed the effects of EU legislation on British law between 1987 and 1997, and a paper by the House of Commons library looking at the period between 1998 and 2005. Both papers take their figures from the statutory instruments passed with references to European legislation, with the library justifying this by asserting that “The vast majority of EC legislation is enacted by statutory instruments under section 2 (2) of the European Communities Act.” Page’s study produced a figure of 15.8 per cent whereas the House of Commons library gave a final figure of 9.1 per cent.

So although the exact figure can’t be calculated, it’s clear that the vast majority of British legislation is drawn up here. In Britain. As it should be.

Of course, the wild-eyed tendency will never accept this fact; they need to believe their own (and Herzog’s) assertions because it sustains their general anti-politics prejudices which usually lead them to demand reductions in the number of MPs (a proposal which, I admit, would gain a lot more public support today than it used to).

I suppose the corollary of all that, then, is that the European Parliament elections aren’t all that important. But of course, they are, for domestic as well as EU-wide reasons. But don’t tempt me into predicting the exact results at this stage.