Tom Richmond: Give us political persuasion, not outright acrimony

The local election campaign, coupled with devolved elections in the Celtic nations and the AV referendum, has seen politics sink to a new low.

It is the hollowness of the referendum arguments, with David Cameron, for example, calling the former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown “sanctimonious” and so on.

They claim that the public are not engaged with electoral reform – but why should the public bother if the Yes and No campaigners cannot articulate coherent arguments for the Alternative Vote and First Past The Post systems without resorting to snide attacks?

One reason is that the main leaders know the fallout from the AV poll – and the consequences for the future of the Lib Dems in particular – will overshadow the town hall elections and separate polls in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

On the council front here, it will be something like this: The Tories will lose seats because they exceeded expectations when the same seats were last fought in 2007; Labour will make large gains, but predominantly in the North; and the squeezed Lib Dem vote will be offset by some spectacular results where they cling onto councils unexpectedly.

There will be an air of familiarity about these themes; governing parties traditionally do badly at local elections, even more so when cuts are so prevalent, and the Opposition prosper.

But, once the dust settles, the status quo should prevail – a Tory and Lib Dem coalition trying to rebalance the nation’s finances and a Labour Opposition still striving for policy and economic credibility. Yet, if Cameron and Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems cannot heal their rifts, and there is evidence to suggest that power-brokers like Ashdown, Vince Cable and Chris Huhne are in an uncompromising mood, what is the alternative – a minority Tory government or a general election where Labour try to pick up the pieces?

The prospect of either is so appalling that such scenarios should be used to persuade Cameron and his coalition that far more emphasis needs to be placed on the politics of persuasion rather than the unappealing personal acrimony witnessed in the past month.

THE forthcoming Government review of the railways is likely to bring about higher fares and a lesser service. This is the only conclusion that can be drawn from initial reports about the Sir Roy McNulty review. Why? Increased prices to pay for new rolling stock – and ticket offices, and such like, being closed to bring down running costs by 35 per cent to bring them in line with the European average. The latter shows the extent of management waste.

Yet Ministers, I fear, are becoming pre-occupied with the notion of “airline-style fares” that could see tickets for peak-time fares soar – and passengers banned from travelling if they don’t have pre-booked tickets.

Don’t they realise that it is, already, more expensive to travel between major cities by train than it is by flying?

What is required is a simplified ticket structure for commuter and long-distance services, and a proportion of each fare being spent – directly – on new rolling stock to ease overcrowding.

I’M not a fan of Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. His botched handling of cuts to the Building Schools for the Future programme, and the lack of detailed clarity behind his flawed ‘free school’ policy, suggest that he is a man unsuited to the responsibilities of Cabinet office. Nevertheless, I had a tiny modicum of sympathy when the teaching unions called for him to be sacked. Easter would not be Easter without the unions making such calls – regardless of the political party in power.

IF Gordon Brown leaves Parliament to head up the International Monetary Fund, he’s unlikely to miss Westminster – or be missed.

Since his resignation as Prime Minister just over a year ago, he’s tabled written questions on just five occasions – and made just one speech.

A FRIEND used this analogy to sum up the consequences of the super-injunctions that BBC presenter Andrew Marr, and others, have used to cover up their philandering and marital indiscretions. “It strikes that this is a modern version of the abdication crisis; ie, the media knows and anyone who is anyone knows. But Mr and Mrs Bloggs doesn’t have a clue,” he said.

It should also be pointed out that Marr probably lifted the super-injunction because he will have to interview a series of politicians shortly about privacy laws.

HAS Welcome to Yorkshire missed a trick at the World Snooker Championships at Sheffield?

With Ding Junhui bidding to become the first Asian winner of the marathon, and hundreds of millions watching on TV in one of China’s most watched sporting events, should a Chinese translation have accompanied its logos at the venue?

WELCOME to Yorkshire invites could be on the way to the typists who record Parliamentary proceedings for Hansard.

Skipton MP Julian Smith’s debate about tourist brown signs off the A1(M) talked about this “stunning part of the world, with Wallace and Gromit, Wensleydale trees, James Herriot and the Black Sheep and Theakston’s breweries”.

Wensleydale trees? It’s a new one on this cheese fan.

HAS there been a better, or more poignant, piece of acting than young Jack O’Connell’s portrayal of Bobby Charlton in the BBC drama documentary United about the Busby Babes, and the Munich air crash?

It was, arguably, the most powerful portrayal yet of the saddest day in Manchester United’s history and one which claimed the lives of Yorkshire footballing greats Tommy Taylor and David Pegg. They will never be forgotten.

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