Newspaper column - May 2009
Posted by Mike Wood, MP for Batley and Spen, at 08:27, Fri 15 May 2009:
Every month I write a column in the Batley News and Spenborough Guardian. Please find today's column below:
Best wishes,
Mike Wood
INSIDE POLITICS Defeat of the Government's plans to restrict the rights of Gurkhas to settle in the UK is a major political event. Not because of the way it affects how people view the Government but because it shows that when ministers get things wrong the right result can still be achieved.
There has been a great deal of scrutiny of the way in which serving and former soldiers are treated in the UK and this latest chapter concerning the Gurkhas has been one a great many people simply could not and would not stomach. I've had more letters about this in the last month or so than about any other issue.
Ministers not only misjudged the public mood but the extent to which that strength of feeling had filtered through to MPs. Much of that is thanks to the campaign waged by the actor Joanna Lumley, whose tenacity and determination has quite rightly shamed ministers.
As someone who has found himself on the opposite side of a number of issues to the Government over the last 12 years, I know that they usually have the upper hand. The biggest obstacles to changing the Government's course have been support from Conservatives and Labour MPs never willing to vote against the Government.
Fortunately for the Gurkhas these obstacles weren't present this time and it allowed Parliament to make the right decision. How the Government responds to that and what they do next remains to be seen, although it is quite clear the Ms Lumley will not let them off the hook lightly!
It is of course a shame that the Government, and to a lesser extent Parliament, has had to be cajoled by Ms Lumley in her capacity as spokesperson for the outraged public.
There have been many issues over the last 12 years where I wish there had been such a focal point for the public mood over issues such as going to war in Iraq, the Equitable Life fiasco and introducing university tuition fees. The public outrage was as strong if not stronger in those cases but the Government could not be budged.
Of course there have been some victories for we humble backbenchers - we forced a backtrack on the 10p tax issue (although we are still fighting for the minority who remain uncompensated), a rethink on scrapping the Post Office Card Account and defeated the Government on 90 days detention without charge.
Hopefully the public mood will press Parliament to show as much backbone in coming weeks, whether over plans to privatise Royal Mail or in reforming our system of allowances, as it did in sticking up for the Gurkhas.
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