This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jul/17/hugh-muirs-diary-john-selwyn-gummer

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Diary: Damn, it's hot. Maybe the sun is getting to Lord Deben Diary: Damn, it's hot. Maybe the sun is getting to Lord Deben
(2 months later)
• A man who tried to feed his daughter a burger in a vain attempt to prove the safety of British beef must always have had a certain chutzpah. But, as time passes, the former Thatcherite minister Lord Deben speaks with increasing plainness. We like it. Last week the former John Selwyn Gummer stuck it to climate change sceptic Viscount Ridley, mocking the latter's acknowledged expertise in the sex life of pheasants. Now, armed with Twitter, he's able to take a swipe at Tories trying to derail gay marriage. "Sad but predictable," he says. "It took 100 years for them to catch up with Darwin. Freud will take longer." And as for news that the British government abstained on a measure to protect bees – a measure passed because other states did the right thing, Deben tweeted: "Another example that EU is crucial for the UK environment. Who'd leave the future of bees in the hands of abstainers?" Not him.• A man who tried to feed his daughter a burger in a vain attempt to prove the safety of British beef must always have had a certain chutzpah. But, as time passes, the former Thatcherite minister Lord Deben speaks with increasing plainness. We like it. Last week the former John Selwyn Gummer stuck it to climate change sceptic Viscount Ridley, mocking the latter's acknowledged expertise in the sex life of pheasants. Now, armed with Twitter, he's able to take a swipe at Tories trying to derail gay marriage. "Sad but predictable," he says. "It took 100 years for them to catch up with Darwin. Freud will take longer." And as for news that the British government abstained on a measure to protect bees – a measure passed because other states did the right thing, Deben tweeted: "Another example that EU is crucial for the UK environment. Who'd leave the future of bees in the hands of abstainers?" Not him.
• Amid the sound and fury about poorly run hospitals runs the contemporaneous scandal of the government resiling from plans to introduce plain cigarette packets. Also the notable side-issue of the MPs who were recent beneficiaries of free tickets to the opera at Glyndebourne, courtesy of the fag companies. Another shout-out to the homies in the House, Labour's Gerald Kaufman, Jim Dowd and Tory Bob Walter. But if ye seek ye shall find, and by doing just that, the writer Solomon Hughes unearths another of them, former Tory minister Christopher Chope, MP for Christchurch, who received two tickets and associated hospitality at Glyndebourne on 13 June from Japan Tobacco International, value around £1,534. A good time had by all who benefited. The kind you don't forget in a hurry.• Amid the sound and fury about poorly run hospitals runs the contemporaneous scandal of the government resiling from plans to introduce plain cigarette packets. Also the notable side-issue of the MPs who were recent beneficiaries of free tickets to the opera at Glyndebourne, courtesy of the fag companies. Another shout-out to the homies in the House, Labour's Gerald Kaufman, Jim Dowd and Tory Bob Walter. But if ye seek ye shall find, and by doing just that, the writer Solomon Hughes unearths another of them, former Tory minister Christopher Chope, MP for Christchurch, who received two tickets and associated hospitality at Glyndebourne on 13 June from Japan Tobacco International, value around £1,534. A good time had by all who benefited. The kind you don't forget in a hurry.
• Reader Tom Maxwell is left wondering. "I'm puzzled by the ticket costs quoted: two tickets worth more than £1,200 for 13 June?" That was Le nozze di Figaro, he says. The top-price tickets were £250. "So that's £500. What's the other £700+ for? A meal perhaps, and tea, and a glass of champagne. Two dinners at £65 or so, plus two teas at perhaps £25 each, plus a couple of glasses of champers for another £25? That's a total of just over £200. We're still £500 short of the £1200+." Indeed we are. And some of the packages bestowed were actually worth more than £1,500. But then the hospitality trimmings do add up. Maybe they got to join the cast backstage for karaoke.• Reader Tom Maxwell is left wondering. "I'm puzzled by the ticket costs quoted: two tickets worth more than £1,200 for 13 June?" That was Le nozze di Figaro, he says. The top-price tickets were £250. "So that's £500. What's the other £700+ for? A meal perhaps, and tea, and a glass of champagne. Two dinners at £65 or so, plus two teas at perhaps £25 each, plus a couple of glasses of champers for another £25? That's a total of just over £200. We're still £500 short of the £1200+." Indeed we are. And some of the packages bestowed were actually worth more than £1,500. But then the hospitality trimmings do add up. Maybe they got to join the cast backstage for karaoke.
• Thirty years after the car crash that has come to be called "TV mayhem", Sir David Frost returned to reminisce about TV-am at a Royal Television Society Legends lunch on Monday. Ever pithy, still engaging, Frostie was fairly unrepentant. He still saw not much wrong with a highbrow "mission to explain" at 6:30am though it was, he conceded, "something of a struggle in the early stages". When the experiment crash-landed, TV-am had to be rescued by Greg Dyke and the ratings pull of a toy called Roland. But even then, the pointy-heads claim credit. According to Sir David, Peter Jay – the founding chairman, former ambassador to Washington and a man who then basked in the title The Cleverest Young Man in Britain – was the first person to spot the salvation potential of Roland Rat. The difference was that Dyke did something about it. And history is written by the winners.• Thirty years after the car crash that has come to be called "TV mayhem", Sir David Frost returned to reminisce about TV-am at a Royal Television Society Legends lunch on Monday. Ever pithy, still engaging, Frostie was fairly unrepentant. He still saw not much wrong with a highbrow "mission to explain" at 6:30am though it was, he conceded, "something of a struggle in the early stages". When the experiment crash-landed, TV-am had to be rescued by Greg Dyke and the ratings pull of a toy called Roland. But even then, the pointy-heads claim credit. According to Sir David, Peter Jay – the founding chairman, former ambassador to Washington and a man who then basked in the title The Cleverest Young Man in Britain – was the first person to spot the salvation potential of Roland Rat. The difference was that Dyke did something about it. And history is written by the winners.
• Finally: it's all kicking off, it was said of austerity protests around Europe, and the same grouchy mood seems to be afflicting sections of the British left. Pity the poor young speaker from the Norwich branch of the troubled Socialist Workers party who stood at an event to decry the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer but found himself heckled by women from the Socialist party. Pity those caught up in near-fisticuffs between SWP "loyalists" and critics of the leadership in the bar during the Marxism 2013 conference in central London last weekend, after a robust exchange of opinions. "Life on the left gets more like a scene from Life of Brian every day," says our rueful chronicler of events. We shall overcome. But not just yet.• Finally: it's all kicking off, it was said of austerity protests around Europe, and the same grouchy mood seems to be afflicting sections of the British left. Pity the poor young speaker from the Norwich branch of the troubled Socialist Workers party who stood at an event to decry the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer but found himself heckled by women from the Socialist party. Pity those caught up in near-fisticuffs between SWP "loyalists" and critics of the leadership in the bar during the Marxism 2013 conference in central London last weekend, after a robust exchange of opinions. "Life on the left gets more like a scene from Life of Brian every day," says our rueful chronicler of events. We shall overcome. But not just yet.
Twitter: @hugh_muir Twitter: @hugh_muir
Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.