Thursday 31 August 2017

Michael Howard casts off the shades of night

Well, almost.

His conversation with Peter Hennessy this morning revealed that he had been one of Iain Macleod's followers, a one-nation Tory, when at university. He was also proud of the fact that he had virtually single-handedly persuaded President Bush snr. to attend the Rio climate-change conference which resulted in the USA acceding to the terms of the first international climate-change agreement. Mr Howard remains a believer in humanity's making a major contribution to global warming.

He had also been a supporter, along with other members of the "Cambridge Mafia", of Britain's membership of the European Community. He asserted that he would still be a supporter of a reformed European Union, but what changed him into a Leaver was David Cameron's dramatic failure to achieve any changes just before the referendum. To my mind, this was evidence of Mr Cameron's weakness - and previous UK ministers' failure to engage in Europe - rather than an immutability on the part of the EU.

He also claimed to have reduced crime in England & Wales. This is somewhat disingenuous. Some of his reforms at the Home Office may have been worthwhile, but statistics show that crime rates throughout the western world showed a similar decline in the same period.

His long-standing support of Liverpool FC was already well-known, and that he had tried to organise a soccer team at Llanelli Grammar School. However, in a much earlier interview he had revealed that he had also been a vice-president of Swansea Town. It would have been good to know if he had continued that interest.

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