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Don’t want to live with the common people? Don’t seek to represent them then!

I knew that it was going to be a bad interview for Sir Nicholas Winterton, when he asserted ‘The public are wrong, yes, the public are wrong’. His comments were a reaction to public disquiet about MPs expenses, and in particular a ban on MPs travelling first class. The ensuing interview, which lasted almost an hour, was one of the best pieces of daytime radio entertainment I have ever heard, beautifully facilitated by an informed Stephen Nolan. If this doesn’t earn Stephen a permanent promotion to a regular daytime slot, nothing will.

Winterton’s comments included the following:

“Members of Parliament deserve to be treated in a proper manner and that includes being paid to travel First Class”.

“People in standard class are a totally different type of people … and include those not in executive jobs. They have a different outlook on life. Of course they do, because they are involved in a totally different activity. “

“It’s for Parliament to decide [what MPs’ expenses are] not the public.”

and

“Members of Parliament just can’t get a fair hearing”.

Winterton also continued to press his belief that local councillors travel First Class. Well as a local councillor, I can only travel Standard Class and so can the officers of our council. And that should be good enough for MPs too.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and tweeted through the interview. Oh the audible distaste by Sir Nicholas Winterton when was suggested that he talk to people in standard class. The thought that he might have to talk to people who were of a different class in both uses of the word was obviously too much. He obviously thinks that he is better than the majority of his electorate and doesn’t want to be forced to mix with them for too long. He attempted to shout down Stephen Nolan (something he should have known that he couldn’t do!) and was extremely rude to two very polite members of the public who rang in, confusing disagreement with abuse.

I accept that travelling standard class is not always the greatest fun. It is often overcrowded, noisy, and if you haven’t prebooked, you may find yourself without a seat. But that is life for most of us. Why should MPs rely on us to buy them a ticket out of there?  Why not spend a little of their time working to improve our railways instead?

At the end of the interview, Stephen Nolan said that it had been ‘a delight’ talking to Sir Nicholas. And a delight for those of us listening too. That’s put the classless Conservatives back several years.  CCHQ were very quick to slap Winterton down as ‘an out of touch backbencher’. The problem is Sir Nick has just reminded the electorate that there are many of them out there – and most of them sit on the Conservative benches. The Tories have spent so long working to destroy Labour’s ‘class war attack, but in just one hour, all that work may have been undone. As LibDem MP Norman Baker put it, “Sir Nicholas Winterton betrays the underbelly of the Conservative Party”. Certainly the sense of entitlement that Sir Nick displayed is often heard from Conservatives, particularly in their need for duck houses and moat clearances.

I assume that later today, you will be able to hear the whole interview again from the 5Live web site.

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