With what pleasure did backbenchers on all sides of the House contemplate the fall from

With what pleasure did backbenchers on all sides of the House contemplate the fall from grace of D Willetts Esq! For Labour members this was quite an uncomplicated emotion. From their angle of vision Willetts was a supercilious enemy egghead – his nervous, twitchy manner and beady eye making him look like the heron that lives by the pond at All Souls. Tories had more interesting reasons for exulting at Mr Willetts’ demise. The most obvious was that the appointment of a new paymaster general (a title of Heseltinian grandiloquence) and the resulting reshuffle meant that someone – until then languishing on the back benches – now finds himself enjoying a month or two of constrained power.
But by far the most significant reason for their pleasure is the hatred that the dim harbour for the very bright.

Imagine how galling it is to watch this brain-on-legs swan into the top flight at an early age, while the chap who has been there years – who has horse sense, who knows what the voters want and how to give it to ‘em – has to settle for being chair of the Anglo-Andorran Parliamentary Forum. When the Labour Party’s Brian Wilson described Mr Willetts as a man with “two brains and no common sense”, he tapped deep into an anti-intellectualism that is shared by many MPs.Certainly, as I peered down from my eyrie at the assembly below yesterday, I could see many MPs who would serve their country well by resigning their seats; unlike the able Mr Willetts, they never would be missed. And little could exemplify Mr Major’s luck better than the fact that one of the silliest of his MPs had drawn first slot in the draw to ask him a question.Harry Greenway, the member for Ealing North since 1979, manages somehow to be a rebuke to many professions at once. He was once a headmaster of a large school, yet behaves like the class joke of 2M. He sits on the council of the Open University, but even his most partisan colleagues snigger when he gets up to speak. Yesterday all Mr Greenway had to do was to ask Mr Major some simple question about the social chapter or tax, and then sit down again.

Only one topic – Willetts, sleaze and fibbing – had to be avoided.And, given that his choice was the British veto, he really should have managed it. Could the Prime Minister confirm that “he will not abandon the British veto [pause] or rather, dissemble the veto …” Dissemble? Where had we heard that word before? Dissemble! shouted the Labour benches, happily. What Willetts was accused of! It was, of course, completely the wrong word, unnecessarily inserted in such a way as to give maximum discomfort to the PM and maximum assistance to Mr Prescott (standing in for Mr Blair, who was away practising to be Prime Minister).But why had Mr Greenway done it? Had the whips, noticing his name on the order paper and – after having cast their eyes to heaven – taken him aside and begged “Whatever you do, Harry, don’t say `dissemble’”? Then, like the bloke meeting Cyrano de Bergerac for the first time – and strictly enjoined not to stare at the nose – had Harry’s synapses gone haywire, propelling the word “dissemble” from his memory, shooting it past his consciousness and straight into his mouth?Whatever the explanation, it was the worst possible start to Prime Minister’s Question Time, and will have left Mr Major reflecting that the worst combination in politics is no brain and no common sense.. Ministers were involved in urgent talks last night on the potentially-deadly effects of E.coli poisoning and the measures needed to prevent more outbreaks across Britain. In moves that took opposition politicians by surprise, the Government announced the formation of a new cabinet committee on food hygiene – and within hours it held its first meeting.
The Prime Minister’s office said the action demonstrated the Government’s determination to uphold the highest food safety standards. However, some observers scented panic as the public geared up for a Christmas season of parties, with cold meats – especially turkey – on the menu.”The Government wants to ensure that any lessons that can be learned from the Scottish E.coli outbreak are incorporated into good food safety practices,” said a Downing Street spokesman.”It will consider evidence gathered by the other inquiries into the outbreak and make recommendations to try and prevent it happening again.”The committee will be chaired by the Leader of the House, Tony Newton, and will include Stephen Dorrell, Secretary of State for Health, Michael Forsyth, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Douglas Hogg, the Agriculture Minister, and a minister from the Department of the Environment.Among the first evidence likely to be put before the committee will be the report of the expert group of food, health and medical experts led by Professor Hugh Pennington of the University of Aberdeen.Professor Pennington has been charged with producing interim findings on the cause and implications of the Lanarkshire outbreak by the end of the year. The committee will also consider the findings of the Scottish fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of the outbreak’s 11 victims.After it was proved earlier this year that Malcolm Elgey, a Scottish sheep farmer, became infected with E.coli 0157 simply by coming into contact with his animals, it is understood that ministers are anxious to establish the methods by which the infection can be transmitted.