ITV drama ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ has remarkably regenerated political debate surrounding the post office scandal. Meanwhile, Jeremy Hunt is defied in his own backyard.
Flying High: The Postmasters
A few weeks ago, not many would have predicted that the biggest political issue of the New Year would involve the Post Office. But such was the power of ITV’s drama over the Christmas period and the public’s clear sense of injustice that this issue has dominated Westminster this week.
Credit must go to ITV for dramatizing this story and bringing it to a wider audience. Although this issue has been covered by the media and debated by politicians for years, it has now finally gathered an unstoppable momentum that resulted in the Government being forced to announce its plans to introduce an unprecedented new law, so people wrongly convicted in the Horizon scandal are "swiftly exonerated and compensated".
This announcement demonstrates that dogged, well-fought, emotionally-led campaigns can bring about substantial policy change very suddenly if there is enough focused pressure, and that the mainstream broadcasters are still capable of galvanizing the nation and setting the political agenda.
Middle Ranking: Robert Jenrick
How quickly things can change in Westminster. Not long ago, Robert Jenrick was No.10’s Ambassador Sensible at the Home Office, carefully deployed to keep things ticking over whilst Suella Braverman holds her latest press conference outside the nearest immigration detention centre.
When Braverman finally left the Home Office she saw her future as leading the vanguard of the Tory right who want Sunak to take stronger action on immigration, and solidifying her position ahead of the next Tory leadership election.
But instead, it was Jenrick who was across the airwaves talking about the need to toughen up the Government’s Rwanda Bill, and it was Jenrick in the Public Bill Office tabling the amendments that have been signed by a veritable who’s who of Tory right-wingers. We’ll see how far these amendments actually get but pity poor Suella who may be feeling as though her moment is passing her by.
Sinking Quickly: Jermey Hunt
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is arguably the second most powerful person in the country, responsible for setting economic policy, making Billion-pound decisions and for steering the nation’s finances. All Chancellors play vital roles during general elections but with this year’s likely to be dominated by the cost-of-living crisis, Jeremy Hunt’s position in setting and communicating the government’s plan for economic recovery is especially important.
And yet Hunt took to X this week to express his disappointment that the court of appeal had allowed gas drilling at Dunsfold in his Surrey constituency.
It is a quirk of our parliamentary system that cabinet ministers in government still have to be diligent constituency MPs, sticking up for their local area. And it’s a mark of the strength of our democracy that Hunt can’t simply have a quiet word with key cabinet colleagues and change government policy to solve his own little local difficulty. Due process might not be exciting, but it is important.
It also shows that successful campaigns have to be multi-faceted with support from the grassroots, cross-party political backing, engagement with the correct officials, credible policy alternatives, well-developed arguments, parliamentary tactics and public awareness from media coverage. Just relying on your local MP – no matter how influential – is never likely to be enough.