Although he's now working for/representing a fourth different political party.
He's been an SDP and LibDem Councillor, a Labour party member and Minister of State, and now he's resigned the Labour Whip to go work for the Conservatives.
Probably the right man for the job, but he's very fickle when it comes to political affiliation.
He may not have taken the Tory whip of course
Indeed, he has not taken the Conservative whip. He has resigned the Labour whip and is sitting as a crossbench peer to emphasise his neutrality.
I think his appointment is a very good one, almost akin to the release of the Bank of England from political control. Of course, like the bank there will be government control in the form of tightening or loosening of the pursestrings, and should Lord Adonis come up with too many wrong answers, he could find his P45 in the post. It does, however, raise the possibility of decisions actually being made, at arms length from party politics, or crossing all parties, whichever way you wish to look at it, but actually being made. In appointing him, George Osborne has gone up in my estimation, words I never thought I would ever write.
As for priorities, Hinkley C and Sizewell C must be close to the top of a very big inbox, along with the possible Chinese reactor at Bradwell. There is no point in having electric trains if there ain't no electric, and the sustainables will never do the job without bankrupting the nation. I hope he will also ask for reports on the use of Thorium in future generators.
The rail agenda will be dominated by trying to get electrification in the North back under control, with a look at any lessons that can be learned from the
GWR▸ electrification. Plus, of course,
HS2▸ .
For roads, I think we can expect the re-announcement of a number of schemes we thought were done deals, such as the A303, raised by BNM. That road is the very model of how procrastination breeds inertia and cost escalation.
This appointment could almost have been made purely to get a decision on Heathrow's 3rd runway. That has been repeatedly kicked into the long grass since the 1950s. The only possible truly final decision will be to build it. Any "final" decision NOT to build it, can be overturned in the future, as we have already seen, and I am not looking to buy a house in Sipson.
For railway, I think his are safe hands, and I hope he gets the chance to achieve great things. It will not be him spending the money, merely sorting the wheat from the chaff of infrastructure projects, and recommending to
DfT» and the Chancellor those which are deemed to be of major national importance. I think the projects I have mentioned fit that bill, and I wish the noble Lord well in the job.
His apparent political promiscuity is not hard to understand. The SDP formed in 1981 from those members of the parliamentary Labour party who had felt the move to the left under the influence of the late (great) Tony Benn was a step too far. It is said that the recently late Dennis Healey did not help by telling them to vote for him as leader to follow Jim Callaghan, or fall for the late Michael Foot (with whom I once boozed in what is now Bonapartes at Temple Meads). So the late SDP was a home for the centre-right of the late 1970s / early 1980s Labour party. It was
taken over by merged with the Liberals, then a drifting rudderless ship, but with some
MPs▸ . So it remained as the Liberal Democrats until New Labour under Tony Blair provided the right environment for the defectors to jump ship and effectively rejoin Labour at a point they had wanted it to be at when they left, leaving the Lib Dems with a political outlook, and standing, on a par with that of the Liberal party of the late Jeremy Thorpe.
Andrew Adonis has shown himself to be more passionate about small-p politics than the party structure, and I think neutrality will serve him and the country well.
That was a party political broadcast on behalf of no one party in particular...
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