Zac Goldsmith gets a ban after speeding four times, but at least he keeps his trousers

 LBC reports:

Former environment minister Zac Goldsmith has been banned from driving after being caught speeding four times in London in less than four months.

Lord Goldsmith pleaded guilty the four incidents at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday. The driving offences took place between late April and early August last year. He was banned until mid-March.

Zac Goldsmith and cars? That rings a bell.

Sure enough, I can bring you this story from 2016:

Zac Goldsmith limped into the last hustings of the Richmond Park by-election an hour late after being struck by his own car. 

The former London mayoral candidate was not badly hurt but his trousers were "shredded" when a volunteer driving his car clipped him while they were out canvassing. 

The collision in New Malden happened as he was due on stage at the Richmond Society’s hustings - his last chance to debate publicly with his by-election rival, Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney. 

Arriving an hour late after going home to change, he said he was "so sorry" for missing the start of such an "extraordinarily important event".

What it is to have been blogging a long and have a good memory for political trivia!

The fall of Boris Johnson: It was the Tory right who wanted to make it easier to get rid of MPs

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It was Nick Clegg who gave voters the power to recall MPs. And it was the Tory right who complained bitterly that he didn't go far enough.

Here's a Guardian report from 2014:

Zac Goldsmith, the Tory MP for Richmond, said Clegg was entirely responsible for the bill, which is a "disgrace even by the standards of modern politics". 

And here, from the same report is Douglas Carswell:

"The truth is that on the Conservative backbenches there is strong support. Where there is kickback it's coming from people holding red boxes and people in the Cabinet Office. I wouldn't hold it against Clegg if he opposed he idea, but what's absolutely unforgivable is that he opposed it but pretends to be in favour."

So Boris Johnson has been brought down by a measure that his own supporters called for and wanted to be made even more demanding.

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

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Nick Tyrone argues that the reappearance of Zac Goldsmith will make it easier for the Liberal Democrats to hold Richmond.

"English thinkers and statesmen turned their backs on the task of elaborating and constructing a viable and vibrant national identity. For if the right people do not do it, the wrong ones will.  They seem, in fact, to be very much at it now." Krishan Kumar examines English identity through English literature.

Maya Kosoff on a plan to turn Twitter into a user-owned cooperative.

"What do Catholic school girls and Joseph Stalin have in common? They've worn a uniform to conserve their mental energy for a higher purpose than just fashion." Rebecca Huval debates the cultural significance of all dressing alike.

"The New Statesman recently interviewed Ray Davies, who’s still an iconoclast: 'I think of the Sixties as black and white but the Fifties as colour,' he said." Alex Abramovich discusses decades and their colours.

In a podcast, John Savage talks about some films shot around Ladbroke Grove. They include The Blue Lamp, Sapphire and Seven Days to Noon.

Zac Goldsmith is hit by his own car and loses his trousers

From the Evening Standard today:

Zac Goldsmith limped into the last hustings of the Richmond Park by-election an hour late after being struck by his own car. 

The former London mayoral candidate was not badly hurt but his trousers were “shredded” when a volunteer driving his car clipped him while they were out canvassing. 

The collision in New Malden happened as he was due on stage at the Richmond Society’s hustings - his last chance to debate publicly with his by-election rival, Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney. 

Arriving an hour late after going home to change, he said he was “so sorry” for missing the start of such an “extraordinarily important event”.

Like Tim Hall, I am reminded of Monty Python and the Upper Class Twit of the Year Show.

"And Oliver has run himself over. What a great twit!"

Sarah Olney exposes the nonsense of Zac Goldsmith's resignation

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Good stuff from Sarah Olney, the Liberal Democrat candidate in this week's Richmond Park by-election:

"Zac Goldsmith's idea that this was going to be a referendum about Heathrow has turned out to be nonsense because there is no pro-Heathrow candidate standing. 

"Actually, what people really want to talk about is Brexit." 

Mrs Olney called his decision to resign "ludicrous". 

"He doesn't need a further mandate to oppose Heathrow," she said. "He already had that twice over."

These wise words come from the Press Association, via the Daily Mail.

Conservative MP: Zac Goldsmith is a "rich boy playing fast and loose with the electorate"

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Alec Shelbrooke, the Tory MP for Elmet and Rothwell, has told Sky News that his party is making a mistake by not putting up a candidate in the Richmond Park by-election.

According to my favourite newspaper the Shropshire Star, he told Sky:

"I have said quite openly that I think it's a big mistake the Conservative Party is not putting forward a candidate. 

"Let's be clear: Our majority will be cut from 12 to 10. Zac Goldsmith does not cut it to 11, it cuts it to 10 because he will be an opposition MP. 

"The Conservative Party will lose the Richmond by-election because we do not have a candidate and I think that is wrong. 

"The first time I think since 1963 we don't have a candidate and if Zac Goldsmith thinks that this campaign is just going to be about Heathrow, well, the Lib Dem candidate only has to pop up and say, 'yes, I also won't vote for Heathrow' and they can do that from the Commons and then it can be about a whole host of other issues. 

"I'm afraid this really is a rich boy playing fast and loose with the electorate and actually a by-election costs the electorate hundreds of thousands of pounds."

If the name Alec Shelbrooke sounds familiar, it is probably because he popped up last week to tell Gary Lineker that he could not be a BBC sports journalist and a political activist.

This was an absurd overdramatisation of Lineker's actions. And, as I showed, there are plenty of precedents for people combining the two roles.

Still, it's always fun to see Tories falling out, and I think the press have found themselves a new rentaquote.

Mr Shelbrooke could be the Anthony Beaumont-Dark of the 21st century.

Liberal Democrats make a flying start in the Richmond by-election

© David Hawgood

The Guardian's Alexandra Topping has ventured to the far end of the District Line:

In the the backroom of the part-converted garage that serves as the Liberal Democrat’s tiny constituency office for Richmond Park, a production line of party members is bundling up leaflets, soon scooped up by rosette-wearing activists who head out to pound the leafy streets. 

Holding five-week-old Oliver while his dad straps on a baby sling to take him canvassing, Gareth Roberts, the Lib Dem leader of the opposition in Richmond council, looks around with a grin. “It’s a bit like in Jaws – we’re going to need a bigger boat,” he says. 

The news of Zac Goldsmith’s resignation, which has forced a byelection in the affluent west London suburb, is less than 24 hours old, but already the Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, has paraded for television cameras on Richmond Green and local activists are hitting the ground running.

I spent the 1983 general election campaign pounding the mean streets of Kew. Time for a nostalgic return.

The kind of biscuit you choose says a lot about the kind of politician you are

Every politician who been interviewed by Mumsnet since 2009 has been asked what their favourite biscuit is, reports the Daily Telegraph:

Tim Farron, whose constituency is in Cumbria, opts for a local treat, the Kendal mint cake. It should at least help him keep his energy up in his endless, lonely journey through the political wilderness which the Lib Dems must now inhabit. 

Zac Goldsmith's answer (chocolate digestive) was as boring as his campaign, while former soldier Dan Jarvis' love for army-issue garibaldis seems deep and genuine. 

Nicola Sturgeon's penchant for Tunnock's Caramel Wafers (shared by her young MP Mhari Black) could be cringeworthy nationalism or could plausibly be simply because they are quite genuinely delicious. 

And say what you like about Ed Miliband, he was remarkably consistent here. December 2009: Jaffa Cake. December 2011: Jaffa Cake. 

Some answers are just a bit odd. Ed Davey likes fig rolls. David Cameron likes oatcakes (with, he specifies, butter and cheese). Natalie Bennett of the Green Party likes macaroons because she can't eat gluten (fair enough).

The Telegraph report lists the choices of all the interviewees.

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"A Crosby-ified Toryism can eke out victories against average opponents, but it is no guide to winning well or winning at a time when the capitalist system is being questioned; when Thatcherite and Reaganite orthodoxies are being questioned or when, in such places as Scotland (and now London), the Conservative brand is weak and needs rebuilding." Tim Montgomerie on the defeat of Zac Goldsmith.

Lenore Skenazy condemns the use of parents' fears for their children as a marketing tool.

Tony Broadbent rediscovers a murder that scandalised postwar London: the shooting of Alec de Antiquis in 1947.

"As you visit the Polling Station today you may be struck by the rather anachronistic posters which identify those buildings designated as such. Some local authorities have held huge stocks of these paper banners for much of the 20th century, and in some parts of the country those on display today may have been printed many years before you were born." Bob Richardson examines election day typography.

Hope you enjoy this article by Katy Waldman on why we omit initial pronouns.

Kelefa Sanneh explores the benign ruthlessness of Paul Simon.

Zac Goldsmith: "I'm a Bollywood fan"

This must be most awkward exchange since Tony Blair was asked to name one of the Newcastle United players he claimed to have watched as a schoolboy in the 1960s.

Thanks to Tom King on Twitter.

Ambitious Liberal Democrats circle our most promising seats

Back in September I blogged about Liberator's take on the row between Tony Greaves and Liberal Democrat Voice.

Members of the Lib Dem Voice queued up to comment, but it was all a bit gnomic and I am not sure we were much better informed when they had.

The good news is that peace has broken out and Tony Greaves is writing for Lib Dem Voice - on an almost daily basis.

I imagine him and the editorial team running through flower-filled meadows hand in hand.

The best gossip in the new Liberator concerns the people who have their eyes on some of the more promising seats for ambitious Lib Dems:

Richmond may soon be the scene of a by-election if Tory incumbent Zac Goldsmith is either elected mayor of London or sticks to his pledge to resign if a third Heathrow runway is permitted. 

With last May's candidate Robin Meltzer having decided not to stand again, flocks of Lib Dems are circling, some from as far afield as Guildford. 

Next door in Twickenham, which Vince Cable almost held, a similar effect can be seen.

And then there are Yeovil and Sheffield Hallam... But to find out who has their eyes on those you will have to buy the magazine.

You can subscribe to Liberator via its website.

Why I do not support the recall of MPs

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I am a great believer in representative democracy. You elect someone and if you do not like how he or she performs as your MP, you vote for someone else at the next election.

Increasingly, however - fuelled chiefly by the expenses scandal - there have been moves to allow voters to petition for the ejection of an MP between elections and the holding of by-elections.

Some versions of recall require an MP to be convicted of a criminal offence or some other former of wrongdoing. Others just require the voters not to like them very much.

It is this latter sort of recall that is championed by the Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith. And the problems with it were laid bare by the Labour MP Kevan Jones in the Commons today:

Mr Kevan Jones: I am very interested in what the hon. Gentleman says about recall empowering voters. In practice, would it not do what it does in the United States, which is to empower wealthy individuals who are not happy with what their representative is doing to mobilise against them? It would empower wealthy individuals, such as the hon. Gentleman, to influence events in a way that my ordinary constituents and I cannot? 

Zac Goldsmith: I will explain why such concerns are groundless during my speech, but I will make one point, partly in response to the Opposition spokesman. Concerns about expenditure during the recall process are a matter for regulations; the amendments that my colleagues and I seek to introduce would not tamper with the Government’s proposed regulations on expenses. That separate technical issue can be very easily addressed. 

Mr Jones: I am sorry, but that is not the point. Expenditure limits can be put on the recall election, but the campaigning in the lead-up to such an election would undermine the representative in getting their constituents— 

Douglas Carswell: Trust the voters. Mr Jones: This is not about trusting the voters, but about putting influence in the hands of a small group of very wealthy individuals. If the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith), with the wealth he has, wanted to shift a Member of Parliament, he could do it. 

Zac Goldsmith: The hon. Gentleman takes a very dim view of his electorate if he thinks that that is so easy. Irrespective of that, the two-month petition stage before a referendum will be regulated, so his cost arguments simply do not apply. 

Mr Jones: What happens in practice in the United States is that individuals who take against a policy or a state or national representative can use their tremendous wealth to use a campaign in the lead-up to the recall election to undermine such a representative. The idea that that is somehow empowering the voters is not the case. Recall empowers very wealthy individuals who could then— 

Douglas Carswell: You don’t trust the voters. 

Mr Jones: I do trust the electorate. The hon. Gentleman should stop chuntering from a sedentary position. The fact is that recall will give influence over who the Member of Parliament is not to the majority of the electors but to a small group of very wealthy individuals.

Note how Douglas Carswell, despite his change of party, has mastered the art of modern politics - feigning outrage on behalf of some group or other. Most debates on education, for instance, consist in accusing your opponent of "not trusting parents" or "not trusting teachers".

Yes, it can be irritating if an MP is caught doing wrong and refuses to resign. But there is a danger that the cure will be worse than the remedy.

And I have a particular reason for not giving wealthy Tories - you might even say Richmond Tories - the power to launch campaigns against MPs from other parties in this way.

As I recalled back in 2010:

In 1981 Adrian Slade won the Richmond seat on the Greater London Council for the Liberal Party, defeating the sitting Conservative Edward Leigh in the process. The Conservatives then lodged an [unsuccessful] election petition, contesting the result because of technical errors in Slade's return of expenses for the contest. 

The process, however, left Adrian facing ruinous legal expenses. His friends rallied round and staged An Evening At Court on Sunday the 23 January 1983 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to help him raise the money. As Smarter than the Average! tells you in exhaustive detail, many of the greats of British comedy performed that evening.

Why allowing the recall of MPs is a bad idea

Steve Shaw from Unlock Democracy has an article on Lib Dem Voice in support of the idea of allowing voters to force a by-election "if they have lost confidence or trust in them for any reason".

I cannot support his idea. It would mean, as people are already pointing out in the comments on that post, that in many seats defeated parties would spend their time collecting signatures in an attempt to have the result of the previous general election set aside. Zac Goldsmith's Recall of Elected Representatives Bill envisages that it would take 10 per cent of the electorate signing a petition to force a by-election.

If our politics were to move in this direction it would be bound to make relations between the parties even more rancorous. It would also make it harder for a government to bring in necessary but unpopular measures and take its chance at the next election.

For those reasons, I do not find the idea of allowing the recall of MPs an attractive one,

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"If elected officials resort to using superinjunctions - how can the public, who elect them, actually know whether it is a legitimate move to protect family privacy or something more sinister to hide the sort of activities that would make the the MP or candidate unsuitable for public office?" Living on Words Alone considers the issues raised by the news that Zac Goldsmith was granted a super injunction to prevent his private life being discussed before the last election.

Yellow Tinted Spectacles visits Cowley Street.

When your beliefs are challenged with facts, you alter your opinions and incorporate the new information into your thinking. Nonsense! says You Are Not So Smart.

Philosophy in pubs: what's that all about then? Leicester's Equality & Diversity Officer explains.

The Complete Spring Heeled Jack Page examines a 19th century urban myth.

"St Pancras may well deserve to be lauded as a Victorian cathedral of steam, but Somers Town was its essential counterpart: a temple to consumerism on a massive scale. The goods yard, however, could not muster a line up of poets and architectural historians to shield it from the wrecker’s ball. So while St Pancras was spared, its unsung adjunct was levelled." Current Archaeology excavates the secrets of Somers Town Goods Yard

Adrian Slade, Zac Goldsmith and election expenses

Recent mentions of the attention being paid to the election expenses of Zac Goldsmith in Richmond and of Adrian Slade inevitably put me in mind of this story.

In 1981 Adrian Slade won the Richmond seat on the Greater London Council for the Liberal Party, defeating the sitting Conservative Edward Leigh in the process. The Conservatives then lodged an election petition, contesting the result because of technical errors in Slade's return of expenses for the contest.

The process, however, left Adrian facing ruinous legal expenses. His friends rallied round and staged An Evening At Court on Sunday the 23 January 1983 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to help him raise the money. As Smarter than the Average! tells you in exhaustive detail, many of the greats of British comedy performed that evening.

I moved down to Richmond a month or two after that, and it is fair to say that because of this case relations between the Liberals and Conservatives were not exactly warm.

The current attention being paid to victorious candidates' returns of elections expenses is unlikely to end well for anyone in the long run. But I have a good memory and find it hard not to enjoy Zac Goldsmith's discomfiture.

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Andy Crick has a major problem with the coalition government: "My problem is that, notwithstanding some of the measures in the budget, like the dodging of a meaningful capital gains tax increase, I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with much of what is being done. This is a difficult position to be in when I want to maintain my independence and critical faculties."

If you missed Zac Goldsmith's extraordinary performance on Channel 4 News last night, hurry over to Caron's Musings for the video and some sensible comment.

Another fount of good sense, The Wartime Housewife, strikes a blow against Outnumberedism. She is looking forward to the school holidays and seeing more of her children.

BLDGBLOG has a photograph of the 18th-century ship that has been discovered during building work on the site of the World Trade Center.

More prosaically, Diamond Geezer looks at the 80-year history of Green Line Coaches. Mind you, I can recall, when a little boy in Hemel Hempstead, being amazed that it was possible to catch one all the way to somewhere exotic like East Grinstead.

Sick Britain has some atmospheric photographs of abandoned asylums, one of which I have borrowed and used here. It is worth quoting Enoch Powell's words from 1961: "There they stand, isolated, majestic, imperious, brooded over by the gigantic water-tower and chimney combined, rising unmistakable and daunting out of the countryside - the asylums which our forefathers built with such immense solidity to express the notions of their day."

Zac Goldmith on Channel 4 News this evening

Zac Goldsmith was on Channel 4 News earlier this evening to answer questions about his election expenses for the Richmond Park constituency at the general election. He gained the seat from Susan Kramer and the Liberal Democrats in a closely fought contest.

If you missed it you should watch the video of his encounter with Jon Snow. There is some background on the Channel 4 News website.

Questions raised over Zac Goldsmith's election expenses

A Channel 4 News investigation has raised questions over the election expenses of Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith in the Richmond Park constituency that he gained from Susan Kramer and the Liberal Democrats in this year's general election.

The report will be on Channel 4 at 7.30 p.m. - and no doubt on the web after that.

Richmond Park: Lib Dem Hold

News of the day is that Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative for Richmond Park, has admitted that he claims non-domicile tax status.

How this will go down with the hard-pressed taxpayers of Richmond we can, I think, all imagine. More damaging still may be the light that will be shed upon Goldsmith environmental credentials.

It is not so much that the Sunday Times report reveals his great wealth:

Goldsmith’s 300-acre ecological farm in Devon and a house in Richmond are both owned by companies based in the Cayman Islands. The farm was bought in 2001 and the house in Richmond was bought in 2007 for £7.75m. A house in Fulham, west London, was bought in 2004 and is owned by an investment company based in Liverpool.

though some will ask how this extraordinary personal wealth can be squared with Goldsmith's talk in an Evening Standard article from September of "insatiable consumption". I presume what he meant was other people are consuming too much. I am not sure there is a logical contradiction here, but it suggests Goldsmith lacks a sense of the ridiculous.

No, what will really damage Goldsmith is that this story will bring his local credentials into question.

Go to the What the papers are saying... page of Goldsmith's website and you will find quotation like this:

For Goldsmith, it (Richmond Park Constituency) is eminently winnable – not least because he’s local - Evening Standard.

Zac's passion for the natural world is rooted in local soil - The Richmond Magazine.

Zac Goldsmith is helping to turn the Tories green. He is also one of Richmond’s proudest sons - The Richmond Magazine.

This matters. It happens that I cut my political teeth in Richmond in the 1980s and I think I understand the constituency. People who live in urban villages like Kew adopt green and community causes in part because it is a way of showing that they have arrived and no longer live in a faceless suburb where the only thing to do is moan about the level of council tax.

The Tories realise this, which is why they were clever in adopting a liberal candidate in Jeremy Hanley at the 1983 election. He managed to hold on to the old Richmond and Barnes seat for them by just 74 votes. (Even so, a more energetic Liberal candidate than Alan Watson would have won it that year.)

Zac Goldsmith must have looked like a super-Hanley to Richmond Tories when he was adopted, but he does not look that way tonight. Look how "a spokesman for Goldsmith" attempts to defend him in the Sunday Times:

“Zac Goldsmith, along with other members of his family, some of whom live in different parts of the world, is a discretionary beneficiary of a trust ... The trust owns a number of properties around the world,” the spokesman said.

“The UK element of the trust’s portfolio includes homes which are made available for Zac and his family. These homes are not owned by Zac and are trust assets."

Doesn't look so local now, does he?

Note, too, that though the Tories urge home ownership on everyone, even to those who can scarcely afford it, Goldsmith at the age of 34 does not own his own house. Isn't that rather demeaning?

As well as being dismayed at his avoidance of tax and disappointed at his tarnished local credentials, the people of Richmond may decide that they do not want to be represented by an economic adolescent.

Greenpeace selling plots of land at Heathrow

The Times has news of a new tactic against the building of a third runway at Heathrow:

Greenpeace has bought a field the size of a football pitch and plans to invite protesters to dig networks of tunnels across it, similar to those built in the ultimately unsuccessful campaign against the Newbury bypass in 1996. The group also plans to divide the field into thousands of tiny plots, each with a separate owner. BAA, the airport's owner, would be forced to negotiate with each owner, lengthening the compulsory purchase process.

The Greenpeace website suggests that dividing up the land between numerous owners is not as easy as it sounds:

As legal owners of this plot we will take the opportunity to oppose airport expansion at every stage in the planning process. We're joined on the deeds by Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson, comedian Alistair McGowan and prospective Tory parliamentary candidate Zac Goldsmith. Along with Greenpeace UK, that's the maximum number of owners we can put on the deed, but you can sign up to add your name and stand beside us to resist all attempts of a compulsory purchase of the land.

You'll be joining beneficial owners who've already signed-up including local Labour MP John McDonnell, Tory frontbench spokeswoman Justine Greening, Lib Dem MP Susan Kramer, environmentalist George Monbiot and acclaimed climate scientist and Royal Society Research Fellow Dr Simon Lewis.

Whatever their intentions, I wish Greenpeace well with this. Though I do remember Friends of the Earth trying to use a similar tactic to prevent a road being built across Otmoor in Oxfordshire and getting nowhere.