Thursday, June 10, 2010

How Could Alun Michael Lose to Vaz?!

I've just been looking through the list of new Select Committee chairmen. There are certainly a few surprises.

Paul Goodman on ConHome reckons that many of them are establishment figures who will not be very keen on standing up to Number Ten. I'm not sure I totally agree with that. I think Select Committees in general will come into their own in his parliament and while some chairmen will be more vocal than others, there will be a real impetus for them to display their independence and teeth.

I was astonished by Andrew Tyrie's margin of victory over the pre vote favourite Michael Fallon for the Treasury Committee chairmanship. Fallon has been a superb deputy chairman of the Committee but Tyrie's high profile campaign and his reputation for indepence seems to have swung it for him.

As I thought, Stephen Dorrell got the Health committee, although I am still bemused as to why. Nadine Dorries did brilliantly to come a good second, ahead of Sir Paul Beresford and Peter Bone.

But why, oh why, did any Conservative vote for the oleaginous Keith Vaz? Surely to goodness anyone could see that Alun Michael would have been a better choice. To lose to Vaz must be the absolute nadir of Alun Michael's political career.

And how on earth Margaret Hodge won the Public Accounts Committee chairmanship is anyone's guess. Actualy it's not. The Labour whips went to work and helped her pull through.

And now we come to the elections for the committees themselves. These elections never end, do they?


Simon Gardner said...

It makes my skin crawl that Nadine Dorries could get anywhere near anyone’s health. Unbelievable.

Salmondnet said...

Alun Michael sits for a Welsh constituency. Quite a lot of home office activity will not affect his constituents, particularly if the Welsh Assembly gets upgraded powers.

Johnny Norfolk said...

How could Google change its home page. Does anyone know how to get the old one back. Its now for children.

mtrcricket said...

Have you ever had a one-to-one conversation with Alun Michael?
I have not had one with K Vaz so I have no direct comparator and although I dislike his performances and most of his views he has along way to descend to match Mr. Michael.

Moriarty said...

Simon Gardner obviously thinks that membership of the health select committee constitutes a medical degree.


"But why, oh why, did any Conservative vote for the oleaginous Keith Vaz? ... To lose to Vaz must be the absolute nadir of Alun Michael's political career."

I think you've just answered your own question Iain, don't you? :)

There's also the fact that the more coverage Vaz will get, the worse for Labour.

Houdini said...

The question should be how could anyone lose to Vaz?

It goes to show just how corrupt Parliament must still be when a person like Vaz can even be in Parliament, let alone gaining the chairmanship of a major committee.

David Lindsay said...

By far the best news from the Select Committee elections was that Scottish Affairs will be chaired by Ian Davidson, Co-operative stalwart, no friend of the EU, and not only one of the numerous Labour MPs from Scotland (and Wales) who will have voted No to devolution in the privacy of a polling booth, but one of the few who has gone on to take seriously the continuing role of the Parliament of the United Kingdom in exercising overall responsibility, as critically as necessary, for the affairs of devolved bodies.

Blessed with the gift for a sharp turn of phrase, expect to hear a lot more from Davidson, not only while the present do-nothing Executive limps to its conclusion, but also once the Tories and the Lib Dems have between them taken more votes than the SNP (as happened last month) and the overall majority at Holyrood is made up of the his own party's failed Westminster and Strasbourg hopefuls, semi-retired Westminster and Strasbourg wallpaper, incompetent office staff, and councillors whose Council Leaders wanted rid of them.

Mick Turatian said...


I think the nadir (and how absolute can a nadir get?) was when, as Tony Blair's annointed choice as leader of the Welsh Assembly, Alun Michael was trounced by Rhodri Morgan.

Unknown said...

Not sure why you're a fan of Michael Fallon. He failed on the "Bankers" interrogation. Like John McFall and John Mann, he had not done his homework and never successfully held the likes of Fred Goodwin to account.

Unknown said...

Anybody voting or speaking against Vaz is likely to be accused with racism.

Plus there would be pressure from above to get at some ethnic diversity amongst the chairmen.

It has been a long time since merit was the only or even the main consideration in a lot of appointments.

javelin said...

Also ... How can the Guardian Media Group stay in business when it lost 50 million (170 million inc exceptionals) ??

Now all those Government jobs are going where is their revenue stream coming from?

Roger Thornhill said...

Hodge got to be an MP under the "goat with a red rosette" mechanism.

Why she is given any responsibility astonishes me, but again, no it does not - for I consider her an imbecile and that is just what MPs appear to want in charge of such a committee - an Useful Idiot.

Hodge is barely useful, but that is compensated for her excelling in the other direction.