Rowing Against the Tide - A career in sport and politics
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There’s little consolation in coming second even if it’s just your first stab at getting elected, and less so when you’ve worked your socks off for nine years, granted doing what I genuinely loved. But it had been a great honour to have served Nottingham during those years, and I have nothing but grateful thanks to those who had given me the chance to stand, and the thousands that supported me through those years. Suffice to say I achieved more votes when I lost the seat, than when I’d won it in 1983. Funny business politics !
Once the political bug has bitten, it’s very difficult to find a cure, and in my case I simply returned to Local Government, being elected to the County Council in 1993. I had one attempt at being an MEP in 1994, but that was the last year when MEPs were elected on a constituency basis, rather than the regional lists as was the case from 1999 onwards. That year first past the post did not operate in our favour and few of our Party succeeded.
Apart from returning to elected office at local level, I took on the role of speaker finder for the Millbank political supper club, which had been instrumental in my seeking and achieving a seat in the House of Commons. Whilst there, I persuaded a few colleagues to come and address the club, and having spoken to a number of constituencies had the chance to call in a few markers. Once back in the real world I was greatly helped by a good friend Patrick McLoughlin, now the Government Chief Whip, who found me, or twisted the arms of, two or three members from the Commons, to add to any MEPs or speakers from the Lords that made up a programme of five dinners each year. As a result, our chosen hotel gave us a really great deal, such that we had little difficulty in averaging fifty or more members and guests at our dinners spread through October to April each year. The club was a proving ground for many would be Councillors and MPs, and it’s a proud recent record to have had Pauline Latham, Anna Soubry, Andy Stewart, John Hayes, Mark Spencer, Andrew Bridgen, who as members, made it to the Commons, as well as many others who attended simply as guests.
With farmers in Leicestershire during a failed 1994 European Election bid
With Patrick’s help, the quality of the MPs he sent us, greatly aided our aim of encouraging members and guests to stand for office either within the Party’s administration, or as elected Councillors or Members of Parliament. Perhaps our, and his, greatest coup, was to send us two up and coming young newly elected Members of Parliament in David Cameron and George Osborne just prior to the 2005 General Election. It is true however that over the 50 years since the club’s founding, our guests have covered just about every MP who has ever reached Cabinet level. The minute book makes great reading for any current guest, and given we’ve had 250 Dinners it would be invidious to pick out any of those guest speakers over those years.
I served on the County for sixteen years, and whilst it was clearly not as demanding or as rewarding as Westminster, I was grateful to those who selected me, and those who supported me over those four terms. Throughout those years we were in opposition, and it was frustrating in extreme to see one stupid decision after another taken by the majority Labour Group, based on dogma rather than any objective analysis. Never the less, just as I had as an MP, I derived great satisfaction in being able to achieve small benefits for my constituents, by knowing which door to bang on when something needed to be done.
I spent some time as shadow Education spokesman, clashing with the Labour Chairman Fred Riddell, who had made a name for himself Nationally as the most dyed in the wool stick in the mud, who would not address the fact that our County was either the last or one from last, each time the “league” table of County performances were published. His answer to that outcome was that Nottinghamshire was the most deprived County in the country, and that’s why we did so badly in Education. Coming as I did from the East End of London, I refused to accept that as an excuse for failure. Most of his colleagues agreed with our group’s criticisms, but not one of them would take on the Chairman. His, and the labour Group’s first act on taking control in 1981 was to scrap plans to assist any bright children we’d identified in our schools, on the basis that Special Needs only applied to those at the bottom of the educational scale needing remedial help in reading and writing.
Such was his grip on all educational matters in the County, that when I was invited to meet the board of governors at a secondary school in my constituency, I was met by two officers of the council advising the board. The governors were concerned that year after year they had applied to have their temporary classrooms replaced with proper buildings. They had been told that it was all the fault of Kenneth Clarke who was Secretary of State at that time, and that he had blocked their requests. Before the meeting started I was called to the telephone to be berated by Fred Riddell firstly for visiting a school without his permission, and secondly he was not going to have me giving the governors false information as to how the capital grants were shared out throughout the County. I slammed the phone down on him, and to cut a long story short, the officers had to admit to the governors that the County, not Kenneth Clarke, decided priorities, and that in any case Fred would allocate any grant money elsewhere in the County and not to their school.
When the City separated from the County following local government reorganisation in the late 90s, Fred tried to move to find a City seat, but even the City Labour Party could not face having Fred as a colleague, and he decided to retire. As is the custom, there were the usual tributes paid to him for his years of service and particularly to education, and I was faced with making for me the most hypocritical speech of my entire career in public life. I did however start with a comment my mother had impressed upon me, “if you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all ". Having said that, and heard the sharp intake of breath from the assembled councillors, I did say that of course it did not apply on this occasion. I’ve lived to regret that hypocritical speech.
In my last eight years I served as deputy leader, and worked in tandem with Cllr Kay Cutts who was one of the hardest working Councillors I have ever met. Since 2009 she has become Leader of the Council, and in the face of criticism from the usual suspects, she has certainly turned the Council’s finances round, saving millions whilst at the same time transferring large sums to front line services and away from backroom bureaucracy. It had taken twenty eight years for the Conservatives to win control of the County, and regretfully those who had benefited from the profligacy of those years, are unlikely to thank the Conservatives for restoring some sense of reality to Local Government provision. No one likes losing what they have taken for granted for years, and those who were engaged in non jobs, or jobsworths, can’t wait for a return of a Labour administration who would be only too pleased to rebuild what they believe is their public sector support base.
When I retired in 2009, I was honoured to have been made an Honorary Alderman for services to Nottinghamshire. In 2012 the City of Nottingham granted me the same honour, so I have nothing but happy memories due to public service over a period of forty years.
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Chapter 9
The Closing Years.
Following a reasonably successful business career of over thirty years, forty years of one form or another of elected political office, and a life time involved in sport, it is time to reflect on and enjoy our closing years.
Politics is a form of incurable disease, for though retired from elected office in 2009, I still get occasionally rolled out to meet a request from some senior member of the Party to assist or advise on some problem or another. It’s not too demanding, and it gave you a false sense that you haven’t been forgotten and are still of some use. Our local Radio Nottingham call on me every couple of months to go on their early Monday morning phone-in knowing that without the constraints of office I can say just what I think, and so far I’ve not suffered any threats as a result. Equally when I hear or read of some, what to me seems an outrageous political plan, I send off a short “outraged of Barton in Fabis” to the press, and sometimes even now they print it!
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As National Vice President and a non voting member of the National Council of British Rowing, I regularly attend their meetings just to keep up to scratch and know how things are progressing, and enjoy the privilege of attending such functions as the International Dinner, which each year celebrates the ever increasing success of our athletes. I’ve long since surrendered both my International and National Umpires licences, but still enjoy driving the launches at Holme Pierrepont regattas, trying not to tell the umpires how to do their job !
Perhaps the best recall of these years will always be the outstanding performance of our athletes at the London Olympics. Attending the racing at Dorney Lake, and cheering on the extraordinary performance of our team, was an experience Sally and I will never forget. We attended two of the finals days, to witness the first GOLD to be won by any sport in the games, and to cheer and sympathise with the National Eight which had to be content with a BRONZE. The second attendance was to see at long last a much deserved GOLD medal for Katherine Grainger and her partner Anna Watkins in the womens double sculls. Granted there were around thirty thousand people there, including perhaps twenty five thousand Brits, I have never heard cheering like it, and the emotion engendered in the singing of the National Anthem was just something very special indeed.
On the two days we could not get to Dorney, we joined other members at Leander club at Henley, and watched the racing on the big screen. As the medals rolled in, the excitement at the club was tremendous, the champagne popped and a good time was had by all. It was just as well our cottage was just five minutes stagger from the club!
2010 was a year of first joy and then almost total disaster. After a wait of forty seven years, our club, the Nottingham and Union Rowing Club again won the Wyfold Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Celebrations and partying all round. Within a few weeks I was diagnosed with cancer, and after a first minor operation, I returned home and was there in time to save Sally who without any warning collapsed with a brain haemorrhage, and got her to hospital for operations that undoubtedly saved her life. With surgery followed by rehabilitation lasting some eighteen weeks, Sally’s hospitalisation overlapped my having two more operations, and at one time we were both in intensive care, and both nearly falling off the perch. We were both back home for Christmas that year, so whilst it was a year to forget, we were both back on our feet and enjoying life again.
The one big downside of both our operations was that we have had to come to terms with having to sell our large rambling old farmhouse for something more suitable to our age and limitations. So when coming up to my eightieth, we organised a party, and on the 25th of March some fifty friends and family gathered at Barton for what turned out to be a day to match anything the best of summers could have provided. A very good friend OI Lin provided a Chinese banquet with so much gorgeous food that even though most went round twice or three times, we were still able to provide everyone with a large takeaway ! I did try a sales job on the house, but no luck for our guests were all very happy with where they currently lived.
Recognising the old adage that the only certainties in life are Taxes and Death, we hope to have a few more years together, for now its forty eight years and counting.
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