Sir John Gorst - RIP

It's Gorst of Course

The first election I can remember was the 1974 General Election. Mill Hill was then in the constituency of Hendon North. It had been a Tory stronghold for a long, long time. My house was split between my Mum who always voted either Labour or Liberal, depending on who she thought was most likely to beat the Tories and my Dad who was a lifelong Tory. I sided with my mum on this one. Her arguments were more persuasive. She associated Labour with the NHS which had recently saved her life when she developed cancer. She associated Tories with exploitation, suppression of the working man and inequality. My Dad was a businessman and felt that Labour was the party of the Unions, which were ruining the country and the Conservatives were the party of stability and security. My road, Millway was awash with blue posters, proclaiming "It's Gorst of Course" (at later elections I'd take great delight at pulling up the staked garden posters - of course I've long since grown out of such behaviour).

With regards to politics, there was only one thing on which they agreed. This was that Sir John Gorst was a decent man and a fine MP for his constituents. Sir John Gorst was the MP and he had helped several people we knew. My Father used to give reasonable amounts of cash to the Tories. He would often point people with issues with bureaucracy at Gorst and tell them with "He will sort it out". He invariably did, apart from one case, which I still remember. Our next door neighbour was an Asian guy and he was being deported. He told my father that a great injustice had been done to him and his family. There was a "mix up" and he was being persecuted. My father told him to get in touch with Gorst and say he was a personal friend. He assurred him Gorst would sort it out. A couple of weeks later may father saw the neighbour, who informed him Gorst was useless and a racist. My father was quite shocked. He called John Gorst and asked why. Gorst asked if my father was aware of the details of the case. My father said he was. Gorst then asked if he was aware that my neighbour was an illegal immigrant, who had been prosecuted for mistreating a maid of the family who was living the life of a virtual slave and suffering appalling abuse. Gorst said he would have helped the man if he had been genuine, but it was open and shut case and the guy was a scumbag. My father was suitably embarrassed.

The next time I had dealings with Sir John Gorst was at a rally in Montrose Park to protest against the closure of Edgware General Hospital in 1996. Sir John had broken ranks with the Tory Government and was defying a three line whip, to do the right thing by his constituents. He spoke at the rally with conviction and passion. He was by far the best public speaker. His oration was far superior to his then Labour challenger Andrew Dismore. I was quite amazed by just how good he was. I respected his morals and principles and although I was extremely pleased to see Andrew Dismore elected, I was sorry to see a genuinely decent man lose heavily, on an issue where he was on the right side.

Gorst paid the price for the closure of Edgware General Hospital by the then Tory Government, despite being a vocal opponent of the scheme. It strikes me that in politics, there really is no justice at all. I wonder what Sir John made of the current crop of Barnet politicians. I wonder what his views of the Allowancegate scandal were? Whilst there were many policies with which I disagreed with Sir John Gorst, I can honestly say that this blog would not cover politics if all of the current crop of Barnet politicians had the morals, courage and principles of Sir John Gorst.

The Daily Telegraph writes a fine obituary. I hadn't realised just how independently minded he was and for that I salute him.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7927026/Sir-John-Gorst.html