This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2012/oct/26/ruthless-whips-commons-simon-hoggart
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Simon Hoggart's week: Whips and those cracking times | Simon Hoggart's week: Whips and those cracking times |
| (3 days later) | |
| ✒Next week I'm going to see This House, the play set in the Commons at the end of the Wilson and Callaghan governments. It's about the shenanigans in the whips' offices. By a sad coincidence the main character, Labour's deputy chief whip Walter Harrison, died a week ago. More than any individual, he managed to keep Margaret Thatcher out of Downing Street until the last possible moment. And you can regard that as a triumph or a disaster as you please. | ✒Next week I'm going to see This House, the play set in the Commons at the end of the Wilson and Callaghan governments. It's about the shenanigans in the whips' offices. By a sad coincidence the main character, Labour's deputy chief whip Walter Harrison, died a week ago. More than any individual, he managed to keep Margaret Thatcher out of Downing Street until the last possible moment. And you can regard that as a triumph or a disaster as you please. |
| In those days, whipping was a rough, hard sport, the political equivalent of Australian rules football. Some of the lads then would have regarded Andrew Mitchell swearing at the police as little more than the equivalent of "good evening, officer". | In those days, whipping was a rough, hard sport, the political equivalent of Australian rules football. Some of the lads then would have regarded Andrew Mitchell swearing at the police as little more than the equivalent of "good evening, officer". |
| The whips gloried in their successes, and, as the government's majority reduced, then disappeared, used to boast to anyone about their tricks and stratagems. Some were just cunning, others downright dishonest, so at one point the Tories broke off relations with the other side – probably unprecedented. The drinking culture had yet to disappear in a haze of Perrier water. | The whips gloried in their successes, and, as the government's majority reduced, then disappeared, used to boast to anyone about their tricks and stratagems. Some were just cunning, others downright dishonest, so at one point the Tories broke off relations with the other side – probably unprecedented. The drinking culture had yet to disappear in a haze of Perrier water. |
| One of my favourite whipping stories came from just before the period covered in the play. One Thursday night in 1975 Peter Snape, then a junior whip, was dispatched to get Maurice Edelman to attend a critical vote. Edelman was a rather grand Labour MP, a novelist, but not a team player. Snape arrived at his house and asked him to come. Edelman explained that he had a dinner party and had no intention of leaving his guests for such a long time. Snape plucked, pleaded and cajoled, to no effect. But the government won the vote anyway, and Snape headed back to West Bromwich for the weekend. On the way he heard on the car radio that Edelman had died that night. As he entered his house the phone was ringing. It was Michael Cocks, the deputy chief whip. "Snape!" he boomed, "Overkill!" And then he hung up. They were hard days. Hard but ruthless. The play This House transfers to the Olivier next year. | |
| ✒The terrible story of the judge who was drowned this year when his satnav sent him and his wife into what looked like a shallow ford but turned out to be a swirling flood, makes me wonder again if we should ever trust these things. We keep reading about foreign truckers whose lorries get jammed between stone walls in narrow country lanes. (Admittedly some satnav users do seem to have a blind faith in them, and would willingly plunge off cliff tops like Thelma and Louise if instructed by the calm voice on the speaker.) | ✒The terrible story of the judge who was drowned this year when his satnav sent him and his wife into what looked like a shallow ford but turned out to be a swirling flood, makes me wonder again if we should ever trust these things. We keep reading about foreign truckers whose lorries get jammed between stone walls in narrow country lanes. (Admittedly some satnav users do seem to have a blind faith in them, and would willingly plunge off cliff tops like Thelma and Louise if instructed by the calm voice on the speaker.) |
| Last year we went to stay with friends in Shropshire. They set off an hour before us but arrived an hour later because their satnav send them down a private road without telling them it was barred. With no paper map they were lost. | Last year we went to stay with friends in Shropshire. They set off an hour before us but arrived an hour later because their satnav send them down a private road without telling them it was barred. With no paper map they were lost. |
| The other day it took 90 minutes or so to cross London to get to our daughter's flat but nearly two hours coming back – this time with the aid of our new, ready-installed, super-duper satnav. Driving in France a fortnight ago, the same machine told us repeatedly that the motorway ahead was blocked, though it was so clear we often couldn't see another car. What is the point? | The other day it took 90 minutes or so to cross London to get to our daughter's flat but nearly two hours coming back – this time with the aid of our new, ready-installed, super-duper satnav. Driving in France a fortnight ago, the same machine told us repeatedly that the motorway ahead was blocked, though it was so clear we often couldn't see another car. What is the point? |
| ✒Differences between France and England, part 897. This week I was lucky enough to go to a lunch hosted by Carol Duval-Leroy, the only woman to head one of the large champagne houses. In her talk to us, she said that they also sold half-bottles, which were perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up, rather like your tasse de thé. So, the French have a glass of sparkling liquid gold and we have a nice cup of tea. | ✒Differences between France and England, part 897. This week I was lucky enough to go to a lunch hosted by Carol Duval-Leroy, the only woman to head one of the large champagne houses. In her talk to us, she said that they also sold half-bottles, which were perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up, rather like your tasse de thé. So, the French have a glass of sparkling liquid gold and we have a nice cup of tea. |
| One of the other guests told me about a new form of school rage. Though English, he and his wife send their children to a French school in north London. "They learn the same stuff as at our schools, but I thought they might as well pick up French while they're at it." | One of the other guests told me about a new form of school rage. Though English, he and his wife send their children to a French school in north London. "They learn the same stuff as at our schools, but I thought they might as well pick up French while they're at it." |
| But with nearly a quarter of a million French people living in London, and more expected as a result of the tax regime of M Hollande, the Jacques Tati of French politics, pressure on numbers will get much greater, and a new French school isn't due to open till 2015. "You should see the furious looks I get at the school!" he told me, with, I thought, a degree of relish. | But with nearly a quarter of a million French people living in London, and more expected as a result of the tax regime of M Hollande, the Jacques Tati of French politics, pressure on numbers will get much greater, and a new French school isn't due to open till 2015. "You should see the furious looks I get at the school!" he told me, with, I thought, a degree of relish. |
| ✒My new book, House of Fun – 20 Glorious Years in Parliament (the subtitle is ironic), is out this coming week. It's a collection of two decades of sketches, from John Major to David Cameron, with rather more Margaret Thatcher than you might need or wish for. Anyhow, it's a very nicely produced hardback with a brilliant cover by Steve Bell, and the Guardian bookshop is selling it for £9.99, a £5 saving. As last year, if you want a signed and personalised sticker, please send me an SAE at the Guardian. | ✒My new book, House of Fun – 20 Glorious Years in Parliament (the subtitle is ironic), is out this coming week. It's a collection of two decades of sketches, from John Major to David Cameron, with rather more Margaret Thatcher than you might need or wish for. Anyhow, it's a very nicely produced hardback with a brilliant cover by Steve Bell, and the Guardian bookshop is selling it for £9.99, a £5 saving. As last year, if you want a signed and personalised sticker, please send me an SAE at the Guardian. |
| • This article was amended on 29 October 2012. The original misspelled the surname of David Cocks as Cox. |