And another thing…

FORMER Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has recorded this message to the American people, warning them not to take The Eccentric Mr Hannan too seriously when he starts to go all swivel-eyed over the NHS.

But in recording the video, JP has identified a crucial area of public policy: why are MPs allowed to record videos on the Terrace of the House of Commons whereas my constituents are frequently told by police officers that they’re not allowed to take photographs?

Honestly, it’s one rule for them MPs and another for the rest of us…

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.

THE INDEPENDENT seems to have caught Iain Dale’s bug for compulsive list compiling. Today they’ve published a list of the Top Ten Most Influential MPs Who Twitter.

Well, to be fair, they’ve published a Top Ten with only nine entries (they seem to have missed out fourth place), but who cares? It means I can promote myself from fifth to fourth place.

It reads like a veritable list of… well, most influential MPs who Twitter, I guess. The full list, based on the number of followers, mentions and outgoing links to stories, is:

1. Kerry McCarthy
2. Tom Watson
3. Sadiq Khan
5. Tom Harris
6. John Prescott
7. Jim Knight
8. Eric Joyce
9. David Lammy
10. Siön Simon

What’s interesting is that the list includes no opposition MPs (I would have expected LibDem Jo Swinson to be in there somewhere). Five of the nine listed are serving ministers; three (me, Tom Watson and John Prescott) are ex-ministers and Eric Joyce has not (yet) served in government. Only two on the list (Kerry and Sadiq) arrived in parliament at the 2005 election; six came in in 2001 (if you include David and Eric, who were elected shortly before that general election) and Prescott, of course, came in just before Disraeli.

And once again, those nuisance Scots are over-represented, with two out of the nine.

Surprisingly and depressingly, there’s only one woman on the list. On the other hand, she topped it.

JOHN, this just isn’t helpful, you know. I mean, all the anti-Labour blogs will just publish that picture of you doing an impersonation of Gordon’s smile…

© Ross Parry, Daily Telegraph

BLACKBURN Labour really do know how to entertain, what with their Tory logo malarkey and all manner of what have you since then.

They’ve now succumbed to Dale-esque numerology and have come up with an utterly pointless, though rather entertaining, Top Ten Labour Twitterers, based on the number of followers each entrant has.

I’m there (well, of course I am — do you think I’d be posting this if I weren’t?) at a modest number 8 with 802 followers. But as I have said on many occasions, it’s not size (of your following) that matters, it’s what you Twitter.

Anyhoo, courtesy of Blackburn Labour (I mean, really guys, does Jack know what you get up to at night?), here’s the list:

1: Alastair Campbell 3875 followers
2: Derek Draper 3427 followers
3: Tom Watson MP 2978 followers
4: John Prescott MP 2423 followers
5: “Twitter feed of the UK Labour Party“ 2217 followers
6: David Lammy MP  1312 followers
7: Sadiq Khan MP  954 followers
8: Tom Harris MP  802 followers
9: “The official twitter page of the Labour Party“ 784 followers
10: Luke Pollard PPC  728 followers

HAS John Prescott’s career taken something of an upswing recently?

He seems to be more prominent these days than he was when he was DPM. Check out this screenshot from BBC Politics site this afternoon – three stories about Prezza, each one illustated with an accompanying pic. How does he do it?