And another thing…

IN THE aftermath of Ruth Kelly’s announcement that she will leave the government at the next reshuffle, Railway Eye (rather mischievously, I thought) decided to run an online poll on who should replace her.

I was quite chuffed to be given 10/1 odds. But as it stands at the moment, I’m losing out to Nigel Harris (no relation), the amiable and respected managing editor of Rail magazine, and to the ever-popular “None of the above”.

So will Nigel be waiting, along with the rest of us, for that phone to ring? More importantly, who will he want as his rail minister?

MY soon-to-be ex-boss has issued this excellent* response to Ms Villiers’ silliness this morning:

“These proposals are politically opportunistic, economically illiterate and hugely damaging to Britain’s national interests.

“The Tories are posing a false choice – we need both more capacity in Britain’s airports and on our main rail lines. 

“Even if every flight from Manchester and Leeds/Bradford to Heathrow were replaced by a new high speed line then Heathrow would still be operating at 97% capacity.

“It is the Tories who cannot face up to the tough decisions needed to support the economy, hiding behind unfunded, ill thought through policy announcements which only reinforces their reputation as lightweight, shallow and only interested in grabbing a headline.  It’s hard to take them seriously when they can’t even get their facts straight.”

As a small post script, here’s my own prediction: the next Conservative manifesto will not include a watertight commitment either to vetoing the third runway or to building a new high-speed line. They will equivocate.

You read it here first.

* She’s leaving, so I’m not just sucking up

INTERESTING conversation with a journalist who phoned me just as I was opening my front door on Wednesday, having only that second returned from Manchester:

“Tom, when did you first learn about Ruth?”

“Well, actually it was Ben Brogan at breakfast this morning. It’s on my blog.”

“Yes, I’m reading it now. You mean, you didn’t hear about it last night in the                  bar?”

“No, I had an early night.”

“You went to bed early? At conference?”

“Uh… yes. Sorry. Looks like I missed all the excitement.”

“You went to bed early? At conference?”

“Yeah… Look, can I go now?”

The fact is I’m getting very, very old. There was a time when I could drink until 4.00 am and still manage to get up in time for the first conference vote (in the days when there were conference votes). These days, I need my slippers and Horlicks before ten or I’m no good to anyone.

Ooh, and now I can feel me lumbago playing up…

THAT will teach me not to listen to the Today programme in the morning.

I arrived in the hotel restaurant for breakfast, and joined Ben Brogan of the Daily Mail at his table. His first words were: “This is bad news about Ruth.”

Immediately I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. “What do you mean?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to hear the answer. I was right – I didn’t.

I returned, unfed, to my room to make some calls. By the end of them I really wasn’t any the wiser. But the shocking, utterly unexpected truth was plain: Ruth Kelly will stand down as Secretary of State for Transport at the next reshuffle – probably within a fortnight. If nothing else, her announcement will ensure that rumours of an impending reshuffle will now be proved correct.

Ruth was a great boss. She was funny and clever and always encouraging to her ministerial team. When I got into a spot of bother over this blog back in June, her first response was to ask if I was coping okay (she has since confessed to being an avid reader of this blog, so I can add good taste to her list of attributes).

She was also incredibly highly thought of by the transport industry; she gained its respect by mastering her brief and getting to know the issues facing the industry at a dazzling pace. As the country’s first female transport secretary since Barbara Castle, she brought something of that old warhorse’s political judgment and passion to her role.

Even before she became my boss at the department, I liked her. When I first started blogging, with “And another thing 1.0″, I wrote a piece defending her right to choose a private school for one of her children. That decision made her vulnerable to criticism, of course, but I would rather trust the judgment of someone who puts their commitment to their family ahead of political dogma than someone who doesn’t.

Every parent of young children will understand and respect the decision Ruth has made. There will, undoubtedly, be much frenzied speculation about her true motives. On this occasion the media would do well to avoid reading between the lines and to accept that on this occasion, a successful politician has taken a principled and courageous decision to put her family, and her children, first.

I really will miss her as a boss.

And now I’m heading home to Glasgow. Thank you and good day.

RUTH Kelly can be very funny sometimes.

I popped along to a reception at Paddington this evening, held to celebrate the fact that the Crossrail Bill, after more than three years of seemingly interminable parliamentary debate, is now an Act. Ruth was making the keynote speech, and paid tribute to everyone who has contributed to Crossrail’s progress thus far. She very kindly singled out me, as the minister who piloted the Bill through its Commons stages. This is how she put it: “I want to give special mention to Tom Harris… because he asked me to earlier today.”

Much hilarity ensued.

Oh, what a wit! But I’ll show her, I thought. I’ll blog this. That’ll show her…

Fascinating to watch the reaction of shadow chancellor George Osborne yesterday during Ruth Kelly’s statement on Manchester’s successful bid for Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) money. Dismissed out of hand by shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers, our policy was nevertheless warmly welcomed by former Tory environment secretary John Gummer. But as Gummer made clear his own personal commitment to the environment and to combatting climate change, George visibly winced. Someone on our side shouted, ironically, “Vote blue, go green!” But that’s a long-dead Tory slogan. Now it’s “Vote Blue, go blue.”