LibDem in defence of a Conservative minister
I’m not very good at being nice to Tories. But I’m prepared to make an exception occasionally. Call it late for Christmas. Or early for Lent. Or simply I’ve had a good week and I’m prepared to try to love my neighbour, even if he is a Conservative (which few of them are round here!). Maybe I just have a soft spot for Alan Duncan (for it is he that I am going to be nice to). Hmm, maybe not …
If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s surrounded by quite a lot of snow, I would have thought Mr Duncan’s ears would be burning this week. Rather than go on an awayday with Dave and a recession ‘fact-finding tour of the UK, he’s decided to take a week to go skiing in Switzerland. He’s been briefed against by ‘senior Tories’ in the serious papers and the tabloids. Tim Mongomerie, at ConservativeHome, also received an unauthorised briefing this week. Others have been shouting that the shadow Business Minister shouldn’t go away during a recession, including sadly some in the LibDems. Labour have been their usual schoolboy sorts, with a particularly silly little video.
I don’t subscribe to the view that politicians should be super-human. I expect them to be honest, hard-working and put their residents ahead of party politics. But I don’t believe that they should go without their holidays, any more than I believe Nick Clegg should not take paternity leave, except in a real, sudden crisis. As we are likely to be in recession for a couple of years, is Alan Duncan expected to go that long without a holiday? Surely that’s not good for anyone? Every time we try to make politicians live an unreal life, we set them up to fail and shrink further the pool of good people wanting to be elected to office. Duncan seemed to have a good reason for being away this week. He said that he was on duty over Christmas and so was having his break now. ‘The great thing about me is I don’t have a family so I can be on duty when others aren’t,‘ he told The Times. And for goodness sake, he’s not running the country, just aspiring to.
Now maybe Duncan isn’t any good at his Shadow Cabinet role. Iain Dale, (hardly a natural fan of Duncan, as he points out) seems to think that dropping him would be a big mistake, as does the ConservativeHome community, where Duncan has ranked this monthas the 6th most popular member of David Cameron’s shadow cabinet – behind (alphabetically) Michael Gove, Chris Grayling, Dominic Grieve, William Hague and Eric Pickles. Maybe Dave feels snubbed that Duncan didn’t go to his party and wants him out – well that’s his prerogative as leader. Maybe he was going to sack Duncan anyway. Whatever Alan Duncan’s future or past, I find all this petty sniping to be rather taking the piste.
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