Right and wronged
Petronella Wyatt
Nearly half of those who backed the UK Independent party in the European elections, were, according to a poll, former Tory voters. The UKIP won 16 per cent of the overall vote. Many Conservatives see the party as a threat, sucking away its support.
Mr Howard is thought to be particularly angry at the behaviour of Jonathan Aitken, the former Tory MP, who decided to support the UKIP. There have been accusations of ingratitude. Didn't Mr Howard bravely visit Mr Aitken while he was serving his prison sentence?
Indeed he did. But wasn't it the least that one old friend could do for another? In any case, at the time Mr Howard was simply a former Tory home secretary with little to lose. He could not have known that a few years later he would be the leader of his party. If he had occupied the elevated position he does now, 1 wonder, would he have shown true courage and paid a trip to the slarnmer?
In this instance, I feel that it is Mr Aitken who has been wronged. Mr Aitken offered his services to the Tories and was roundly rejected. It was only after this humiliation that he turned to the UKIP.
If Mr Howard were genuinely brave he would not have driven Mr Aitken away. But how would it look, senior Tories obviously protested, to accept an ex-jailbird back into the party? I can tell them how it would have looked. It would have looked humane, sensible and, judging by the views of voters I have talked to, would have received the backing of a significant chunk of public opinion.
Whatever happened to the creed that values the one sinner who has repented above all others? Both our major political parties are, in all likelihood, full of men and women of varying degrees of dodginess. The difference between them and Mr Aitken is that they have got away with it, while he has paid the penalty. It is in the British tradition to respect that. Most of us do not want to see a man persecuted in perpetuity — particularly for a relatively minor crime.
Mr Howard's decision was as foolish as it was unkind. I doubt the party possesses a single MP who is the model of probity Mr Aitken has become. He is now a devout Christian who spent Easter visiting prisoners on Death Row in America. He is happily and recently married to the beautiful and thoroughly good-eggish Elizabeth Harris. No one is going to catch him with his trousers down. Besides, I have known Elizabeth Harris for a long time. Compared to the hair-raising experiences she had with her former husbands, including Richard Harris, life with Jonathan is as seemly and ordered as a spell in a Himalayan retreat.
This aside, the Tories rejected a man of great intellectual ability and one who, most significantly, knows how the other half lives. I doubt most Tory MPs even know how they live themselves. But Mr Aitken spent considerable time in prison associating with and helping the working-class inmates. He continues to do so outside of it. He understands their problems and their aspirations, and why their lives have gone wrong. Most of these people feel abandoned by Labour but mistrust Conservatives. Who better than Mr Aitken to bring in their votes?
Furthermore, here is a man who knows the prison system back to front — unlike Mr Howard and all other past home secretaries. It would have been less of a joke than a stroke of genius if the Tories had given him a job thinking up prison reforms. Here would have been a man who actually knew his stuff. Oh, the pleasure of watching him facing Mr Blunkett in the Commons.
But the Tories remain craven and unimaginative — which is why they have failed to capitalise on the Prime Minister's unpopularity. To most voters, senior Tories don't even seem real. Ninety per Cent of the population can't name them. Mr Aitken, on the other hand, is well known and appears to be a genuine person. He has slipped, fallen, evolved, suffered and emerged a better man. If I might say so, he is also extremely personable. When I first met him, 15 years ago, he was a little over-oiled. But now his charm is of the low-key, self-deprecating kind. He also makes very good jokes.
It was the Tories' loss when they told Mr Aitken to get stuffed. As for its complaints of his support for the UKIP, the Conservative party has no one to blame but itself.
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