Edwina Currie and Jacqui Smith: is there life after politics?

When she left parliament Edwina Currie embarked on a new career as a writer – and has a second volume of diaries out next week. Former home secretary Jacqui Smith lost her Redditch seat two years ago and is still adjusting. So what's an ex-politician to do? They talk to Susanna Rustin.

Susanna Rustin: What do you make of the old saw that all political careers end in failure?

Edwina Currie: It was Enoch Powell and I think he got it absolutely right. Either you've achieved your goals, in which case there's nothing left. Or you leave feeling there's something you wanted to do that you now won't be able to.

Jacqui Smith: It was pretty obvious that I was going to lose my seat, but I decided to fight it. In some ways I feel a bit hard done by because unless there are people willing to stand in seats where they're going to lose, you're not going to have a democracy. My kids thought it was hilarious that for a considerable period there was a headline on the BBC website that said "big losers" with a picture of me underneath it.

EC: At least you had your photo on the website. Of the 200 who lost our seats in 1997, think of all those whom nobody has heard of since.

SR: Tony Blair has been criticised this week for brokering a deal with the Qatari prime minister. Is this a suitable job for a former prime minister?

JS: Tony hasn't been able to win whatever he's done. It's difficult now people become leaders younger. If you're 50-odd when you finish being prime minister, you're not going to put your feet up. Tony's done a good job of a combining public service with earning a living.

EC: I can think of one recent prime minister whose reputation has improved since he left office, and he spends most of his time watching cricket.

SR: Has your Westminster career, including your affair with John Major, supplied material for your writing?

EC: Inevitably! When I lost my seat I knew that by the time we got back into power I would be a pensioner, so chasing a seat was going to be a hiding to nothing. Being an opposition backbencher is a rough life, and something I didn't contemplate, but I needed to earn a living. And one of the safest ways of earning a living is by your pen.

SR: At crucial moments in your careers did you think "this is one for the memoirs"?

JS: I didn't do that, nor did I – and sometimes I've kicked myself since – keep diaries. Nor did I sit at the cabinet table and make notes of interesting things that were happening. It used to drive me up the wall when people did that. But I don't think you're thinking ahead when you're in the middle of these things – you're too busy.

EC: I found it was cathartic after big meetings or rows with Margaret [Thatcher] when I was in the thick of it, to sit down afterwards and write. If I did that, I had a record, yes, but I'd also work out what I thought.

SR: Did you consider going back to teaching, Jacqui?

JS: It crossed my mind, but it would have been difficult with my profile. So then you think, I'm 13 years older than when I was last in the jobs market, what do I do? In my experience, it takes a long time.

SR: Do you miss politics?

EC: I'm involved as much as I want to be, which is quite a lot in Derbyshire. I do a bit of national stuff and some mentoring of candidates. One or two are ministers now. We're thrilled to bits and feel like they're our children. Other than that, I can say what the heck I like. There's a freedom about being a real person and not a politician.

JS: I think Tony Benn said he was leaving parliament to be more involved in politics. The fact that you are not in Westminster doesn't mean you stop campaigning. I don't miss parliament. By the end, the shine had gone.


But I loved being a minister, it's exciting and such an honour, and I miss that.

EC: When you're a minister you have power, you can make things happen.

SR: Is there anyone you admire for what they have done post-Westminster?

EC: On my side, they all went off to run banks, and I'm not sure we should be proud of that.

JS: I admire some of those who removed themselves completely from public life. Sometimes I wonder about myself and the radio and other things. Is it that I am not willing to let go of having a public voice? Even though people might not take any notice of what you say, they do listen when you're in government. Sometimes I wonder if I am hankering after that influence.

SR: If we ever get an elected House of Lords then more politicians will be forced to find another way to make a living. Would that be good for politics?

EC: What are there, 826 of them these days? All friends of prime ministers one way or another. It's a disgrace. It should be reformed and substantially elected.

JS: Neither Edwina nor I are in the Lords. Most people who leave parliament don't go into the Lords, they go off and find other jobs, and are more or less successful in doing it. There is some interesting research about what happens to MPs after parliament and I feel reasonably lucky. People suffer depression and all sorts of problems.

SR: What have been the high and low points for you since leaving parliament?

EC: My husband is sitting opposite, mouthing "me". He's been the high point – getting married again and having a new life. Low point: worrying about money and not having a regular monthly income. It takes a strong personality to wriggle through and come up smiling.

JS: A low point has been feeling frustrated about things happening in my former constituency. One of the good things about being an MP is you can pick up a phone and expect somebody to listen. High point: when I stepped down as home secretary, my son, who was about 10, said: "Does that mean when we go on holiday you won't be on the phone the whole time?" When kids say things like that, you realise what your political life has meant for your relationship with them. So without doubt, the high point has been being with him as he goes into his teenage years and being able to enjoy the door-slamming, and the fun moments.

• Edwina Currie's Diaries Volume II: 1992-97 is published by Biteback Publishing next week. Jacqui Smith's book about home secretaries will be out next year.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/14/edwina-currie-jacqui-smith-life-after-politics

Big Ben: Clock Tower renamed Elizabeth Tower for Jubilee

Parliament's Clock Tower is being renamed The Elizabeth Tower this week to honour the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.


But to many people it will still be known as Big Ben, which is the name of the Great Bell within the tower.


The BBC's Adam Fleming climbed hundreds of steps inside the landmark, with tour guide Tim Redmond, although the sound of the famous bongs proved too loud for a BBC microphone.



Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19570508

FOOTBALL IN THE COMMUNITY: Town to make Parliament appearance

SWINDON Town will be making an appearance in Parliament today as the club’s community work in Zambia is used as an example for others to follow.

Football in the Community Trust manager Jon Holloway will address an audience of politicians, including sports minister Hugh Robertson, sports administrators, club representatives and non-governmental officials at a Westminster conference, highlighting the strength of the Robins’ work in the African country over the course of the past six years. 

Similar programmes conducted by Charlton Athletic and Notts County will also be under the microscope at an event co-chaired by Devizes MP Claire Perry.

The aim of the conference is to gain the support of the audience for a project designed to encourage Premiership and Football League clubs to set up international links and partnerships, thereby enabling the communities at both ends to reap the benefits.

Andrew Deuchar, director of Marlborough-based charity BUILD, who has led the initiative, said: “Anyone who has travelled through Africa, Asia and the Caribbean will know the amazing popularity of British football.

"Even in the most isolated villages you will find children wearing the strips of famous English clubs. 

“This project aims to use this popularity in order to make a real difference to communities, both in the developing world and in the local communities in which all clubs are already doing such excellent work through their community foundations.”  

Source: http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/sport/9920660.FOOTBALL_IN_THE_COMMUNITY__Town_to_make_Parliament_appearance/

MEPs postpone hearing over lack of women on ECB board

Luxembourg banker Yves Mersch was to appear on Monday before the economic and monetary committee, having been picked to fill a vacancy on the board.

Sharon Bowles, the committee's head, said EU finance ministers had failed to explain why women were not considered.

Her letter, she said, had urged action to promote women at the ECB.

There are currently no women on the ECB's six-member executive board, which runs its day-to-day business; on its 23-member governing council, which decides policy; and on its 29-strong general council, which brings together EU central bankers.

However, the executive board did have a woman member from when it was founded in 1998 until May of last year, when Austria's Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell left.

While the European Parliament can hold up nominations to the board, it does not have the power to block them. Eurozone leaders who make the appointments are free to disregard the parliament's opinion in such cases.

Ms Bowles said she had received "some verbal assurances that no women could be located" but there had been no formal reply and no answer regarding a plan to promote women.

"There is now not even a single woman sitting on the main board of what is one of the most powerful and essential institutions in the EU," the British Liberal Democrat MEP said in a statement.

"The symbolic and practical effects of this absence are not without note. It does seem, as with corporations, that there is a systemic cultural problem to address."

There has been an empty seat on the ECB's executive board since Spain's Jose Manuel Gonzalez Paramo left at the end of his term on 31 May.

Mr Mersch, head of Luxembourg's central bank, was chosen by eurozone finance ministers.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19520785

Brussels dreams new parliament countries eurozone

Senior European figures are planning to establish a new parliament only for the countries in the eurozone, it was reported yesterday.

The body – which would comprise MEPs and national parliamentarians – would have powers to investigate eurozone members’ fiscal and economic policy.

The UK would not be part of the new organisation because it is not a member of the single currency.

But the body could require the construction of a new building, with some of the costs potentially falling on British taxpayers.

German newspaper Handelsblatt reported yesterday that the plans are being developed by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council; European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso; Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker, and Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank.

 

A eurozone parliament is only one idea mooted, with other proposals including a stronger role for the European Commission to veto national spending plans.

Such far-reaching proposals would require changes to EU treaties.

Stephen Booth, from the think-tank Open Europe, said: ‘These plans are clearly “blue sky thinking” at this stage, but they serve as a reminder that the UK must seek safeguards against the 17 euro members making the rules for the rest.

‘Van Rompuy and Barroso are supposed to represent all 27 members of the EU and not simply the interests of the eurozone.’

Mr Booth said that, if the proposal goes ahead, Britain would need to ensure there was a similar space for non-eurozone members and those who wished to leave it.

 
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2199580/Brussels-dreams-new-parliament--countries-eurozone.html

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