Eric owns up
Hat tip to Iain Dale for drawing my attention to the exchange below between Eric Pickles M.P. and Andrew Neil on "Straight Talk" which is due to go out today.
Eric Pickles and myself go back to the days when we were both Young Conservatives and I have a huge amount of time for him. I was astonished by what happened on Question Time, but I think Eric deserves to win back some of the respect he may have lost last week with this very frank interview in which he describes the programme as
"a car crash in slow motion"
and explains how he has changed his views as a result. Here's the exchange about his experience on last week's QUESTION TIME.
Andrew Neil: You were also brought in because you were seen to be a man of the people, so how could a man of the people make such a Horlicks of Question Time, as you did last week?
Eric Pickles: I think you’re being kind to me; I think it was worse than a Horlicks. It was like, it was like a car crash in slow motion, and which you’re just trying to steer away and the worse, the worse, the more I tried to steer away the worse it was. So actually...
AN: Didn’t you see it coming?
EP: Yes, that’s the worst thing, and you could see the conclusion coming and I made the mistake of making actually quite a trivial point. I should have been...but it has changed my views. It’s changed my views.
AN: Tell me why, and how...
EP: I used to think that actually all we needed to do was to increase the transparency and to increase the auditing. I don’t think that at all. I think we need a completely different system. I am embarrassed...
AN: A different manner of payment?
EP: Oh, absolutely. I am, I cannot justify Members of Parliament claiming flatscreen televisions, buying beds, buying 3-piece suites, buying cookers, buying microwaves. And the fact is, I have never done that and would never dream of doing that - as we say up north, ‘I buy me own bed’ - doesn’t in any way make me less guilty. It’s the fact I can, and I think we need to have a much more clearer, which removes all discretion, I don’t want to find ourselves in a position where somebody can’t be a Member of Parliament unless they are, to use your phrase, ‘a southern toff’, or somebody sponsored by a union, but I just feel now that the three party leaders have to come up to a conclusion. I think in many ways an inquiry is pointless. I mean, I heard you the other day; you went through all the various options, they’re pretty there, and we’re going to have to grab it, and I think we’ve got to be on the basis where it’s a lot less...
AN: For your expenses?
EP: Oh yes, absolutely, absolutely.
AN: Does David Cameron share your view on this?
EP: I think he does. If you recall him speaking last Wednesday saying that the Party leaders needed to decide, and I think they should.
Eric Pickles and myself go back to the days when we were both Young Conservatives and I have a huge amount of time for him. I was astonished by what happened on Question Time, but I think Eric deserves to win back some of the respect he may have lost last week with this very frank interview in which he describes the programme as
"a car crash in slow motion"
and explains how he has changed his views as a result. Here's the exchange about his experience on last week's QUESTION TIME.
Andrew Neil: You were also brought in because you were seen to be a man of the people, so how could a man of the people make such a Horlicks of Question Time, as you did last week?
Eric Pickles: I think you’re being kind to me; I think it was worse than a Horlicks. It was like, it was like a car crash in slow motion, and which you’re just trying to steer away and the worse, the worse, the more I tried to steer away the worse it was. So actually...
AN: Didn’t you see it coming?
EP: Yes, that’s the worst thing, and you could see the conclusion coming and I made the mistake of making actually quite a trivial point. I should have been...but it has changed my views. It’s changed my views.
AN: Tell me why, and how...
EP: I used to think that actually all we needed to do was to increase the transparency and to increase the auditing. I don’t think that at all. I think we need a completely different system. I am embarrassed...
AN: A different manner of payment?
EP: Oh, absolutely. I am, I cannot justify Members of Parliament claiming flatscreen televisions, buying beds, buying 3-piece suites, buying cookers, buying microwaves. And the fact is, I have never done that and would never dream of doing that - as we say up north, ‘I buy me own bed’ - doesn’t in any way make me less guilty. It’s the fact I can, and I think we need to have a much more clearer, which removes all discretion, I don’t want to find ourselves in a position where somebody can’t be a Member of Parliament unless they are, to use your phrase, ‘a southern toff’, or somebody sponsored by a union, but I just feel now that the three party leaders have to come up to a conclusion. I think in many ways an inquiry is pointless. I mean, I heard you the other day; you went through all the various options, they’re pretty there, and we’re going to have to grab it, and I think we’ve got to be on the basis where it’s a lot less...
AN: For your expenses?
EP: Oh yes, absolutely, absolutely.
AN: Does David Cameron share your view on this?
EP: I think he does. If you recall him speaking last Wednesday saying that the Party leaders needed to decide, and I think they should.
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