Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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Maiden Speech in the House of Commons 10 November 1997 Mr. Stephen Pound (Ealing, North): Mr. Deputy Speaker, thank you very much for calling me and allowing me the opportunity finally to make my maiden speech. I should like, as is the tradition of the House, to pay tribute to my predecessors, for, like many newly arrived Members of the House, I have not one but two predecessors, one of whom, Mr. Greenway, represented most of what is now Ealing, North. Mr. Greenway was an extremely capable and active constituency Member, who made a considerable impression on us in Ealing, North. He was extremely fond of this building and is a frequent--almost daily--visitor to it still, and I believe that the fact that he is always greeted with a smile by old and new friends shows the extent of the amity that he engendered during his time in the House. In Ealing, North we were also represented by the present right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire (Sir G. Young)--an extremely hard act to follow. The right hon. Gentleman is still revered--that would not be too strong a word--in parts of my constituency. I am somewhat tired of constantly being told how I compare to the right hon. Gentleman. I am told that he never missed a constituency engagement, and although I swear to constituents that I will haunt the classrooms, church halls and clubs of Ealing, North, that does not satisfy them. I am constantly told that the right hon. Gentleman presented cups and shields to every sporting group in Pitshanger, and I promise silverware by the truckload. But still they are not happy, no matter how hard I try. Last week, somebody said, "You may do your best, Mr. Pound, but the hon. Member for North-West Hampshire is extremely tall, and one can always see him at functions." I will take second place to no person in my respect for the right hon. Member for North-West Hampshire. I admit that he is extremely tall while I am not. Indeed, he towers above me both physically and, it must be said, in the affections of the people of Pitshanger. Before the two gentlemen that I mentioned, we were fortunate to have Bill Molloy as our Member of Parliament in Ealing, North. Bill--or, as he now insists on being addressed, the right hon. Lord Molloy of Ealing and Greater London, to those of us who are his friends--now sits in the other place but is still a resident of Greenford. He never misses an opportunity to contact his local Member of Parliament--on an hourly basis--and I am grateful for his constant advice and encouragement. I did not respond favourably, however, to the advice for me to resign and have a by-election to allow him to return. Bill Molloy was once described by no less a person than Anthony Crosland as the best speaker in the House and anyone who has spoken after Bill Molloy will know how true that is. Yesterday, at the Greenford Royal British Legion I had the unfortunate task of following Bill Molloy; I would not wish that on anyone. I realise that it is a convention of the House to introduce one's constituency to hon. Members. I am at a disadvantage because I must admit that there is no such place as Ealing, North. I do not mean that it is some sort of north-west suburban Brigadoon that appears only every 200 or 300 years when the traffic jams at the Target roundabout and the Hanger lane gyratory system are in cosmic alignment, and when the fumes on the A40 part to reveal a Shangri-la on the Himalayan slopes that we Ealingonians call Horsenden hill. Ealing, North is a mixture of hamlets, towns, villages and communities, bound together by many things--but most of all by the boundary commissioner. It is a proud and glorious mosaic and a wonderful place to live because of the strength of those communities, which cement the mosaic in place. We are a multicultural constituency, and we glory in it. We have a large Irish population; a large and growing Asian population; and the third largest Polish community in the world after Warsaw and Chicago, if only in the number of Poles living in urban conurbations. The Polish people gave us heroic support between 1939 and 1945 and many of those Polish heroes were based at RAF Northolt in the constituency of the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Wilkinson). Ealing, North is as proud today of their contribution as the country was then. It must be said that, although Ealing, North has a number of buildings, few of them are really great. We have the world headquarters of Glaxo Wellcome, which is a beacon, as the expression goes. We also have the Wharncliffe viaduct, which was built in 1844 with considerable prescience by Sir Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the express purpose of linking Labour constituencies in west London, Reading, Swindon and Bristol. Unfortunately, however, the Wharncliffe viaduct is a few metres south of the constituency. Ealing abbey is a glorious building, but, sadly, it too is on the wrong side of the road. In the absence of great buildings and great places, I searched for great individuals as some great people must at some stage have lived somewhere in Ealing, North. I have searched; my staff have searched; my children have searched. I conclude that, whereas we may not have great individuals in Ealing, North, we have great people. A few names emerged: Gainsborough's daughters--both of them--were buried, after death, in Hanwell. Sadly, they were carried there from the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush (Mr. Soley). Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sidney lived briefly in Hanwell. They did not care much for it and at the earliest opportunity returned to Bermondsey. "There must have been someone," I thought, then I found that Vincent Van Gogh taught in a girls' school in Isleworth in the 1880s, while conducting an alliance with a young lady in Rayners lane. As Vincent made his way from the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Mr. Keen) to that of my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, West (Mr. Thomas), he would almost certainly have felt the need to pause for refreshment on his return journey from such an assignation, and where better to pause for a revivifying drink than Greenford? My able researcher examined police records at Greenford police station throughout most of the end of the 19th century. Sadly, according to our records, any number of drunken, bearded impressionists were causing mayhem in Greenford pubs in the 1880s and many of them had parts of their bodily extremities missing. The search was now getting desperate. Research showed that there may be one way in which Ealing, North stands unique among the 33 boroughs: in June 1889, a giant circus elephant collapsed on Castlebar hill--and died. The great pachyderm, with its last few breaths, bravely staggered forward and is, to this day, to be found beneath the road--unfortunately, just over the constituency border in Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush. I suspect that his last thought was to leave Ealing, North. In fiction, we are similarly ill-served. One of the finest books written this century, "Brown on Resolution", by C. S. Forester, which sent generations of us into the Royal Navy--we regretted it immediately afterwards--features a young able seaman, Brown, who was the product of a brief liaison between a naval officer and a between-stairs maid who met on the Great Western railway train at Wharncliffe viaduct. One thing led to another and they paused in Ealing. Before the copulatory instinct grew too strong upon them, they sped towards a hotel in central Ealing. Sadly, they ended up in a hotel in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush. The Nolan sisters attended Cardinal Wiseman high school, which, sadly, is about 3 m outside the constituency boundary. William Perkins, who discovered aniline dyes, may have lived in Greenford. He spent many a night conducting strange chemical experiments. I must say that that habit persists in parts of the constituency to this day, without Perkins' success. Other hon. Members have been pleased, proud and fortunate in being able to introduce the House to league football clubs in their constituencies. We have none in Ealing, North. We have two senior clubs--Viking FC and Hanwell Town FC, who play in black and white, the same colours as—oddly enough--Fulham FC. Immediately to the south of the constituency, we have Brentford--just outside the constituency but ably managed since last week by Micky Adams, who was formerly the manager at Fulham FC. Just to the east, we have Queens Park Rangers, the club where Ray Wilkins learned the craft that is now coming to flower in his present job at Fulham FC. Slightly to the east we have Chelsea, where young Paul Brooker was on the staff. He, of course, has achieved his full skills and abilities at Fulham FC, where he currently plays. It would be wrong, inappropriate and inexcusable for me as the Member for Ealing, North, to refer constantly to a football club that is in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Coleman). I will not do that. In no circumstances will I bring references to Fulham into everything that I say in the House from now on. It may be said, however, that those of us born within sight of Craven Cottage may be described as having black and white blood. We in Ealing, North may not have been blessed with great individuals and great buildings, but the poet laureate, John Betjeman, did once pause awhile in Ealing and dash off the odd verse. In 1961, describing parts of Ealing, he wrote: "Where smoothly glides the bicycle And softly flows the Brent, And a gentle gale from Perivale Sends up the hayfield scent." May I warn hon. Members that if they visit Perivale now in anticipation of the hayfield scent, they may not have that olfactory experience--rather, the heady tang of diesel spillage on the A40 is more likely to assail the senses, but we thank John Betjeman for his thoughts of Ealing. I come, by a most circuitous route, to the subject that we are debating. As a London councillor, as a Member for a London constituency and as a Londoner born and bred, I have felt an extraordinary sense of anger and frustration at the way in which London in the past 11 years has failed to achieve its potential. We have seen a dazzling kaleidoscope of quangos run our capital city--a kaleidoscope of quangos that does not delight the eye, but benumbs the brain through their complexity and inefficiency. Any London councillor who has had to deal with a minor traffic issue and found himself or herself negotiating with the Traffic Director for London or with the traffic control signals unit will realise that the case can be made for a Greater London authority on many grounds. The obvious ones are the grounds of democracy and accountability, but most of all on grounds of efficiency, the present system is no way to run a capital city. Any of us who has any part in the governance of this city will know that. As a result of this evening's decision, I look forward to London entering a new era in local governance. I look forward to our city regaining its rightful place on the world stage. I am so tired, as so many of us are, of the constant reference to what is achieved in Paris, New York and Barcelona, when I know that my city, our city, the city where we are tonight, can achieve all that and more, if it only has that overarching strategic authority that can speak for London and with Londoners and is accountable to Londoners. Then, at last, we will be able to re-enter the world stage at the level that we deserve. We are a mature enough city and a mature enough electorate to be allowed that democratic right. I am endeavouring to be as uncontroversial as possible in this maiden speech, but I take no lessons from the Opposition when they speak of democracy in our capital city, after they denied us that for 11 years. Many of the comments that I have heard tonight have been cavilling, carping comments aimed more at the minutiae of the Bill than at the principle. I am addressing the principle that London as a great city, as a capital city, must have a collective purpose and an identifiable leadership. We must have that, and no number of opinion surveys can say different. I am delighted that tonight we will take the first step back on the road to the city governance that we need. We are not going back to the Greater London council, which was abolished without--unless I have forgotten--any form of referendum, consultation, democratic accountability, discussion or consultation policy, but by a paving Bill, as I recall. We are not going back to the GLC, even though we were told at the time of abolition that all Londoners would save vast sums of money by the abolition of the GLC, and that we would have a lean representative agency representing us. I do not see many of us swaggering round Greenford lighting cigars with £10 notes with all the money that we have saved from the abolition of the GLC. Far from it: I see constant duplication, confusion and the inability of London councillors and Members of Parliament to manoeuvre between the rocks of the quangos in our city's interests. I do not think that the abolition of the GLC was in London's interests. I did not think so then, and I know that it was not so now. By agreeing the Bill tonight, we give Londoners the opportunity to vote on their strategic authority. We do not say, "You will do this; you will do that," but we give them the opportunity. We show them the respect that Londoners deserve. We offer them the chance once again to have pride in our capital city, our great city, our London. I commend the Bill to the House. |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
