Monday July 12th
I have only had two Sundays at home since Easter, and those were during the Whitsun Recess! How I hate these new hours which mean that Monday is the only day I can get a full morning at the desk. This morning I am in a few minutes after seven to be faced with an extra pile of paper as I spent the whole of Friday canvassing in the Leicester by-election and drove back home on Saturday morning – for a little over twenty-four hours in Staffordshire.
I am in my place for Questions and for the Chancellor’s Statement. Unfortunately, he won’t tell me how he is going to raise £30 billion from selling assets. Surely he could have given me at least one example? Then a lengthy meeting of the Commission. July’s tends to be the heaviest agenda of the year and 2004 is no exception.
Tuesday July 13th
Our regular editorial team meeting of the magazine and then a meeting of the Editorial Board so that I can introduce them to our new owners – the Chairman and Chief Executive of Huveaux Plc. They already own Dod’s Parliamentary Companion and its sister publications and so we should fit well into their stable. Everyone is very happy about the new arrangements.
Then, after Questions, a lunch for this year’s Parliamentary interns from the Catholic University of America. I have been running this programme, in conjunction with the ESU, for about fifteen years now and this year we have had a particularly good group of American students and consequently there are some very contented MPs around the table. I have a fascinating conversation with Professor Larry Poos, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Catholic, who turns out to be an accomplished historian of medieval England who has done much of his research in Staffordshire.
In the afternoon to a job I truly hate – telephone canvassing. No one can dislike cold calls more than I do but if there is one thing I like less than receiving them its making them. However it is all, I am told, in a good cause and so for a couple of hours or more I call up a succession of bemused people in Hodge Hill. A number of them tell me to get lost – some less politely than that. They have my sympathy.
Wednesday July 14th
Breakfast with Admiral Richard Cobbold of the Royal United Services Institute and then back to chair a meeting of the History of Parliament Trust. We are instituting an annual lecture, and an essay prize for VIth Formers, this year and so there is some lively discussion about two projects which should focus more public attention on the work of the Trust – and the monumental histories we produce. Now that the new Dictionary of National Biography is complete ours is the largest piece of collaborative scholarship of its kind in this country. After Prime Minister’s Questions I dash out to give a quick lunch to John Giffard, Staffordshire’s Chief Constable, who also happens to be a constituent, and then its back to the Chamber for the Butler Report. A number of my colleagues seem rather disappointed and I am irreverently reminded of those wonderful lines in Albert and the Lion – “There was no wrecks and nobody drownded / In fact nowt to laugh at at all”.
I then chair a meeting of the Staffordshire MPs with the Chief Constable and the Chairman and Treasurer of the Police Authority to discuss their plans and problems. There has just be an absolutely glowing report by the Inspectorate on Staffordshire’s Police Force which is real cause for congratulation.
Thursday July 15th
In again by 7.00 and a fairly intensive period at the desk and then a meeting with William Chapman, the Appointments Secretary for No.10, to discuss the forthcoming vacancy in the Deanery at Lichfield. Michael Yorke, our retiring Dean, has been greatly loved and will be, as they say, a hard act to follow.
Then to lunch with Charles Powell to discuss a recent report on China with which we were both involved. There is plenty more to talk about too.
Friday July 16th
I leave the flat at 7.00 but the journey out of London is made intolerable by a broken-down vehicle – and it’s even worse on the M25. But I am on parade by 11.00 for a series of meetings with the County Director of Education, the Chief Executive of my District Council and others and I give a lunch for the five high school heads, three of whom are retiring. This will mean that I will have seen at least three heads in every high school in my constituency since my election and for twenty-five years I have held regular termly meetings with them.
In the evening a very happy fundraising event for St. Mary’s Enville, where I am Warden. Henry Sandon, of Antiques Roadshow fame, gives a splendid talk in the Library at Enville Hall, illustrated by pieces of porcelain and pottery brought in by members of the audience. He has a wonderful avuncular wit and everyone goes home well content – especially those who have discovered they own valuable pots. And the church is over £2000 the better as a result.
Saturday July 17th
A day of paper chasing from eight in the morning until six, and then a wonderful concert of medieval music in the church, performed by a group from Berlin who have friends in the village. Another donation to the church.
Sunday July 18th
I want a better journey back to London today and so I leave after a lateish breakfast. I spend the afternoon gently and reluctantly breaking the fourth Commanment about doing no work on the Sabbath.
Monday July 19th
Another long morning at the desk before Question Time. In the evening to the Speaker’s House for the unveiling of his splendid official portrait by Andrew Festing. Not all portraits are both likenesses and works of art but this certainly is. I like Speaker Martin’s Coat of Arms too.
Tuesday July 20th
A meeting of the editorial team and then I give a talk to a group of civil servants on parliamentary Questions, following William Hague’s witty exposition of what it’s like to be Leader of the Opposition on a Wednesday. Then back to the House for a Statement on Council Tax, and for the Iraq debate. I do get called but I have to do what I always regard as being almost unpardonable and miss the wind-up speeches, although I do give proper explanations to the two winders-up. The problem is that the debate has been extended by an hour and I am Ross Cranston’s guest at the Benchers night in Gray’s Inn. Good company and good conversation and very good port too!
Wednesday July 21st
I fear I took a glass too much of that very good port and so although I am in before 7.00 I feel a little bit frayed at the edges. After a breakfast meeting I take a seminar with the American students – the final one before they depart – and then to Prime Minister’s Questions and the long-awaited Statement from Geoff Hoon. Not happy news for the Staffordshire Regiment – which Bruce George, Bill Cash, Michael Fabricant and I all campaigned so successfully for when Malcolm Rifkind threatened it with the axe fifteen years or so ago.
In the afternoon a long meeting with the new Chief Executive of the magazine and then to the ’22 Executive. At the full meeting afterwards we present Iain Duncan Smith with a pair of handsome claret jugs and hear a spirited address from his successor. Then a quick drink with the Chief Whip, who kindly entertains those who lent a hand in the by-elections. I hardly thought we would deserve champagne when I heard the results last Friday morning.
To a very happy party on the Terrace of the Lords given by Bernard Donoughue. Afterwards I dine in the House, together with just two other Tory colleagues. This room used to hum on a Wednesday evening. I almost end where I began – with those wretched hours!
But…
Thursday July 22nd
The final day of a fairly grinding term. As someone remarked the other day, July is certainly the cruellest month as far as MPs are concerned. One reform I certainly would favour would be rising at the end of June and adjusting the diary accordingly. But today I am here at my desk just after 7.00 dictating this. A series of appointments lies ahead, with the final Question Time before September and then a meeting with the Estonian guide who will accompany us when I take the All-Party Heritage Group to the Baltic States at the end of September.
And then tomorrow, God willing, back to Staffordshire and some county air and a week of winding down before driving north to Scotland.
