Tom Richmond: Harman must show more care and attention

IT'S ironic that Harriet Harman – one of the Cabinet ministers allegedly at the heart of the plot to oust Gordon Brown – says the Prime Minister needs to listen more.

If only she was in a position to set such an example. For her cavalier response to legitimate concerns expressed recently by Sir Norman Bettison, the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, shows just out-of-touch Ministers have become.

Speaking to this newspaper before Christmas, Sir Norman intimated that burglars were being released prematurely from prison because of overcrowding – a well-documented problem.

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He, and other officers, were also able to point to anecdotal evidence to show a correlation between the release of such criminals and a rise in break-ins.

Predictably, Shipley MP Philip Davies was first in the queue to raise this issue with Ms Harman, the Leader of the Commons who sets the Parliamentary timetable.

"May we have an urgent debate about sentencing for burglars and prison places, given that it is causing West Yorkshire Police lots of trouble?" he asked reasonably.

The response?

"There has actually been a fall in the level of crime since this Government came into office and an increase in the number of offenders brought to justice," said Ms Harman.

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"No one is released from prison on the basis of a lack of prison places. We have increased the number of prison places. Actually, we have done that with finance that the party to which the honourable gentleman belongs would have opposed.

"I will not raise his points with the Home Secretary or the Justice Secretary because I think they are ill-founded."

So there you have it. Labour's deputy leader saying she's not concerned about a senior police officer's criticisms because his comments, she says, are "ill-founded".

And this, from a woman, who chose not to attend court a week ago when she was fined 350, and ordered to pay 70 costs and a 15 victim surcharge, for driving without due care and attention.

How not to run a country.

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HERE'S yet another example – I'm afraid – of how Parliament is not working in he public interest.

Last week, Leeds MP Hilary Benn launched Food 2030 – a vision for the future of farming. It was a commendable document as, for once, a Minister was prepared to take a long-term view.

Yet, rather than speaking about the inevitable changes to agricultural policy in the House of Commons, he did so at a farming conference in Oxford.

Those upset at this snub include John Greenway – the outgoing Ryedale MP. When so many farmers are in real financial difficulty, he says, it is "discourteous" that such a fundamental shake-up is not discussed in the Commons.

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The response? Commons leader Harriet Harman said she would discuss with Benn "whether he thinks there should be an opportunity to bring it to the House to debate".

This is a dangerous precedent. It should not be up to Ministers to set the Commons timetable. It should be up to senior backbenchers – in conjunction with the Speaker.

IF you've been inconvenienced by the big freeze, don't expect your MP to do anything about ungritted roads, pavements and station platforms.

Just eight Labour backbenchers were present in the Commons for Transport Minister Sadiq Khan's statement on the weather shambles.

The rest can't all have been snowed in, can they?

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IT'S not just Labour MPs who have been missing in action. So, too, have the Tories.

When Foreign Secretary David Miliband made a statement on Afghanistan on Thursday, his Tory counterpart William Hague – and the Richmond MP's deputies – were absent.

And while I'm told that Liam Fox, the Tory defence spokesman, made a workmanlike speech, no Conservative backbencher asked any questions.

The only Tory to speak was the deputy Chief Whip, Andrew Rowbotham who entertained MPs with his travels there in the 1970s. How can we take David Cameron's protestations seriously that Afghanistan is top priority if no one turns up for a debate?

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TORY credibility faces one of its biggest tests next week when Shadow Chancellor George Osborne learns whether he faces censure over his expenses – and, particularly, his claim for an inflated mortgage.

The Tatton MP was said to have taken out a 450,000 loan against his constituency home, Harrop Fold Farm, in 2003 – 5,000 more than he paid for the property (and in cash).

For six months, MPs have been considering whether it was "necessary" for Osborne, a multi-millionaire, to charge the taxpayer for interest payments on the full amount of the debt. They can impose a range of punishments if rules have been breached, including ordering an MP to apologise, to return money, or suspending them from the House.

Either way, it will be extremely embarrassing for Tory Leader David Cameron. For, even if no rules were broken, this transaction was not morally right or in the public interest.

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Yet how can he expect the public's trust over cleaning-up politics if his sidekick behaved improperly – and is not slung out of the Commons along with those backbench Tories who similarly erred over duck houses, moats and other sundry expenses.

RETIRING MP Ann Cryer comes from a radical socialist background and has sometimes wondered why the posh ladies of Ilkley helped to re-elect her in her Keighley constituency.

"I have decided it is because I look like them," she told a West Riding NFU lunch in Harrogate last week.

"Because I have white hair and I try to dress neatly."