Bruce George

I’ve been writing this column since the Advertiser first appeared on Walsall’s streets around 30 years ago. I must admit that my columns haven’t always been riveting and exciting and occasionally if I haven’t proofread what I’ve dictated, the odd spelling and grammatical errors have crept in. But I’ve enormously enjoyed and appreciated this regular opportunity for communicating directly with my constituents and others on any topics of my choice. I have striven hard not to use it as a political forum.

You may have heard that after 36 years as MP for Walsall South, I am stepping down at the General Election. I don’t want to repeat what I have said in this paper and other media as to the reasons, but in short, my wife and I feel it is about time that I make way for a much younger person. However, we shall still maintain our home here and keep paying our Council Tax to Walsall.

When I first announced my possible retirement during my victory speech in 2001, as we left the room both my wife and my agent told me I was a complete idiot. I soon agreed and regretted having said it. Wind on four years, same venue, same time, I said this would “definitely” be my last election. But then, months after Gordon Brown took over and it looked like there would be a snap election, I volunteered to stand again as there would be no time to find a replacement. Once it became clear that there wouldn’t be a snap election, I had to make a decision about my future and decided to have one more go.

The last couple of years have been difficult and unpleasant ones, not for me personally, but for MPs collectively. People will understandably take the view that MPs have brought this on themselves, and whilst this is largely true, unfortunately, too many MPs who have not been playing the system have been tarred by the same brush of public contempt. Had I indicated earlier that I was stepping down as was my original intention, many would have said, what has he got to hide? I had nothing to hide, but decided to wait until this was a matter of public record with all claims published on-line and the Legg audit into MPs’ expenses completed with the quaint phrase, “Mr George has no issues”. Whilst other factors led me to my decision to stand down, this played a crucial part in the timing of my announcement.

To leave voluntarily a vocation I have loved virtually every second of will be an enormous wrench, but I hope not to give up work. I am writing two books, which I regret will not push JK Rowling from the top of the bestseller list as they are aimed more at academics and practitioners. The first is on elections and integrity, the second is the history of non-state policing and security. These will keep me occupied as I adjust to my new existence. Whilst I shall be leaving Parliament, I remain very active physically and enthusiastic, so I will find other things to keep me busy. This will be in one of the areas in which I have built up a long experience over the years.

My wife and I have been enormously touched and gratified by the outpouring of affection and good wishes my announcement has generated. I truly cannot adequately express how much we have enjoyed our life in Walsall nor the depth of our gratitude that I was elected by you on nine occasions (though sometimes by the skin of my teeth!).

I’m not remotely suggesting that everybody either shares my views or even particularly likes me. Although Walsall people are known to express their views in a forthright manner, there are precious few occasions when anyone has been aggressive or threatening to me. There are, however, a few memorable exceptions. Within three months of being elected, I had my shared Westminster office blown up by the IRA. On another occasion when I was largely responsible for the cancellation of a fascist rally in Walsall, my wife Lisa took a phone message in which the caller said they would be lobbing a petrol bomb through our window that night. This led her and her late mother to make a very swift exit from the house. As they were leaving, my wife noticed a suspicious vehicle parked out front. She duly noted the registration number and passed it on to the police. Unfortunately, in her somewhat panicked state, she took the wrong number and Special Branch made a swoop on an innocent guy, a respectable engineer from Leicester!

For quite some time, I had an anonymous letter writer who exuded venom and hatred of me. The one time I have successfully managed to stick to a diet and lose a lot of weight, my correspondent saw me on tv and wrote, “I see you’ve lost weight. You look ill. Cancer, I hope.” I marvelled through this column at a new technology that enabled the police to detect an individual’s DNA through the back of a licked stamp. My correspondent ceased writing immediately, so he was obviously an avid reader of this column! I think that’s pretty good for 36 years. I really hope this doesn’t start a spate of people trying to remedy this record in the five or six weeks I have left as your Member of Parliament. I doubt it.

On a more serious note, ultimately, it is for you, not me, to judge my record. I have tried my very hardest at all times and I hope that even those who have not always agreed with my positions on various issues will at least recognise that I always fought for what I passionately believed in and for what I believed was in the best interests of the people of this wonderful town. Once again and possibly for the last time, may my wife and I say thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

I am today announcing to the Walsall South Constituency Labour Party that I am standing down as its candidate at the forthcoming General Election, though I shall remain an active MP until the dissolution of the House. It is a decision that I have agonised over for the last several months and that I have reached with the very greatest of reluctance and with an extremely heavy heart. However, I feel it is the right decision: the right decision for me, for my wife and above all for the Walsall South electorate and Labour Party. I know some of you have heard this from me at previous elections, but this time it is my final decision and I have communicated it to the Regional Labour Party.

There is no one single reason for my decision, but rather a combination of reasons. I will be 68 in June and I have experienced a few health problems of late. Whilst I am generally very healthy and am still as active as when I first entered Parliament, and still maintain my busy and punishing schedule, I know that my health would be better served by a more regular and less pressurised existence.

My wife Lisa has loyally stood by my side throughout our time together over the last thirty years, sharing my life in Walsall and in London, and providing me with incalculable support in all manner of ways. It is a life she has enjoyed enormously but which has at times been both stressful and lonely for her. She has recently returned to full-time work for a charity. When she took on this demanding post, I promised her that it would be her time at last and that I would endeavour to give her the kind of support that she has selflessly given to me over the years.

Another person who has provided me with unstinting loyalty and support is my outstanding Constituency Assistant, Rose Burley. Rose plans to retire as my assistant in May. I think we, with the support of others, have made an excellent team locally and Rose’s imminent retirement has given added impetus to my feeling that this is a natural break point for me. Whilst Rose is retiring from her Parliamentary employment, I am delighted that she is standing again for Walsall Council and my wife and I will be campaigning our very hardest for her election in the Bentley-Darlaston North ward. I have also been immensely fortunate in the excellence of my London staff who have assisted me in my Parliamentary duties and my international work and have been a link between Westminster and the constituency. My senior researcher, Simon Kimber, deserves special mention for his exceptionally hard work, patience and loyalty.

Although my fondest wish would be to carry on working for the people of Walsall at Westminster until I take my last breath if they so desired, this would be entirely selfish and I am realistic. I feel that I owe it to both the Walsall South constituency and my Party to make way for a new face and a much younger individual to fight this seat at the next election and to hopefully represent Walsall South in the new Parliament.

It is not simply a function of age as I am still very energetic, but more a function of change of generation. Although I of course recognise the benefits to Parliamentary democracy of all the ways in which one can now digitally connect with their constituents – email, blogging, texting, tweeting and the rest – for me personally, none of these technologies are adequate substitutes for meeting the people I represent at my surgeries, in my offices, in home visits, in visits to schools, hospitals, religious institutions, businesses and factories, at my home, and often just meeting people in the street. Whilst I bow to the inevitability of the growing use of these forms of communication, and grudgingly admit to the many advantages they offer, I readily and proudly concede my preference for a more old-fashioned, more personalised approach. I believe I was one of the earliest MPs to be firmly rooted to the district they represented; living in the constituency, holding regular surgeries and generally having a visible presence. It is much more common now, though not universal. When I was first a Member of Parliament, I shared a secretary and an old typewriter with the MP for Aldridge-Brownhills. So much has changed in the use of technology and the size of staff in my time.

In ten days time I shall be entering my thirty seventh uninterrupted year as your Member of Parliament. Despite Walsall South being for most of that period a marginal constituency, I am the 14th longest serving Member of Parliament and the longest serving MP for Walsall since the democratic era began in the mid-nineteenth century. I am very proud of that record.

I understand that some people may be disappointed that I am standing down and that I have waited so long to announce this decision. However, since the furore over MPs’ expenses broke last May, I felt it was only right and proper to let all the enquiries take place before I made my decision to retire. The results of the Legg audit have now been published. I had “no issues” as Sir Thomas Legg so quaintly expressed it. A Member of Parliament’s integrity is his strongest asset and whilst others may have lost theirs, I am proud that I have not been asked to repay any money and that I can look my constituents in the eye knowing that my claims were honest, principled and consistently in the lowest quartile. I am deeply saddened at the damage this whole sorry saga has done to the reputation of Parliament, but the expenses issue has no bearing whatsoever on my decision to stand down and the public record confirms this.

Some may think that I am retiring because I don’t believe we can win the next election, but this is far from true. I have faced much tougher elections before, the 1983 election. Furthermore I wholeheartedly believe that this election is winnable for Labour and that Walsall South can remain a Labour seat. Indeed most recent polls have suggested that despite the Conservative lead nationally, this doesn’t translate to a Tory win in Walsall.

To say that it has been the most enormous privilege, honour and pleasure to have represented the Walsall South Constituency at Westminster for the last 36 years is an understatement of almost epic proportion. I have loved almost every minute of it and I have sought to do it to the very best of my ability at all times. I hope that those who have not always agreed with my positions on various issues will recognise that I have always fought for what I passionately believed in and most of all, for what I believed was in the best interests of the town and all of my constituents regardless of their political orientation, social class, ethnicity or gender.

I feel a tremendous sense of sadness at bowing out, but I will do everything within my power to secure the election of my successor as the Labour Parliamentary candidate for Walsall South, and I hope its MP. I have sought on so many occasions to put the interests of the town above party politics. There were so many occasions when I believed government policy was in the interests of the town and should not be seen as party political. However, in Walsall, an intensely party political town, this has frequently been impossible and it has often been necessary to endorse and seek to implement what the democratically-elected government wishes to do. An enormous amount of money has been directed towards this town and I have worked hard to bring additional resources to my constituents. I am enormously happy when I walk around Walsall to see the progress that has been made in recent years. There is improvement in the health service, especially with the imminent opening of what is in essence a new hospital, increased investment in the police and a significant reduction in crime. The Government has recently announced a massive new school building programme, which will benefit the whole town, entitled, “Building Schools for the Future”, and I recently visited for the sixth time the fabulous new College that the Government contributed so heavily towards. The work being done by the Walsall Regeneration Company has seen remarkable progress throughout the town.

It is not just through local actions that the government has improved the lives of the people of Walsall. Since 1997 this government has introduced the national minimum wage (against strong opposition), extended maternity leave for parents, signed the Human Rights Act and introduced the Disability Rights Act, cut by 2.4 million the number of people living in poverty, created 2,900 Sure Start centres, doubled health spending in real terms, leading the way in tackling climate change, spent £23 billion in social housing, overseen a 73% increased in arts funding, and more than tripled overseas aid to £7.5 billion. This is just a sample of what we have achieved and it is a record I am extremely proud of.

All of these improvements tell me that this is not the broken society that the opposition claims it to be. We have so much going for us and must not be excessively despondent about the current economic and financial difficulties. We must continue to work hard to improve the lives of all members of society no matter what their social class, their economic background or their gender and ethnicity.

I have no intention of quietly fading away from the town I have spent most of my adult life in. I have too many friends here, so many memories and frankly I love the town. So you’ll be seeing a lot of me over the coming years though not as your representative. That honour will soon be bestowed by you on another fortunate individual.

Neither is it my intention to give up work entirely, quite the reverse. I have spent the last three and a half decades building up an enormous amount of experience and pursuing a number of interests such as violence in the family, defence, security and policing, democracy and human rights to name just a few. In no way am I going to jettison what I have built up over the last forty odd years as a student, academic and politician. I plan to continue pursuing these matters, but outside the Parliamentary arena.

In closing, may I express my deepest, most heartfelt thanks to both Walsall and the party for the trust you have consistently placed in me and for the opportunities you have given to me. I hope that I have upheld the trust that was conferred upon me by so many people that I have represented over the last thirty six years, very many of whom have now passed away.

With every best wish,

Bruce George

First of all let me offer my best wishes to you all for the New Year, I hope 2010 is a prosperous year for Walsall and its people. Despite many people being away over the Christmas break I continued to work during the recess and had quite a busy time. Over the break I paid visits to the different emergency services to thank the men and women for their service over the last year and their continuing commitment to the people of Walsall. On Christmas Eve I visited Walsall Police station and on Christmas Day I visited Walsall Hospital and the local Fire station. At all three I was immensely impressed by the hardworking staff who continued to work while we all enjoyed the break.

I was particularly pleased to visit the police as it gave me the opportunity to talk with them about the new policing structures recently put in place in Walsall. I have long believed that the two police operating units in the town should be merged as it would be more effective and beneficial for the people of Walsall. So I was delighted to hear that the new Chief Constable of West Midlands Police was planning to realign local policing to reflect council areas. In effect this means that instead of the two Operational Command Units that used to cover Walsall we now have one combined Local Policing Unit. The aim of this move is to improve local policing and the service that the West Midlands Police provides to our communities. I’m very pleased to hear that there will be a renewed focus in the region on neighbourhood policing.

This week in Parliament perhaps the most important bill that we are considering is the Children, Schools and Families Bill which had its second reading in Parliament on Monday. The bill includes plans for guaranteed catch-up support and one-to-one tuition for children falling behind in the 3Rs and stronger discipline through tough home-school agreements.

These new guarantees which are aimed at both parents and pupils include catch-up support in the 3Rs for pupils falling behind in English and maths, including one-to-one tuition; online information for parents on their child’s behaviour, progress and attainment; the right to learn triple sciences at GCSE; and the opportunity for every primary pupil to learn a musical instrument.

In Walsall we have already seen the impact of the guarantee regarding one-to-one tuition for those falling behind in literacy and numeracy with the government providing an extra £1,506,070 of funding this year for schools across the Borough. Education has improved significantly in Walsall over recent years, especially since education provision was taken away from the Council and placed with the company Serco. But we cannot be complacent, we need to continue our efforts to ensure our children and future generations receive a world-class education and that is why I was pleased to support and vote for the current bill making its way through Parliament.

Bruce George, MP for Walsall, has hailed a further rise in GCSE results for local schools in Walsall following the publication of secondary school results today.

However, schools across Walsall have seen big improvements in results, according to today’s figures. Over the last year (2009 compared to 2008) there has been:

A 5.6% percentage points rise (from 59.4% to 65%) in the number of pupils getting five or more GCSEs at A*-C grade. This is a big increase of 30.4 percentage points from just 34.6 % in 1998.

A 3.4% percentage points rise (from 40.6% to 44%) in the number of pupils getting five or more GCSEs at A*-C grade, including in the vital subjects of English and maths. This is a big increase of 18.2 percentage points from just 25.8% in 1998.

Bruce George MP said:

“This year’s GCSE results show a great increase over the last year and a real transformation in school standards across Walsall since 1997. Improvements to the local system in Walsall have been particularly noteworthy since education was taken out of the Council’s hands and given to Serco. I have been visiting the local schools in Walsall for over 30 years and I can see the positive changes that are taking place. I would like to congratulate the local teachers and pupils on the success they’ve had this year.

Thanks to extra investment and the hard work of teachers and pupils, there has been a revolution in our local schools. There are 230 more teachers and 670 more teaching assistants across Walsall. Exam results are up, school buildings and facilities are being transformed, and more young people are staying on in education or doing an apprenticeship at 16.”

Bruce George MP is calling on members of Walsall Council’s Development Control Committee to throw out the proposal to get rid of most of George Rose Park in Herberts Park Road, Darlaston to make way for the proposed new build for the Grace Academy, Darlaston.

Bruce George said:

“This is the only major public open space in this locality and to take it away from the local community is an absolute disgrace. Young people in the immediate vicinity of George Rose Park complain about the lack of facilities in the area for them to use. Getting rid of most of this open space is a recipe for more anti-social behaviour and general nuisance to local residents ny young people roaming the streets.

I hote also that the Environment Agency has concerns about the lack of a Flood Risk Assessment. These concerns should not ne ignored.

I urge the elected members of Walsall Council’s Development Control Committee to reject the recommendation to grant permission to the change of use. This public open space is a facility that belongs, in my view, to the local community and Walsall Council has no right to dispose of it in this way. I am sure there are other sites that could be considered. Indeed Walsall Council should be encouraging more use of our open spaces and not getting rid of them.”