The Highs and Lows of Malcolm Bruce
Posted by jonathanfryer on Wednesday, 21st May, 2008
In a fortnight’s time, Malcolm Bruce, MP, will be celebrating 25 years as the Member for Gordon, but earlier this evening, he was the guest speaker at the National Liberal Club’s annual Chairman’s Dinner. That in itself was something of an innovation, as often these dinners have just been an occasion for socialising after the Club’s AGM. But the current NLC Chair, Paul Hunt, has taken the admirable decision to raise the level of political debate within the Club, and Malcolm was an inspired choice. Having not prepared a speech (as he endearingly admitted), he spoke off the cuff about the Highs and Lows of his parliamentary career, which was far more entertaining than most set speeches.
Among the lows (putting aside his failed bid for the party leadership) was the occasion when he and Paddy Ashdown had virtually to rugby-tackle Bob Maclennan to stop him storming out of a House of Commons committee room into a corridor full of journalists when the ‘Dead Parrot’ document was roundly rejected by his colleagues. Fortunately, time is a great healer, and we can now laugh about such things.
Amongst the high points has been Malcolm’s current position as Chairman of the (cross-party) Committee on International Development, which has taken him to many obscure corners of the world (and deeply enhanced his role as President of Liberal International British Group). Malcolm paid tribute to much of what the current government (and the Department for International Development, DFID) has been doing. And he contrasted the way that China has responded to the recent earthquake (with appeals and appreciation for outside help), with the monstruous policies of the Burmese junta, who appear not only indifferent to their own people’s suffering, but are actively making it worse.
Link: www.nlc.org.uk
