On "Have I Got News For You" this week they mocked the fact that the Labour party have appointed the almost anonymous Bob Ainsworth as Minister of Defence. From my experience, they are right to joke about him.
I lived for three years, in Coventry and was a council candidate during that time in Bob Ainsworth's constituency. In that time, he was virtually anonymous. As a politically active and politically aware student, you might have expected the local politicians to be of immediate interest to me, and in the run up to the 1997 I expected to see lots of them, but of the then four MPs in Coventry (then reduced to 3 in 1997), Bob Ainsworth was the least seen and least known of any of them. Indeed John Butcher, the one Tory (who was standing down anyway) had the highest profile.
But the thing that stands out was the almost universal opinion of Bob Ainsworth from all sides, including Labour people I met during the campaign, who all described Bob Ainsworth as either anonymous or useless, and this man is Minister of Defence ?
Update - The Telegraph also has a lot of detail on Mr Ainsworth's expenses claims.
7 comments:
One could say he nourishes obscurity perhaps, Nich.
Very good. 9/10 for effort !
Perhaps the obscurity of Labour MPs is the real reason for introducing ID cards .... I couldn't possibly comment!
Hope you enjoyed your time in Coventry, for all its faults I love it. And Norwich is a nice place as well.
Indeed, I loved Cov. Once you've worked out that a "batch" is in fact a "bap" or "filled roll", that Foleshill is said "Fose-all" and that you cannot really blame the Germans for the centre of Coventry, after all, they didn't build that awaful 1960's shopping centre, Coventry really is a place I really felt was my home.
Sadly though, it is VERY student dominated, and being there whilst being a student is great, but as a non student I can imagine that it really can feel like your City is there for people with NUS cards and not for you.
As a Coventry Kid I assumed that the rest of the world ate batches as well. Travel disabused me of that notion.
Actually, an awful lot of the medieval centre of Coventry was redeveloped by the Corporation in the late thirties. The Precinct was really good in its sixties heyday and had some world class artwork, especially mosaics. And Styvechale, Cheylesmore and Allesley aren't pronounced as they are spelled either - probably to confuse the students (who are no worse or better than any other city's).
My local butcher in Coventry liked to tell me that whole roads were condemned by the Council as "bomb damaged", so they could pull them down instead of repairing the medieval buildings in order to build the ringroad !
Anyway, fond memories.
Good to see that even Lib Dems have recognised the worthiness of "Slow Bob". A true midget amongst a cabinet of dwarves.
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