One of the figures who comes out of the Post Office scandal with universal and unequivocal praise is Lord Arbuthnot, formerly James Arbuthnot MP. He was not the only person of power and influence to whom the wronged sub-postmasters reached out – as illustrated by the response he got from other MPs when he decided to probe how widespread the issue was. Which does of course raise a question as to why it had not occurred to other MPs similarly contacted to have done so.
But his actions then and how he gently at first, but with purpose and forethought, stuck with them through the process show the instinct and intelligence to approach this carefully and allow all sides the opportunity to show their character before committing to the cause with fire and brimstone. This is the instinct which presumably, and wisely, prevented him from launching into a hyperbolic campaign before he had tested the ground and was sure of it. To go off too early and with uncertain facts can often do more harm than good.
And then he had the obduracy to ride the course, knowing that it could and in the event has taken much time and effort to get even as far as today. That takes proper attention and character, not just a desire to chase the headline of the day as some others in his party seem to have done.
Where does this character come from? It comes from the Tory party of old; the one whose backbenchers, in contrast to the shrill zealots and half-formed ideologues who dominate the party in these dark days, was comprised in large part of the old knights of the shires, former military men with Military Crosses kept in dusty drawers and the old farming families that knew the price of a loaf of bread in every respect.
There was a snobbishness to it, and I’m sure it would have been a very uncomfortable place for a socially inept Northerner like me, but at least the Tory party in those days was comprised of men and women who did not want to be headline news every day, people to whom the telling of a lie in the house would have been unthinkable and most importantly had a deep and ingrained sense of what they considered right and what was wrong. Lord Arbuthnot – Eton and Trinity, Cambridge – was of that generation and it is no surprise to me that it was someone like him who stood up when needed. Unlike the (one hopes) humorously named “common sense” group of current Tory MPs, he actually had common sense.
Now one cannot and should not wind back the clock, and I think the days when the Tory party could be run by such a group are gone forever. Rather, the tragedy is who they have replaced them with. Compare the dim thuggery of Jacob Rees-Mogg with Arbuthnot, or the some mother do ‘ave em lunacy of Gavin Williamson with such Tory predecessors as Tom King or Francis Pym; Suella Braverman with Willie Whitelaw; Liz Truss with Lord Carrington; Priti Patel with Geoffrey Howe. It’s enough to make you weep.
Perhaps there is a bit of institutional memory in the Tory party that realises this and is heading into the oblivion of the next election out of sheer embarrassment as to what it has become.
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