Six of the Best 536

Michael Moore (Are you
sure about this? Ed.)

"We should make sure the credit is properly allocated, but not be shy about celebrating the roles of many Liberal Democrats, from David [Steel] onwards, who were part of the team that helped to deliver this magnificent railway." Michael Moore celebrates the reopening of the railway line from Edinburgh to the Borders.

Mark MacKinnon visits Perm, a city in the Urals where, not long ago and for not very long, free expression was allowed to flourish. In fact, it was encouraged and even financed by the Russian state.

David Aurebach says the best course he took in college was on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

"They may have been failures as professional criminals, but by the time they were sentenced to life in prison at the age of 35, their brand was already a phenomenal success." Duncan Campbell on the strange career of the Kray twins.

"Imagine: you are in a band that has entered Abbey Road just after the Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper, to cut your own classic album which will be released after you cease to exist, with very little in the way of promotion. The album will garner favorable reviews and few sales, but you will return, nearly 50 years later, to perform it in its entirety and release a new LP in one of the strangest, most stirring comebacks in the history of rock and roll." Colin Fleming meets the Zombies,

Tim Oliver takes us to All Saints, Kirby Underdale.

On the stump with Michael Moore

View image | gettyimages.com

Jim Crace paints a sympathetic picture of Michael Moore as he fights to hold Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk:

Every conversation, though, invariably comes back to the coalition. The Scots are not as keen to forgive as many Lib Dems would hope. In public Moore remains resolutely on message – “I don’t believe in cutting and running” – and tries to talk up his party’s achievements. 

But his heart doesn’t seem wholly in it: he knows the party made a huge mistake over university tuition fees and if he could turn back time, he would. But what’s done is done, and Moore is determined to make the best of it – though there’s a noticeable reluctance to bring the names of Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander into any conversation. 

If Moore is going to retain his seat, it will be on his own achievements.

Team Clegg plays down the idea of promoting Jo Swinson to the Cabinet

On 1 July 2012 I blogged about a Scotland on Sunday report tipping Jo Swinson for promotion to the Cabinet. The idea was that she would replace Michael Moore as Secretary of State for Scotland. In the event, of course, it was Alistair Carmichael who got the job.

Yesterday the New Statesman tipped her again. This time the proposed victim was Ed Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy.

Today's papers have clearly been briefed by Team Clegg - Freddie and Fiona - that this is not going to happen. I think that is a shame.

The Guardian holds out some hope for Jo:

She is expected to succeed Alistair Carmichael as Scotland secretary after September's independence referendum.

I hope Nick Clegg has something new in mind for Alistair. The sack would be a poor reward for The Man Who Saved the Union.

Andrew George and Michael Moore take top two places in ballot for private members bills

The Parliament website has the results of today's ballot for private members bills. The top two places in the draw were taken by Liberal Democrat MPs: Andrew George was first and Michael Moore second.

Altogether there were five Lib Dems among the twenty names drawn. Sarah Teather was at no. 7, John Hemming at 16 and Martin Horwood at 20.

As the website says, the ballot presents an opportunity to be one of the first MPs to introduce a private members bill in this parliamentary session and may mean guaranteed debating time for the bill on a Friday sitting of the House.

The Junior Whip: "A hell-raising street-fighter"

My 12th Whipped column for Ad Lib magazine.

It was when I heard the Chief Whip was giving up hard drink for a month that I sensed change was in the air.

“It’s called ‘Go Sober for October’,” he told me. “People sponsor you to give up alcohol for a month and the proceeds go to Macmillan Cancer Support.”

“But what if you have to give a backbencher a bol… you know, tell them off?”

“That’s easy. I’ll sit them down, tell them a few home truths and then offer them a stiff orange juice.”

******

Two days later I was in the office when a SPAD burst in.

“The Chief Whip is leaving! The Chief Whip is leaving! He’s going to save the Union.”

“What? Like Unison?”

“No, not the union: the Union. The United Kingdom. He’s taking over as Secretary of State for Scotland and he going to sort out Alex Salmond. The papers say he’s “tough,” a “bruiser” and .

“That’s a bit kind, isn't it?”

“They don’t know him like you do.”

******

It was a shock to me, though probably not as much as it was to Alex Salmond. And certainly not as much as it was to Michael Moore.

I am going to have to find a new job here at Westminster. You may think that will be difficult, but I don’t see it as much of a problem. Because this morning I finished copying out the last few pages of the Chief Whip’s black book.

They are not the only souvenir I am taking with me from the office.

Seeing as it is for such a good cause, I wouldn't want the Chief Whip to fail in his attempt to Go Sober for October. So I am taking his bottle of Auld Johnston home for safekeeping.

The Conservatives look to the Liberal Democrats to save the Union

Michael Moore is unlucky to lose his Cabinet position today, even if he was lucky to gain it in the first place - Danny Alexander was the Coalition's first Scottish Secretary and moved to the Treasury only after David Laws' resignation. By all accounts he did a good job and his courtesy and reasonableness did much to calm the debate over independence.

But I cannot be anything other than pleased to see the more combative Alistair Carmichael take his place for the referendum campaign. Alistair is one of my favourite Liberal Democrat MPs and I have done my best to mythologise him as the Chief Whip in Ad Lib.

What has gone unremarked today is that, with only one MP in Scotland, the Conservatives are wholly impotent in this campaign. David Cameron is keeping well out of it, concluding that his every intervention would win a thousand more supporters for independence.

So the Conservatives are dependent upon the Liberal Democrats to save the Union.

I hope the more thoughtful members of what used to be the Conservative and Unionist Party are wondering how they have come to this. But I doubt we shall receive any gratitude from that party as a whole.

Jo Swinson tipped for promotion to Cabinet

Maybe it is only Sunday paper talk, but Scotland on Sunday has an article by David Maddox tipping Jo Swinson (currently Nick Clegg's parliamentary private secretary) for promotion to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland:

According to a source close to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Swinson, the MP for East Dunbartonshire, who from 2005 to 2009 was the youngest MP in the House of Commons, has impressed the party leadership since the Tory-Lib Dem coalition came together in 2010. 

In particular, her decision not to rebel over the coalition decision to increase university tuition fees, despite building a political career on trying to get them scrapped, marked her out for promotion with the leadership of both parties.

This is accompanied by some vague damning of the current incumbent, Michael Moore - apparently he is seen as "a safe pair of hands," but his approach to fighting the SNP’s referendum plans is "over cautious".

The other candidate mentioned if there is to be a new Secretary of State for Scotland is Alistair Carmichael:

who is seen as being a tough and likeable option to take on the Nationalists and is well regarded by both coalition parties in his role as deputy chief whip.