A momentous two weeks

A MOMENTOUS TWO WEEKS

Monday October 19th we launched our new advice centre, a snug little office in Units 74/76 in the Indoor Market in Market Hall in the centre of Luton. A very bright way to start a Monday morning, it’s decorated in a vivid but tasteful combination of orange and purple, “Purple for passion, orange for Luton” I told the man with a microphone when he asked why those colours. And it’s how I feel. Passionate about Luton. I find that difficult to explain, but then passion is always hard to pin down. I genuinely love that gallant, underestimated, tough, warm town. Every time I start driving the half hour up the M1 I feel excitement and anticipation. And certainly I felt that when I cut the purple ribbon and opened the doors of my new office.
The walls, ceiling and doors have been beautifully fitted and painted, and the windows fitted by well-wishers who work in the market. It’s cosy because I’ve furnished it with sofa and chairs from my medical student son’s room, (I’ll ask his permission later). The sofa has been well used already. There’s been a steady stream of Lutonians with concerns and problems they want me to know about, and help them with. Difficulties with schools. A dangerous road where a child was almost killed. No parking for residents. Worrying development plans. No jobs for an older worker. What to do about parents with dementia. And a dad being persecuted by the Child Support Agency. ( I know the devastating effect the CSA has achieved in the past, so I went with the dad to the County Court last week, a harrowing experience for him, no matter how much the staff and the judge try to keep it human and friendly.) Some of the issues clearly deserve a wider audience, so I begin to plan with the team ways of alerting the local media.
Several of my visitors tell me quite frankly that they have come to try and discover what I stand for, and if I can really make a difference. The word “trust” comes up over and over again. That is what the MP’s have sacrificed. A treasure beyond price, the basis of our democracy. And yet some MP’s still, in the phrase our papers love, “don’t get it.”
Right on cue a friend rings. “Did you know the anagram of your name, Esther Louise Rantzen, is “Trust, not sleaze, in here”? Obviously destiny was hovering around me at my christening. Luton was calling even then.
Between my surgeries, (I haven’t yet mentioned to my medical student son that I’m holding surgeries, too) I’ve made some significant visits. To Bedfordshire University, to meet the visionary Vice Chancellor Professor Les Ebdon. He has great plans to extend and improve the campus, and we explore the idea of my chairing some debates on general issues of special interest to Lutonians, housing and the green belt, diversity, employment in the future, democracy, and so on. I also ask if I can meet the social work students. I am struck by the vitality of the place, with its coffee bar at the entrance so the students immediately join a community, rather than the straggling anonymity of many traditional university buildings.
Then to the Keech Hospice for local terminally ill adults and children, again, paradoxically, a happy place, filled with dedicated staff who use all their skills to make precious last days as comfortable as possible. I know from my own experience, and from making the tv programme, “How to have a Good Death”, how important those last memories are. I am to open a new development in the hospice, to present a Christmas concert, and this Saturday to attend a special fund-raising concert organized by the Pasque Harmony Choir in the Grove Theatre, Dunstable.
Lunch with Martin Bell, ex independent MP, this week is useful and thought-provoking. I tell him I am thinking of asking for donations to cover the cost of the campaign from anyone who believes that an independent candidate would be a worthwhile investment in the next Parliament, but nothing over £50. He tells me that Obama was mainly funded by small donations. The comparison is intimidating, but reassuring. So I have begun to negotiate with Paypal, to set up a non-profit account, any funds left over to go to ChildLine. Martin says, “You don’t need a policy, you know, because you will not be in government. What you need is a set of principles. Your job will be to ask the difficult questions, to be the grit in the oyster. If we had had a group of independent MP’s in Parliament, we would never have gone to war in Iraq.”
My principles are, of course, to put Luton at the top of my agenda, and to fight Luton’s corner nationally. And when it comes to tough decisions at home or abroad, to apply the principle of informed choice to every issue, (if we had all the information, we would surely not have invaded Iraq), And always to be transparent, honest, and to work as hard as I can for the vulnerable, children, the elderly and disabled people. But as I may have to answer tough questions as well as ask them in the next few months, I begin mentally to practice. Not to be slick and over-political, but just to get my point over in the required 15 seconds, to satisfy the media’s notorious attention deficiency disorder.
On Saturday, the concert in aid of the Keech hospices was inspiring and beautiful. (I envy Dunstable its comfortable theatre, seating 700. Why hasn't Luton got one?) The ladies of Pasque Harmony look good and sound just as good, and they clearly enjoyed teaming up with the magnificent Morriston Orpheus Male Voice Choir, who were as invigorating and Welsh as lava bread, and glamorous in their white tuxedos. I sat next to the Mayor of Luton, very charming, as always, and down the row from Kelvin Hopkins and his wife, the MP for Luton North, one of the outstanding “saints” who didn’t claim a penny for a second home.
After the concert, one elegant lady in the audience said “You do very well on Three Counties Radio, Esther. You certainly know how to handle Stephen.” What good news, and very heartening for the months ahead. Perhaps I have more experience of tough questions than I realized!