Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

Yesterday afternoon was the first time in nearly two years that the House of Commons had a chance comprehensively to debate the current situation in Iraq and the wider Middle East. Tony Blair, once again, opened up Prime Minister’s Questions with a tribute to the latest casualty of the war in Iraq.

We were told by the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, that hopefully a “turning point” was coming up in relation to the war and that the Prime Minister would make a statement then – William Hague quite rightly pointed out, where would we have been in the Second World War if Churchill had waited until we had a “turning point” to come to the House of Commons?

I sat through the debate and listened to the many wide-ranging and thoughtful speeches on all aspects of Iraq and the Middle East. I spoke in the debate and a copy of my speech can be found on my website, www.richardspringmp.com 

One of the problems is that our skilled diplomats, who understand the region and its complexities, have been sidelined by  grand visions and generalisations which have historically never worked in the Middle East, when patient negotiation, hard work and pragmatism are the keys.

Iraq is likely to be Tony Blair’s lasting legacy and yet, in the twilight of his premiership, he shamefully skulked away to avoid a debate on the war he led us into – where we looked for a display of leadership yesterday from our Prime Minister, we found instead weakness – such a contrast to the  courage showed every day by British soldiers on the ground in Iraq. 

It is again symptomatic of the shambles which has now descended on this Government that yesterday the Prime Minister indicated an open mind about whether the Home Office should be split in two – the Big Story of the weekend – and which conveniently happened to push Ruth Turner of Downing Street fame off the front pages.

You would not believe it but the Home Office is a much smaller animal than it used to be. Two relatively new departments, Culture Media and Sport and Constitutional Affairs have taken on chunks of Home Office’s former remit (licensing, gambling, broadcasting, the fire service and so much more). Yes it is true that worldwide migratory flows are not likely to abate, and yes we face terrorism not rooted in territorial claims but religious fundamentalism, and is therefore more difficult to identify and prevent.

Key parts of the Home Office do not communicate with each other. Charles Clarke had to resign over foreign prisoners because the prison department failed to talk to the immigration service. It is the antithesis of joined up government. The words whelks and stalls spring to mind.

This morning a Labour MP jokingly suggested to me that perhaps the Home Office should be split three ways. Why not? Another headline.

You couldn’t make it up…   

As ever in politics, when the wheels begin to come off for a Government, the process only speeds up.

Whilst it is true that events abroad do not normally intrude into the thinking of British voters, the shambles of Tony Blair’s visit to the Middle East are symptomatic of exhaustion and dysfunctionality. The British people have formed a judgment about Iraq and our relationship with the United States which is contributing to their negative view of the Prime Minister. It is the main reason for his departure.

But perhaps more significantly for the future has been the media mood change in respect of Gordon Brown. The days that he can re-hash, re-announce and hide spending figures are now over. He has been universally criticised by  financial and economic commentators including those who have always supported him! Can it really be true that the weight of taxation in this country is about to overtake Germany’s? What a squandered legacy.

For them will it ever be glad confident morning again? If things continue as they are now, I doubt it. 

For me personally, I am taking my family away on holiday. The blog will be up and running again on 8^th January. Thank you to all those who have contacted me about it.

May I wish you a happy Christmas and New Year. 

One of the reasons why our reputation became so rapidly degraded in the Middle East after 1997 was the appointment of Lord Levy as the Prime Minister’s special emissary to the region. He had no power to negotiate and soon the Israelis and the Arab countries alike saw no purpose in seeing him. Everybody knew he had been given the job solely because he was the fund-raiser for the Prime Minister. Despite being given an office in the FCO, Lord Levy had no trained diplomatic skills, and never spoke in the House of Lords.

I flew with him and Robin Cook to the funeral of President Hafez al-Assad in Syria. The passenger list on board indicated the official roles of those present – he had none. I asked him directly why he was on the flight, and what followed was a truly bizarre conversation.

I am afraid that well before the invasion of Iraq, despite the best efforts of our skilled diplomats in the region, our influence was much diminished. Tony Blair’s current visit there is an embarrassment. It will take the talents of David Cameron and William Hague to rebuild our tarnished reputation in the politically most sensitive corner of our planet. 

There is a column in one of the weekend newspapers about people’s forebears, so often an extraordinary mixture of individuals from widely differing backgrounds.

My maternal family is Scottish, and in amongst my antecedents are Presbyterian clerics and academics. It was people like that who rather selflessly and frugally led their lives, not only in Scotland, but all over the world.

Gordon Brown is the son of the manse. However, I fear that his spending habits - if not for himself – have very little in common with Presbyterian moderation. He has spent public money like confetti, with very little improvement in public services. What however is most surprising is the way he continues to put such a gloss on his figures, what he leaves out, what he re-hashes and re-announces. In that regard his spinning and presentational chicanery is more akin to his thespian neighbour in Downing Street.

I wonder what John Knox would think?