A Mullin

Yesterday's haul from the Raynes Park platform library included the political diary detailed at reference 1; a fat and battered paperback. With Mullin being a campaigning journalist, something of a leftie, who became part of the New Labour project as MP for Sunderland South, that is to say a place in the far North. The diary starts in 1999 with his being appointed a junior minister under the noisy John Prescott, that is to say Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of the Environment, Transport, and the Regions.

From the first fifty or so pages, he comes across as a decent man with a nice sense of humour trying to do some good in the world. But who finds himself, as a newly minted junior minister, spending huge amounts of time and effort on nonsense. Like delivering a badly written speech about something that he knows nothing about to a seaside conference hall full of people who know a lot about it.

There is always going to be tension between the elected ministers, nominally if not always actually in charge, and the permanent staffs of their ministries; this is a fact of democratic life. But does it really have to descend into the sort of farce that Mullin describes? Can't we find a better way to train up junior ministers, to get them ready for better things?

It seems that during this period he had two special bugbears. First, the wastefully organised government car pool, which existed to ferry ministers and senior officials about. Second, the epidemic of leylandii hedges. On which last it seems that Past Master Blair ruled that doing anything about it would smack of the nanny state and play very badly in organs like the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. Access denied.

So I am pleased to have come across him, but I don't suppose I shall get through much more of his diary. Instead, I have ordered a copy of his political thriller, published years before and since televised, detailed at reference 3. £2.50 or so from Abebooks.

PS: at some point yesterday, I came across the rather cryptic post at reference 4. Checking with Google this morning, I soon find out what it was all about, for which see reference 5. Perhaps I was being cryptic to avoid burning my fingers in such a highly charged business: in any event I hold to the sentiment expressed.

References

Reference 1: A view from the foothills - Chris Mullin - 2009.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Mullin_(politician).

Reference 3: A very British coup - Chris Mullin - 1982.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/03/something-is-rotten-in-state-of-denmark.html. 

Reference 5: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/12/minneapolis-agrees-to-pay-27m-to-george-floyds-family.

Reference 6: https://perfectplants.co.uk/blog/the-story-of-leylandii-are-these-conifers-friend-or-foe. The ultimate source of the snap above. '... But for those curating the National Pinetum in Bedgebury, Kent, the Cypress leylandii is a positive feature. Bedgebury is home to what is believed to be the world’s tallest and oldest leylandii hedge in Britain, measuring over 39 metres (130ft). The pinetum is proud of its leylandii, having found the trees to be robust and strong, making a great statement...'.

Reference 7: https://gardeningcosts.co.uk/how-much-does-leylandii-removal-cost/. The proximate source of the snap above.

Reference 8: https://www.forestryengland.uk/bedgebury. The home of the hedge in question.