Stone's Throw: Confusion caused by words heard at different times
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MP Jamie Stone recalls a time of unfortunate misunderstanding.
Shortly after my party lost a swathe of seats in the 2015 general election, my friend and great inspiration Charles Kennedy died.
Because I had been his constituency party chairman in the past, the telly and the radio beat a path to my door to interview me about Charles.
This I did with great sadness, but also out of a sense of duty to a great Highlander.
On the day before Charles’s funeral I was approached by the BBC and asked if I would do a radio interview either immediately before or after his funeral. I flatly refused.
In the Highlands we take respect for the dead seriously.
The service for Charles was blessed with a truly beautiful day in Lochaber and when the funeral was over many of us gathered and chatted outside the church.
Suddenly I noticed Tony Blair’s spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, amongst the crowd of the great and good – and to my absolute astonishment he looked directly at me and made as if he recognised me.
This was extraordinary because I had never met him before.
Then he walked up to me and spoke: “Great interview this morning, Jamie. You did well.”
What on earth?
Before I could think any further, John Farquhar Munro’s widow, Celia, beetled up to me.
“Heard you on the wireless this morning, Hamish! You were grand. Charles would have been proud of you.”
Next, Jim Wallace walked up – with my former party leader Nick Clegg.
This was one man who I knew I had never met before but to be polite I introduced myself: “Hello Nick, you don’t know me, but I’m a local councillor called Jamie…”
“I know exactly who you are!”
And with that, he curtly turned his back on me and walked away.
Clearly, he felt as if I was something on the sole of his shoe.
It was time to depart for the graveside and I thought no more of these strange events – until a couple of days later, when I rang the BBC and asked them how it was possible that I had been on the radio on the morning of Charles’s funeral when I hadn’t, if you see what I mean.
“Ah yes. Sorry Jamie, we should’ve told you.
“We used part of the telly interview that you recorded a few days beforehand, a part that we hadn’t already used, and we turned it into radio for the day of the funeral.”
I asked which bit they’d used.
“We used the part where you told us how you and Charles had discussed the forthcoming Bedroom Tax and how it was a thoroughly bad idea that would hurt some of the most vulnerable in society.
“You also spoke about how that discussion partially led to Charles deciding to vote against the tax in parliament.”
So all was revealed.
That was why Alastair Campbell had liked what I’d said – and that was why Nick Clegg was very obviously furious with me. He hasn’t spoken to me since.
It’s ironic, isn’t it?
This tax was designed to get people to move into smaller houses but of course, as we know, we don’t have enough houses to allow this to happen.
If I am given the chance to vote to repeal the tax in the future, then I will. I owe it to Charles’s memory.
Jamie Stone is the MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross.
