A review of “Beyond A Fringe”, the memoir of Conservative politician Andrew Mitchell
November 21st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In 1971, for the first time I read a memoir by a Conservative politician: “The Art Of The Possible” by Rab Butler. As a lifelong member of the Labour Party, it has taken me exactly 50 years to repeat this experience. My ‘excuse’ is that my son – who works in the international development sector and has recently collaborated with Andrew Mitchell on matters of mutual interest – attended the launch of “Beyond A Fringe” and brought me back a (signed) copy.
I have to say that I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read, enlivened by plenty of amusing anecdotes and some self-deprecating observations. It is, however, a strange political memoir: first, because it is not actually that political (which should win it a wider readership than many more ideological treatises) and, second, because the work exhibits a major bifurcation in which the writer becomes something of a different politician and indeed a different person.
Let us start with the politics.
Strangely there is no discussion of why Mitchell wanted to go into politics and why he choose the Conservative Party for his ideological home. It is true that his father was a Conservative MP but the book contains very few references to his parents. It is almost as if his classic upper middle-class life – prep school, public school (Rugby), Oxbridge (history at Cambridge), army (a short service commission) and the City (the investment bankers Lazard) – led him to Centre-Right politics without the need for thought.
There is a fascinating chapter on his three years in the Whips’ Office (whipping is so important to British politics but rarely illuminated), yet this period was all about cajoling fellow Tories to vote with the Major Government and there is barely any talk of the actual policies they were being asked to support. There is then his first rung of the ministerial ladder when, as a junior minister at the Department of Social Security, he was responsible for the infamous Child Benefit Agency. He explains how he promoted managerial changes to improve the working of the agency, but there is no consideration of the government’s role in tacking family poverty.
The best period of Mitchell’s career was his seven and a half years as Opposition spokesperson on International Development and Secretary of State at the Department for International Development (DfID). He was industrious and committed in both roles and can rightly be proud of his record. But when he talks of developing “a centre-right British international development policy”, it seems to me that his changes were more about efficiency and focus than about ideology – which is as it should be.
Since he ceased to be a minister, Mitchell has worked especially hard on three areas: international development, human rights and civil liberties. Yet again these are not issues on which there is an obvious or clear Left/Right divide.
Now that bifurcation.
Mitchell acknowledges in his preface that “Mine is without question a privileged life”. For decades, everything fell into his lap without too much effort or travail. His epiphany came with his appointment – initially by Michael Howard – to the international development portfolio. He admits “I had little experience of my new brief” and “it was not one of those issues I had contributed to in the House of Commons”.
But he read widely, he consulted extensively, and above all he travelled. In Uganda: “It was my first experience of real poverty”. He was especially moved by what he saw in Rwanda: “Throughout the long journey back to Kigali, I cried for one of the few times in my adult life”. He founded ‘Project Umubano’ – the Kinyarwanda word for friendship – which took Conservative volunteers to Rwanda and acknowledged that “It changed our lives – it certainly changed mine”.
Where Mitchell’s deep involvement in international development humanised him, the shock of ‘Plebgate’ – a contentious altercation with policemen guarding the entrance to 10 Downing Street – humbled him. He admits: “It was my weakness – arrogance, indeed – that started it all off”. It changed him financially (he faced legal bills of around £2 million) and emotionally (he suffered serious depression and sought medical help).
The trauma set the seal on his disenchantment with the Establishment of which he had been a fortuitous member. He writes: “in the process, I found that I’d resigned from the British Establishment”. Indeed the subtitle of his memoirs is: “Tales From A Reformed Establishment Lackey”. In the final chapter, he states: “I have somehow become more internationalist, less Anglocentric, less trustful and less respectful of the organs of the state and generally less certain”.
One of the enjoyable features of a political memoir is seeing observations on other politicians. To the surprise of many colleagues and friends, Mitchell supported Boris Johnson when he ran for the Conservative leadership. He does not assert that Johnson is a serial liar, but he does not need to. The inference is unavoidable: Johnson clearly indicated that he would return Mitchell to office (he lied), he agreed to keep DfID as a separate department (he lied), and he promised to stick to the UK commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on overseas aid (he lied).
Mitchell speaks kindly of both Tony Blair and David Cameron and describes William Hague as “the best Prime Minister we have never had” and Michael Gove as “the cleverest man in the government”. His comrade-in-arms and closest political friend is David Davis.
As for Mitchell himself, I venture to suggest that he would make a better Foreign Secretary than any member of the current Conservative Cabinet.
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It’s World Toilet Day – and that’s serious
November 19th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
World Toilet Day (WTD) is an official United Nations international observance day on 19 November each year to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation” and around 673 million people practice open defecation.
Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. In particular, target 6.2 is to “end open defecation and provide access to sanitation and hygiene”.
Life without a toilet is dirty, dangerous and undignified. Every day, 700 children under 5 die from diseases linked to unsafe water and sanitation. Toilets literally save lives. We need massive investment and innovation in sanitation for all.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
What do you know about the Central Asian nations with names ending in -stan?
November 17th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
The name ending ‘-stan’ means ‘land of’. In Central Asia, there are seven of them.
I have been to one – Uzbekistan [see travel notes here] – and plan to make a trip next year to five of them: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
There are two others – Afghanistan and Pakistan – but I don’t feel that it would be safe to visit them in current circumstances.
If various political movements had their way, there might be even more -stans.
For instance, the Khalistan movement is a separatist movement seeking to create a homeland for Sikhs by establishing a sovereign state, called Khālistān (Land of the Khalsa’), in the Punjab region. The proposed state would consist of land that currently forms Punjab, India and Punjab, Pakistan.
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My last three movies – so utterly different
November 16th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Readers of this blog will know my love for films and my wide-ranging tastes, but the last week was something special. I went to the cinema three times and saw three films that could hardly have been more different from one another:
The Japanese black and white classic “Throne Of Blood” – my review here
The latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe “Eternals” – my review here
The children’s animation movie “The Boss Baby 2: Family Business” – my review here
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A review of the new movie “Eternals” – the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
November 14th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This is a Marvel movie like no other and it has a director (and co-writer) like no other: Chinese-American Chloé Zhao. This is a work that could hardly be more different than “Nomadland” for which Zhao won the Academy Award for Best Director which shows the scope of her talent and the bravery of her ambition. For this is a hugely ambitious film, covering 7,000 years of humankind, depicting many civilisations and nations, and featuring no less than 10 superheroes of unprecedented diversity.
Really, it is not just hugely ambitious but over ambitious for, while there is much to admire in the movie with some colourful and exciting sequences, ultimately there is simply too much going on and so much that is unclear. I’m from the school that believes that a film, while it might have depth and complexity that require further thought and perhaps even repeated viewing, should be broadly intelligible to the average viewer on a first viewing.
So, what’s the movie about? Well, the Celestials created the Eternals to protect humankind from the Deviants but, over (lots of) time, the Eternals have rather fallen out between themselves and now there is a problem with something called the Emergence. Are you following this?
The point of view of the story is that of the Eternals who are not only very old but very diverse. Traditionally superhero movies centred on a white male American character (think “Superman”, “Batman”, Ironman”, “Captain America” …), although recently we have seen more gender and ethnic diversity (think “Black Widow” and “Black Panther” respectively), but none of the 10 Eternals is a white male American – the nearest is a Scotsman and an Irishman- so we have lots of women and people of colour and even gay and deaf heroes. This is admirable from a cultural point of view, but it means that we don’t really get to know any of the team in depth and we are constantly bouncing around different storylines.
No wonder the film runs for over two and a half hours and we still leave the cinema bewildered about much of the narrative.
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I bet you’ve never visited a materials testing house
November 7th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
It’s a (very) little known fact that, when I left school in Manchester, I thought I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. Indeed I obtained a place on a university degree course to study mechanical engineering, but deferred my entry by a year to go into industry for some practical training.
I learned very quickly that I was far more interested in people that machines and I managed to change my degree course to Management Sciences. The rest is history …
But, over half a century later, this weekend I visited a homage to mechanical engineering in the form of the Kirkaldy Testing Museum because it is located very close to where I now live on London’s South Bank.
On 1 January 1874, Scottish engineer David Kirkaldy opened the world’s first purpose-built, independent commercial materials testing house at 99 Southwark Street London. Inside, his patented 116-ton hydraulic-powered Universal Testing Machine could exert a force of up to 1,000,000 lb, bringing rigorous new understanding to the strength of construction materials.
Outside, he declared his independence over the door, ‘Facts Not Opinions’. The machine, and his challenge, are still here today.
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How many covid deaths have there been worldwide?
November 7th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
According to figures complied by John Hopkins University in the United States, which are based on the official data published by individual governments, we recently passed the grim threshold of 5 million covid deaths worldwide. However, as this article explains, this figure is certainly a serious underestimate.
According to a model developed by The Economist, the true figure is at least double that (10 million) and possibly almost four times that (19 million).
If we think about the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918, estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million. Therefore the current highest estimate for the covid death toll is higher than the lowest estimate for the so-called Spanish Flu. in short, they are comparable.
Of course, the world population in 1918 was much smaller than that in 2021, so proportionately the current pandemic is not as devastating, but this way of looking at statistics will not console the families and friends of the dead. And the current pandemic is not over …
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How did Bletchley Park break Nazi Germany’s Enigma code?
November 6th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I’ve read the novel “Enigma” written by Robert Harris [my review here]; I’ve seen the film directed by Michael Apsted [my review here]; and this weekend, I visited Bletchley Park where a British team built on the work of Poles to break the Enigma code used by the German army, navy and air force during the Second World War.
But I still don’t understand how they did it. I mean 159 million million million ways of changing one letter for another. And the Germans changed the settings every day. The analysts were heroes as much as those on the frontline.
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What are the most popular baby names in Britain?
November 4th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Of course, names change in popularity. According to the data compiled annually by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and published each September, the most popular names for children born in England & Wales during 2020 were as follows:
| Position | Boys | Girls |
| 1 | Oliver | Olivia |
| 2 | George | Amelia |
| 3 | Arthur | Isla |
| 4 | Noah | Ava |
| 5 | Muhammad | Mia |
| 6 | Leo | Ivy |
| 7 | Oscar | Lily |
| 8 | Harry | Isabella |
| 9 | Archie | Rosie |
| 10 | Jack | Sophia |
There are some patterns here.
First of all, astonishingly the most popular boys’ name and the most popular girls’ name are essentially the same (Oliver and Olivia) – what is technically known as cognates – and these names have been in top for their gender for the last five years. Is this the case in any other nation? Second, it is striking how traditional most of the names are for both boys and girls, although for the boys it is interesting that the familiar form of names rather than the original version is often preferred – Harry instead of Harold, Jack instead of John, Archie instead of Archibold. Third, in the case of girls, seven of the top 10 names end with the letter ‘a’ and five contain the letter ‘l’.
On the other hand, the name John (my father’s name), which was the most popular boys’ name until the end of the Second World War and is still the most common male name in Britain for the population as a whole, is nowhere in the top 100 names in the 2020 listings, while David – which is the second most common name in Britain – slipped out of the top 50 of names chosen for baby boys born in 2004 and is still only 60th. Similarly Margaret – the most common female name in the population as a whole – does not even appear in the top 100 names chosen for girls these days, while Susan – the second most common name in Britain – is not even in the top 100 either.
These observations underline how much fashion shapes the popularity of different names. Fashion is a stronger influence with girls’ names than those of boys. So, for example, in the last decade or so Ivy has soared to number 6, while Elsie has jumped to 19. Arthur has surged into the top 10 boys’ names for the first time since the 1920s (it is now 3rd), and Ada has jumped into the girls’ top 100 for the first time in a century too (it is now 38th), both perhaps inspired by characters in the BBC television drama “Peaky Blinders”.
It should be noted that the Office of National Statistics (ONS) produces its ranking of the popularity of names using the exact spelling of the name given at birth registration.
If one combines the numbers for names with very similar spellings, a very different picture is revealed. For boys, combining the occurrence of Mohammed, Muhammad, Mohammad & Muhammed plus eight other spellings of the names would put it in first place – a reflection of the changing ethnicity of the British population and the powerful trend for Muslim families to name their son after the Prophet. Similarly, if one combines the occurrence of Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and Isobel, one would find the name top of the girls’ list and, if one took Lily and Lilly together, the name would come fourth, while Darcie, Darcey and Darcy would boost that name’s ranking.
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What does Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 3 mean to you?
November 3rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I recently listened to the piece on Classic FM and the music always reminds me of the Australian pianist David Helfgott whose struggle with this piece – and indeed with life – is depicted in the film “Shine” starring Geoffrey Rush as Helfgott (see my review here).
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