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SIR
GEOFFREY JOHNSON-SMITH - Conservative MP for Wealden
Sir
Geoffrey heard a number of complaints about Wealden
District Council's officers but failed to investigate either one. Sir
Geoffrey failed to intervene when the Sanctuary at Bushy Wood was bulldozed. He also did nothing to urge this council to prevent Anne
Harris's home being torn down around her, for which Wealden were
found guilty of maladministration.
Later when Anne was again under attack from Wealden's enforcement
officers, again her local MP did nothing.
This
is not a particularly good
record we think you'll agree. Can you imagine that David Phillips argued before
a Crown Court that a road was actually a linear pile of rubble and not a
road.
Needless to say the Court showed him the door. But, if Sir Geoffrey
had stepped in, the case would never have proceeded, with a saving of the
taxpayers purse.
Another
person giving information to Sir Geoffrey was Nelson
Kruschandl, who attended one of his clinics with supporting papers.
Nelson was effectively shown the door. He gained the impression that no
matter how much evidence he had to prove deception on the part of this
Council, any conservative Member of Parliament would run away from the
problem. This may also apply to other parties who do not want to be
associated with any scandal. Hence, the best way to stop discrimination
and other wrongs being revealed is to discredit the complainants. Nelson
was the most active of the Wealden Action Group, winning several appeals
and preventing enforcement at other sites in Sussex before any corrupt
officer could get started. Twice, Nelson threatened council officers with
a citizens arrest and we think that it was this challenge to their appalling
human rights record that eventually put him on the list to be gotten rid
of.
Charles
Hendry MP was elected to Parliament as the Member for
Wealden in June 2001 having been selected as Prospective Parliamentary
Candidate for Wealden in March 2000, following the decision of The Rt.
Hon. Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, to retire. Mr Hendry was
another conservative member of parliament who it is alleged failed to
respond to enquire as to the goings on between Wealden and Sussex Police,
though we welcome his side of the story if he would care to add anything.
SETTING
AN EXAMPLE
- This should be the
responsibility of all owners of country estates to comply with the tenets
of the Climate
Change Act 2008.
Sir Geoffrey Johnson-Smith, DL (16 April 1924 in Glasgow – 11 August 2010) was a Scottish Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1959 to 2001, with only a brief interruption in the 1960s. He was also a television presenter.
The son of an electrical engineer, he joined the Royal Artillery straight from Charterhouse School in 1942 and after the war was demobilised as a captain.
At Lincoln College, Oxford, he read PPE. Contemporaries remembered him as Oxford’s best-dressed socialist, though he always insisted he never joined the Labour Party. In his final year he and Robin Day took part in a debating tour of
United States run by the English-Speaking Union. From Oxford he joined the British Information Services, serving in San Francisco, where he met his wife, Jeanne, an American doctor whom he married in 1951.
He was later a presenter of the BBC magazine programme Tonight in the late 1950s.
Shortly before the 1959 general election, Cliff Michelmore, Tonight’s presenter, had a hernia operation and Johnson-Smith was promoted to co-host the show for six weeks. His profile was thus at its highest when the election was called, and on 8 October 1959 he ousted the Labour member for Holborn and St Pancras South, Lena Jeger, by 656 votes.
He successfully promoted a bill authorising councils to operate a meals-on-wheels service for the elderly and was soon on the fast track, within six months becoming PPS to ministers at the Board of Trade; in 1962 he moved to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.
His parliamentary career was interrupted in October 1964 when Lena Jeger had her revenge by 2,756 votes as Labour came to power. He briefly returned to television, freelancing for the BBC and Rediffusion’s religious programmes.
However, he returned to the House of Commons the following year at a by-election in the safe Conservative seat of East Grinstead. When that constituency was abolished for the 1983 election, he was returned for the new Wealden constituency, and held that seat until he retired at the 2001 general election.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home quickly appointed him an Opposition whip, and when Edward Heath became leader that summer he made Johnson-Smith a party vice-chairman.
When Heath came to power in 1970 he kept Johnson-Smith at Central Office. Soon afterwards Iain Macleod died suddenly, the party Chairman Anthony Barber taking his place and Johnson-Smith becoming acting chairman. He was never in the running for the top job, despite his popularity among Conservative ladies, and in April 1971 he instead became Under-Secretary for Defence for the Army.
Johnson-Smith, who was later to launch a successful campaign on behalf of haemophiliacs who had been given infected blood, fought a long battle to curb the Church of Scientology. The Church had its headquarters near East Grinstead and in 1970 he endured a six-week libel case before a jury vindicated his stance.
After the Bloody Sunday killings of January 1972, he mounted an uncompromising defence of the Parachute Regiment: "It is bad enough for our troops to have to run all the perils and be shot at by gunmen without having their pain increased by smears in this House."
In November 1972 Heath moved him sideways to the Civil Service Department, with the remit of sharpening presentation of government policy. His time there was dominated by the Kenneth Littlejohn affair, which was still rumbling on when Heath called a snap election in February 1974. Johnson-Smith fought a skilful media campaign, but could not prevent Heath losing.
When Margaret Thatcher took the leadership, she asked him to oversee media activities at Central Office alongside a fellow television professional, Gordon Reece. After her 1979 election victory he joined the 1922 executive and chaired the party’s backbench media committee.
From 1980 to 1996 he chaired the select committee on Member's Interests, having to field embarrassing questions about the business activities of Mrs Thatcher’s son Mark.
Johnson-Smith specialised increasingly in defence. From 1985 he chaired the military committee of the North Atlantic Assembly, and from 1987 to 1997 he led the British delegation. For six years he chaired the Conservative backbench defence committee.
He was knighted in 1982 and sworn of the Privy Council in 1996.
THE
TELEGRAPH 12 AUGUST 2010
A respected figure on the Conservative benches, he seemed destined for high office. But his prospects were dashed when it emerged that he — imprudently, in his critics’ view — held a meeting while Minister for the Army with the bank robber and self-styled
MI6 agent Kenneth Littlejohn.
Johnson Smith was one of a clutch of Oxford Union debaters who graduated to television as it took off as a popular medium in the early 1950s, reckoning it a stepping stone to Parliament; they included Robin Day (who was never elected), Jeremy Thorpe and the athlete Chris Chataway.
Dashing, urbane and gentlemanly, but tough when necessary, Johnson Smith was an effective presenter of party broadcasts, often with Chataway, and was given much of the credit for the Tories’ election victory in 1970.
A party vice-chairman under Edward Heath, Johnson Smith was unfailingly loyal to the leader of the day. He served for more than 20 years on the 1922 Committee executive , keeping
Margaret
Thatcher, John Major and William Hague in touch with backbench feeling. When Mrs Thatcher lost the leadership in 1990, he held the line for her until the last minute; and when Major came under attack from rebellious Euro-sceptics, he found his task depressing.
The most humane of Tories, he once appealed in vain to the party’s Central Council not to vote to bring back the birch. He was a consistent opponent of capital punishment, and one of the first MPs to defend the banned novel Fanny Hill. He was consistently, but not provocatively, pro-European.
The controversy that halted his rise broke in August 1973, when Kenneth Littlejohn — an ex-paratrooper who had been discharged for theft and jailed for robbery — and his brother Keith were sentenced in Dublin for their roles in a £67,000 bank hold-up. They claimed the robbery was part of a British intelligence operation in the course of which they had infiltrated the IRA.
They produced a letter from the Ministry of Defence confirming that Johnson Smith had, in 1971, met Kenneth Littlejohn, then using the name of Austen, to receive information — later found to be bogus — about the Provisionals’ sources of arms. The minister had reported what he was told to the “relevant authority”. The Littlejohns claimed that following the meeting — which took place while Kenneth Littlejohn was on the run from the West Midlands police — they were recruited as spies.
The MoD stressed that the meeting had been arranged by the Defence Secretary, Lord Carrington, and that Johnson Smith had behaved with complete propriety. But the revelations were an embarrassment to Heath’s government. Labour pressed hard for an inquiry, but Carrington resisted. When the Conservatives lost power in 1974, Johnson Smith left the front bench, never to return. His integrity was not in doubt — he was immediately appointed to the select committee which set up the Register of Members’ Interests — but a small cloud was left hanging over his judgment.
Geoffrey Johnson Smith was born in Glasgow (a city of which he was always proud) on April 16 1924, the son of an electrical engineer. He joined the Royal Artillery straight from Charterhouse in 1942, and after war service was demobilised as a captain.
At Lincoln College, Oxford, he read PPE. Contemporaries remember him as Oxford’s best-dressed socialist, though he always insisted he never joined the Labour Party. In his final year he and Robin Day toured the United States with the Union’s debating team. From Oxford he joined the British Information Services, serving in San Francisco, where he met his wife, an American doctor.
He joined the BBC’s current affairs unit as a producer, and in 1954 went in front of the camera, quickly establishing himself as an accomplished and personable interviewer, appearing five times weekly in the Highlight magazine programme.
Highlight earned him a reputation for breaking controversial stories, and this followed him when he moved to the flagship Tonight programme, where his interviews became increasingly political, though never partisan.
Shortly before the 1959 general election, Cliff Michelmore, Tonight’s presenter, had a hernia operation and Johnson Smith was promoted to co-host the show for six weeks. His profile was thus at its highest when the election was called, and on October 8 1959 he ousted the Labour member for Holborn and St Pancras South, Lena Jeger, by 656 votes.
Arriving at Westminster as a media star, Johnson Smith worked his passage as a backbencher, concentrating his fire on St Pancras’s “Red” Labour council. He successfully promoted a Bill authorising councils to operate a meals-on-wheels service for the elderly.
His inexperience did sometimes show, as when he dismissed settlers in East Africa as “clods” . But he was on the fast track, within six months becoming PPS to ministers at the Board of Trade; in 1962 he moved to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.
His parliamentary career was interrupted in October 1964 when Lena Jeger, as Labour came to power, had her revenge by 2,756 votes. He briefly returned to television, freelancing for the BBC and Rediffusion’s religious programmes.
The following February he was back for the safe seat of East Grinstead, the local association preferring him to the past and future Cabinet minister Geoffrey Rippon. He took the seat by more than 10,000 votes ; he would represent the constituency — redrawn in 1983 as Sussex Wealden — until 2001.
Johnson Smith, who was later to launch a successful campaign on behalf of haemophiliacs who had been given infected blood , fought a long battle to curb the Church of Scientology, which had its headquarters near East Grinstead, in 1970 enduring a six-week libel case before a jury vindicated his stance.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home quickly appointed him an Opposition whip, and when Heath became leader that summer he made Johnson Smith a party vice-chairman. Working with the chairman, Edward du Cann, he cut vigorously at “deadwood” on the candidates’ list and looked out for young talent. The process caused some offence, particularly when Johnson Smith told one hopeful he was too old at 47.
When Heath came to power in 1970 he kept Johnson Smith at Central Office. Soon afterwards Iain Macleod died suddenly, the party Chairman Anthony Barber took his place and Johnson Smith became acting chairman. He was never in the running for the top job, despite his popularity among Conservative ladies, and in April 1971 he instead became Under-Secretary for Defence for the Army.
After the Bloody Sunday killings of January 1972, he mounted an uncompromising defence of the Parachute Regiment: “It is bad enough for our troops to have to run all the perils and be shot at by gunmen without having their pain increased by smears in this House.”
In November 1972 Heath moved him sideways to the Civil Service Department, with the remit of sharpening presentation of government policy. His time there was dominated by the Littlejohn affair, which was still rumbling on when Heath called a snap election in February 1974. Johnson Smith fought a skilful media campaign, but could not prevent Heath losing.
When Mrs Thatcher took the leadership, she asked him to oversee media activities at Central Office alongside a fellow television professional, Gordon Reece. But after her 1979 election victory, she did not offer him a job; just enough of the Littlejohn mud had stuck. Instead, he joined the 1922 executive and chaired the party’s backbench media committee .
From 1980 to 1996 he chaired the select committee on Members’ Interests, having to field embarrassing questions about the business activities of Mrs Thatcher’s son Mark, and finding himself policing the wave of “sleaze” allegations — some proven — against members of Major’s government.
Johnson Smith specialised increasingly in defence. From 1985 he chaired the military committee of the North
Atlantic Assembly, and from 1987 to 1997 he led the British delegation. For six years he chaired the Conservative backbench defence committee.
He was knighted in 1982 and sworn of the Privy Council in 1996.
He is survived by his wife, Jeanne, and their two sons and one daughter.
ANTI
CORRUPTION
In
view of Sir Geoffrey's failure to tackle any of the corruption issues
concerning Wealden District Council over something like
10 years, we
agree with him that it was in the best interests of all concerned,
not least the historic built environment - to retire from politics when
he did.
We
need an MP for Wealden who is prepared to bring
about changes to make Wealden accountable for their refusal to comply
with statutory
requirements and other breaches of the Human
Rights Act.
There
is also the matter of the lack of affordable housing in East Sussex,
making financial slaves of thousands of young families that are caught in
the renting trap where landlords get richer and the poor get poorer -
something to do with Conservative politics perhaps. Was slavery abolished?
Not in the present United
Kingdom; it appears to be encouraged. How about another bailout for
those hard done by banking chaps.
CAROLINE
ANSELL - CHARLES
CLARKE - CHARLES
HENDRY - CHRIS
GRAYLING - DAVID
BLUNKETT - DAVID
CAMERON
DAVID
MILIBAND - ERIC
PICKLES - GEOFFREY
JOHNSON-SMITH - GEORGE
OSBORNE - GORDON
BROWN - GREG
CLARK
GREGORY
BARKER - JACK
STRAW - JOHN
GUMMER - JOHN
PRESCOTT - KENNETH
CLARKE - KIM
HOWELLS DR
MARGARET
BECKETT - MARGARET
THATCHER - NICK
CLEGG - NORMAN
BAKER - NUS
GHANI - PATRICIA
HEWITT
PHILIP
DUNNE - PHILIP
HAMMOND - SAJID
JAVID - STEPHEN
LLOYD - TERESA
MAY - TESSA
JOWELL - TONY
BLAIR - VINCE
CABLE
LINKS
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7941713/Sir-Geoffrey-Johnson-Smith.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Johnson-Smith
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