Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

The death of the former South African president F W Botha reminds us of what an astonishing transition the country has made. Nobody could have imagined that it could have been so successful; the ANC Government has overseen rapid economic growth and racial friction has been minimal.

Let us hope this is just an aberration but there is a bit of flakiness at the edges now. The ANC Chief Whip was imprisoned for corruption, wholly unapologetically, a Government minister throws a passenger off a full plane to get a seat, another flies her family to Dubai for some retail therapy. There is a risk that this is what begins to happen when your political position is unassailable, with two-thirds of the vote.

Every democracy needs an opposition to hold government to account and to highlight any possible signs of corruption and arrogance. This role has fallen to Tony Leon, leader of the Opposition, who is currently in London. He is clever and funny and works hugely hard in difficult circumstances.

Some say he can be acerbic, but his role is crucial. My own view is that anybody who wants South Africa to be a success story — a beacon to the rest of Africa – should applaud him. He deserves it. 

It was supposedly said by Lady Eden, of the 1956 Suez crisis, that she felt as if the Suez Canal ran through Downing Street.  I wonder what Cherie thinks about Iraq today.

Yesterday said it all.  So febrile and lacking in confidence is the Government becoming, that Tony Blair was not to be seen in the chamber of the House of Commons at all during the debate on Iraq.   We are always told that what happens abroad does not impact voters domestically, yet the Iraq debacle crystallises the terrible triumph of spin over substance that marks the Blair era.

It was Suez that cost Sir Anthony Eden his job.  It is the tragic situation in the Middle East which will cause Blair to leave office with such a diminished reputation.