• Launched the Swimming Challenge Fund to support free swimming for over 60s and under 16s.
• Banned fox hunting.
• Led the campaign to win the 2012 Olympics for London.
• Free admission to our national museums and galleries.
• Devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, an elected Mayor and Assembly for London and directly-elected mayors for those cities that want them.

I too like Dr Who.  However, I am not quite as much of a fanatic on the subject as is my (no relation) namesake Tom Harris MP (and indeed my favourite Doctor would be Patrick Troughton rather than Tom Baker – it’s an age thing).

Over the weekend Tom Harris recorded what thirty-five years ago would have been every male adolescent’s wet dream: a meeting with Dr Who companion, Katy Manning – and yes he is right she was the definitive Dr Who companion.

And note in the second photograph where Katy Manning has put her hand ……

The good news is that Tom Harris would have been only nine years old in 1973.

I did enjoy the Riddell cartoon in today’s Observer:

Back in the saddle

© Chris Riddell 2010

I had just read the front-page lead, “David Cameron to pledge NHS cash boost for most deprived areas“.  This reports that David Cameron is going to announce tomorrow that in the (unlikely) event that he wins this year’s General Election billions of pounds of NHS resources will be diverted to the most deprived parts of the country- apparently in an attempt to defuse the “class war” attacks on his Party.

Interesting, if true.

So where would this money come from?  Even bigger cuts elsewhere in the public sector?  The King’s Fund has demonstrated that even maintaining current cash spending on the NHS would lead to devastating reductions elsewhere.  So what will suffer?  Defence?  Police??  International Development???

Or is it going to come from elsewhere in the NHS?  So does this mean that middle-class areas will have their NHS resources cut?  Will Tory candidates in those areas come clean with their electorates??  And is the plan that the middle classes are to be forced into private health insurance???

So is this the vision for “Modern Conservatism”?

I think Tom Harris (no relation – he’s Scottish) seems to have got it right.

I gather that Alex Salmond has been setting out the Scottish Nationalist Party’s demands in the event of a hung UK Parliament after the next General Election.

I hope the other political parties will have the guts to tell him where to go in the unlikely event of there being a hung Parliament after the next General Election.

The SNP have got to stop regarding the rest of the UK as a cash cow with a duty to subsidise Scotland whilst proclaiming that they want to be independent.

Salmond says his support will depend on capital projects “blocked” by Westminster being funded.  I trust the unanimous response of the other parties will be: “Thank you, but we’ll have the £22 billion annual subsidy we give you back first.”

The Parliament Education Service runs an annual Discover Parliament Programme aimed at 16-18 year olds studying higher level politics, citizenship and general studies.  This afternoon I met 80 students taking part in the Programme.  They were from three schools in Pinner, Chelmsford and Bristol.

As ever on such occasions, the questioning was lively, sometimes challenging and extremely wide-ranging.  We covered – amongst other things – such topics as:

• aren’t MPs too old (I’d explained that the average age of members of the House of Lords is 69);
• why aren’t 16 year olds allowed to vote or to sit in Parliament;
• what did I think of Gordon Brown;
• should taxes be put up in the current economic situation;
• should the age for getting a driving licence change;
• what were my views about David Cameron, Lord Mandelson and the BNP (interesting grouping);
• what should be done about knife crime and gangs;
• was “kettling” of G20 protesters fair (from a teacher);
• should children be taught more about current affairs;
• did the LibDems have a better record on MPs’ expenses;
• is the threat of terrorism rising;
• should there be limits on immigration;
• was the war in Iraq right; and
• did I think Labour would win the next General Election and when would it be?

As I said, a lively hour – and an exhilarating one too.

Effectively, these Discover Parliament programmes can only take place during school term time and when Parliament is not sitting.  In practice that means they are only possible for about four weeks a year from the early part of September.  A by-product of Speaker John Bercow’s proposal to shorten Parliament’s summer recess might well be to end these programmes. Whatever the merits or otherwise of Parliament sitting in September (something I personally would favour), it would be a retrograde step to lose this outreach work with young people.

I see that two Scottish Health Boards are to be directly elected.  This is a pilot announced by the Scottish (SNP) Health Secretary.  The pilot will be evaluated after two years.  What would have been even more interesting would have been to run a parallel pilot in which the functions of two Health Boards were taken over by the relevant local authorities.

If people are really committed to the concept of local democracy and local accountability, then the answer is to make local councils genuinely all-purpose and equip them fully to represent the interests of their communities.

.

Iain Dale has had a pop at the Barnett Formula (the agreement forged when Lord Joel Barnett was Chief Secretary to the Treasury more than thirty years ago that residents in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should automatically and in perpetuity get a larger slice of public spending per head than people living in England) and Tom Harris has then had a go at Iain Dale for saying that the Formula is outmoded because of devolution. 

Tom Harris is right in saying that the devolution argument is irrelevant to the case against the Formula, but that doesn’t alter the fact that the Barnett Formula does need to be replaced by something that genuinely reflects the needs of the population in the different parts of the country. 

Of course, Tom Harris spoils his argument with a gratuitous side-swipe at London.  London has Boroughs that consistently have the greatest levels of deprivation and needs in the UK, but London and Londoners have to subsidise the rest of the UK year in and year out to the tune of more than £20 billion.

Yes, of course, the Barnett Formula needs to go and the rest of the UK that relies on London for its prosperity should stop knocking the Capital.

It is always dangerous for a Londoner to comment on Scottish politics.  However, as the Scots seem to have a disproportionate impact on the politics of the wider United Kingdom (Scotland has less than two-thirds of the population of London), I could not help but be intrigued by a report produced by the Quilliam Foundation, which describes itself as the world’s first counter-extremism think-tank, setting out how the SNP have selected as their candidate for Glasgow Central a self-proclaimed Islamist who established the Scottish Islamic Foundation which then received £400,000 from the Scotish Government.  Apparently, the candidate – Osama Saaed – is close to Alex Salmond (First Minister of Scotland and SNP Leader) and worked for him in the past.

Does all this mean that the SNP is also supporting the recreation of the Caliphate and the “need for 646 George Galloways to fill up the rest of Parliament”?  I think we should be told.