Obsessed MPs are out of tune with the real issues
Richard Benyon MP • Published 12 Aug 2010 09:30
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ONE OF my children has a toy that plays “Oh Susanna” the whole time. Continuously. All day.
Even when I am out of earshot I still seem to hear the lyrics, “Oh Susanna, Oh don’t you cry for me, cos’ I’ve come from Alabama, with my banjo on my knee”.
It means that my home life is similar in one sense to being at work. Parliament, you see, is full of obsessive characters that become one-tune toys.
Some of my colleagues, for example, see the European Union as the dark force behind all the world’s ills. You could be having a debate on any subject from floods in West Berkshire to the future of Trident and they will pull the EU into the argument somehow. Others are obsessed with details of departmental spending.
As part of my ministerial responsibilities in Defra I have to answer any Parliamentary question on administrative matters. A group of MPs have taken to asking precisely how many car trips ministers have taken and to where.
I have also been asked how many televisions there are in ministers’ offices, how many light bulbs in all Defra buildings and many more such banalities.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all in favour of being held to account but I sometimes wonder whether this is what brought these MPs into politics.
If you are wondering, the new Government is the last word in frugality, comparing much better to the previous lot.
All ministers are wearing hair shirts. We are as likely to walk, cycle or take the tube as we are to take one of the Government’s hybrid electric cars. Oh, and the number of light bulbs is 38,000.
Talking of cycling. I have seen the future. Well, the future for me that is. When I become too ancient to cycle properly I am going to buy an electric bike. I visited a small company marketing these works of genius out of a small premises in a Berkshire downland village.
They look like a bicycle but have a battery powered motor that shoots you along with ease. A purist might sneer but they could be the answer for those for whom the commute by cycle is just too much.
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