IT would be stretching a point to say government ministers and MPs can be bought – but the gambling and the drinks lobbyists appeared to have achieved their goals without any filthy lucre changing hands.
Recent headlines about Casino Britain and boozing round-the-clock tell the story.
But what sort of lobby power in the Commons have ordinary people? Hardly any.
This was a point Michael Schwartz, a solicitor at Bindman’s in King’s Cross, drove home on Tuesday in a speech defending the right of the indefatigable anti-Iraq war protester Brian Haw to remain in his encampment in Parliament Square.
Mr Schwartz, along with others, had gathered in a committee room in the Commons to protest against a Bill, inspired by the former home secretary David Blunkett, to ban Brian Haw from the square.
Mr Blunkett and other MPs – usually pro-war enthusiasts – couldn’t stand Brian Haw’s political imprecations.
The meeting had been organised by the Green Party and the Crossroads Women’s Centre in Kentish Town.
“Companies can buy their way into Parliament,” complained Mr Schwartz.
“You can see that by just looking at the members’ interests and the number of non-executive directorships MPs hold.
“But ordinary people do not have this power. What Brian has done is the most direct, and possibly the most effective way of getting to MPs, and therefore most frowned upon.”
He found it odd that the government was trying to pass a bill about one person sitting in what is essentially a traffic island.
Governments have done stranger things. But this new Bill – it comes before a committee to-day (Thursday) - takes the biscuit.
Sensible opponents include MPs Glenda Jackson and Jeremy Corbyn.

It’s just got a little Birt verse

IT seems only yesterday that I wrote about the full house that greeted Kentish Town poet Jehane Markham for the launch of her latest book.
And on Monday I again saw the unusual sight of poetry fans turned away from a packed auditorium.
The great and the good, including Tory Lords Maurice Saatchi and Kenneth Baker, director and actor Simon Callow were amongst those who turned up at the British Library to hear actors Edward Fox and Dame Eileen Atkins read T S Eliot’s Quartets.
Perhaps strangest of all was the appearance of Sir John Birt, Tony Blair’s right-hand man at Downing Street – a man not previously known for his love of beautiful English.
So famous was Sir John’s mangling of the language during his tenure as the BBC’s director general that Private Eye magazine started a column called ‘Birtspeak’, devoted to management gobbledegook.
But when I caught up with him at the drinks party afterwards, he told me: “It was a beautiful reading – I was carried away.”
When I mentioned that one of the themes of the fourth quartet was that acts committed out of virtue often ended up causing evil, his face turned red.
And when I asked him if he could think of anything that he’d done to which that might apply, he exclaimed “Yes!”, made his excuses and left. Whatever can he have been thinking of?

Tea – and water – with Tony H

While the battle over free swimming in the Heath ponds rages on (See page 5 and letters page 18) Tony Hillier, chairman of the Heath and Hampstead Society, took a brave step and invited some of the swimmers in for tea at his home in Downshire Hill on Sunday afternoon.
Half a dozen of the protesters took up his offer. “We had an informal, very friendly get together,” Mr Hillier (pictured) told me. “Some of them had tea, some had glasses of water.
“And the benefit of it all for me was to get a cross section of their views, as I also discovered talking to a significant number of the swimmers on the phone.”
He discovered a range of different views. “There is no doubt about that,” he said. “Some feel there is no compromise to keeping the ponds open and allowing swimmers in free. But there are others who are willing to make a contribution to the cost of swimming.
“They want the City Corporation to meet their concerns about the Heath budget and also the practicalities of charging for swimming, which is itself a serious issue. I do understand where they are coming from.”
Mr Hillier is a very cautious man.

So, has Mr Blair got on the bus?

THIS newspaper has been inundated with letters about the future of South End Green in Hampstead in recent weeks but no one ever thought of dragging Tony Blair’s name into it – until Tuesday evening.
It was invoked by campaigners who want to move the 24 bus stop a few yards from the Green to Fleet Road.
To the campaigners, moving the buses is synonymous with bringing new life to the Green.
And that’s exactly what Tony Blair would want, intoned Jeska Harrington (pictured) of the Save Our Green campaign.
Swept away by this idea, the campaigners gave a colleague a copy of a four page speech by Tony Blair with relevant lines highlighted in red.
It talked about “clean, safe streets…quality of life…New York mayor Rudy Guilliani’ and the views of the eminent economist JK Galbraith.
Small ‘concerns’ have to be tackled before they turn into big problems, said Tony Blair.
Labour councillor Anna Stewart, unconvinced, argued that a link in getting rid of buses and anti-social behaviour was ‘tenuous and far fetched.’
“But Tony Blair said it,” expostulated campaigner Chris Marigold.
No nonsense Cllr John Thane – the Town Hall’s environment chief – could hardly believe what he was hearing.
“It’s hard to see the vision some people have for South End Green” said Thane who lived near the Green 40 years ago.
And Tony Blair? “Frankly, I don’t believe even Tony Blair sees the buses as an issue,” he said. “He has come up with some pretty daft ideas but I don’t think this is one of them.”