Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} A Parliamentary Affair by Edwina Currie A Parliamentary Affair by Edwina Currie. The former health minister was until now best known for her 1988 declaration that most of Britain's egg production was infected with salmonella. The ensuing row eventually triggered her own resignation. Nine years later she lost her seat in Parliament and the outspoken Liverpudlian turned to writing. Her first novel, ironically entitled A Parliamentary Affair - a passionate tale of love and betrayal behind the scenes at Westminster - went straight into the best-seller lists in 1994. On her own website she says the best advice she had when becoming an author was "Write what you know". But despite the raunchy themes of novels, she had always denied having an affair while in office. Now it seems her soon to be published diaries, which detail her liaison with Mr Major, will also fly off the shelves. Mrs Currie began her working life as a teacher of economics and economic history after graduating from Oxford and London Universities. She was also a tutor and lecturer for the Open University. She started her political life in 1975 when she became a Birmingham City Councillor and chairman of Central Birmingham Health Authority. She was elected to Parliament in 1983 where her public profile rose rapidly, thanks in no small part to her highly-opinionated persona. From 1985-86 she was parliamentary private secretary to Sir Keith Joseph, at the Department of Education and Science. But it was during the period from 1986-1988 as a minister at the DHSS (later the Department of Health) when she unwittingly rose to fame. She had already caused a storm talking of the eating habits of northerners, and appeared on TV at the start of the Aids scare, demonstrating how to put on a condom. But her comments that most of the country's eggs contained the salmonella bacteria caused a storm. When egg sales plummeted Mrs Currie was forced to resign. Twenty-two years of public service later ended in 1997, when Mrs Currie lost her seat at the general election. But having made her name, Mrs Currie ensured she remained in the public eye. She turned her hand to writing and to date has penned six books, including the best-seller A Parliamentary Affair, published in 1994. She also embarked on a career in broadcasting and currently fronts the popular Late Night Currie phone-in show on BBC Radio 5 Live. Her broadcasting career also includes LBC and standing in for Jimmy Young on BBC Radio 2 as well as television presenter roles. She formally separated from her first husband, Ray, in 1997 and married her second husband, John Jones, a retired detective, in 1999. Why we should have noticed Edwina Currie's mentionitis. Can we now drop the plaintive mantra that the private lives of politicians do not matter? What if John Major's burning secret, known only to Edwina Currie and a sheepish Tony Newton, had been a duplicity over Maastricht? Would Mrs Currie's diaries have been described as a publishing sensation? Would the Daily Mirror have written with such fury that "The Major Scandal is Hypocrisy"? The only kind of hypocrisy in which people are interested is sexual. The Times was yesterday frantically trying to attribute political gravitas to Mrs Currie's revelations. "The focus on one particularly revelatory fact, Mrs Currie's affair with John Major, has naturally distracted attention from the diary's value as an individual's record of her time in Parliament." The playing down of the "one particularly revelatory fact" does a disservice to Mrs Currie. It is what has been driving her crazy for all these years. A well-known affliction experienced by people having affairs is "mentionitis". They cannot confess, but they drop clues like a nervous tic, usually in the form of banal and irrelevant references to their lover. "Mr Jones says that France is the best place to go on holiday. Mr Jones has taken up jogging!" And so on. Edwina's romantic novel A Parliamentary Affair was mentionitis on a grand scale. The poor woman was bursting to tell. The journalist Mary Riddell remembers interviewing Mrs Currie about her novel. Mrs Currie said, unprompted, that she had given a copy of it to John Major, who told her: "Oh, it's very good. Norma and I are reading it in bed and we're fighting over it." Mrs Currie spoke the pure truth. Since Norma allegedly knew about the affair by this time, of course she would have wanted to read the book. The only thing missing in this excellent report of Mr Major's reaction was the tone, which was presumably bitterly sarcastic. There is no doubt that the Currie-Major affair is the most shameful event in all our journalistic lives. What more did Edwina have to do to get it into print? Hire a hot-air balloon with a banner? For all these years, we have spurned Edwina for the same reasons that Major finally turned his back on her. Because she is a publicity-mad nuisance. With hindsight, I can see the whole treasure hunt. For instance, a sociable male Tory once told me en passant over lunch that John Major was spectacularly endowed. Not wishing to appear gauche, I merely nodded reflectively and we moved on to ERM, but now I shudder over the lapse of journalism. How did he know? Who told him? One can only speculate on Edwina Currie's motives for revealing the affair now. Of course, a new conservatory is nice. But more than that I suspect it was a need for recognition. Excluded from the index of John Major's autobiography, she decided to publish her own footnote. If she had been absolutely vindictive, she would have released this information when it could destroy Major, rather than embarrass him. It is a cry from the wilderness: "Yoo-hoo, I'm still here." I keep thinking of Mrs Currie's graveyard weekend radio slot, from 10pm to 1am. For all we know, she has been gabbling about strawberries and cream for months, but there was no one out there to hear her. Mrs Currie claims that she enjoyed the secrecy of her affair with Major, that she relished her colleagues' obtuseness. She must be insulted to learn that it was not the couple's Machiavellian qualities that shielded them from suspicion, but the ludicrousness of the proposition. The union has made anything possible. The Telegraph's managing director, Jeremy Deedes, says that he fleetingly misheard a discussion on the radio and thought Major had had an affair with Mrs Thatcher. John Major's sister, Pat Dessoy, commented jovially yesterday: "At least it wasn't Ann Widdecombe." Who benefits and who loses as a result of this one particularly revelatory fact? Reactions have been illuminating. From the start, a Westminster boys-will-be-boys line got under way. Late nights, burning ambition, intolerable pressure, part of the job, etc. This argument is gently chiding of Norma, whose absence exposed her husband to temptation. Why couldn't he just curl up with a good book? The alternative defence of Major - an attack on Edwina Currie - is now prevailing and repellent. Edwina has been described as vain, trashy and publicity-seeking. All these adjectives are true, but the motive for saying it is ugly. The vulgar abuse of Edwina Currie sounds like a howl of pain from the gentleman's clubs. Mary Archer confirmed her honorary man status by echoing the supercilious disdain for Major's "taste". Well, first, we take our pleasures where we can. John Major was perhaps not offered Nicole Kidman. Richard Desmond, the Express owner, made his fortune by injecting realism into pornography. Male readers understood that the drawback of goddesses is that they are not readily available. Second, the "poor taste" response betrays a moral relativism. Is it OK for a married man to have an affair so long as his lover is pretty enough to make it worthwhile? This moral criterion of Pop Idol was last applied to Camilla Parker Bowles. The question to ask an adulterer is "Is it right?", not "Is she fit?" The criticism of Mrs Currie sank to a new low yesterday with the pantomimic entrance of David Mellor, himself a male version of Edwina Currie. "She's just a cheap trollop," he blustered. Really, the political sink overflows with pots and kettles. Meanwhile, Edwina Currie continued her valuable record of her time in Parliament yesterday with detailed accounts of her snoring, golf-loving, underpaid, under-achieving former husband, Ray. Today, The Times offers further parliamentary insights: "Eggs and a Cuddle", "He Started to Touch But I Couldn't Cope" etc. One satisfying effect of this particularly revelatory fact has been the sight of serious political commentators rushing to re-evaluate the term of John Major. All of Westminster's worldliness could not bury this story. The editor of The Times, who arrived in his job preaching geopolitics and conceptual journalism, has now been converted to a simpler truth. Judge a man by how he treats his wife. Private Lives Matter. PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS. "THERE'S a wonderful line at the end of one of Travolta films Saturday Night Fever I think when he says, `I am an able person'. And I thought, yes. I am an able person. I can do other things. John Travolta is not a usual source for politicians' quotes. (Few of them, indeed, could do the accent). But then Edwina Currie is not your usual sort of politician. Travolta's words of wisdom were called to mind in 1988 when, as undersecretary of state in the British department of health Mrs Currie committed the cardinal sin of telling the truth about the risk of salmonella in eggs. The high profile, high heeled member for South Derbyshire was duly sacked. Edwina Currie had climbed the ladder of political preferment with the speed of the favoured; her descent via the snake of Thatcher's displeasure devastated her. But she was indeed an able person: Oxford scholar, MSc from London University, teacher ("nine years off and on"), mother (two girls) and local politician to boot, acknowledged even by her opponents as an intelligent, radical free thinker. One of the other things Currie could do was write. Unusually for a minister of the crown she wrote all her own speeches ("I drove my staff crazy.") "It was the Christmas recess and I wrote three short stories as therapy. Just to make myself concentrate on something "else. Nothing to do with politics. One of the people who wrote to me after I left government was the agent Hillary Rubenstein. I handed these pieces over and they were sold for a thousand quid each." And she cackles - more like a teenager who's just hit the jackpot on a pub fruit machine than a Tory MP who hits 50 next week. Life as a backbencher went on. She took on unpopular causes, people who she felt were short changed, all pretty un-Torylike, all to do with equality - homosexuality, racism and women. (Later this would include the debate she is most proud of, the cross party attempt to lower the age of consent for homosexuals to that of heterosexuals. It failed.) But as the election of 1992 approached so did the very real prospect of losing her seat. "What about a novel?" said her agent. "It's staring you in the face. You're always entertaining us with stories of what the blokes get up to." Two years later "what the blokes got up to" was everybody's entertainment. A Parliamentary Affair went straight to the top of the UK bestseller list. So far it has sold 500,000 copies worldwide. And no wonder. Quite apart from the prurient titillation of suspender belt sex in high and indeed - uncomfortable places, according to a senior civil servant of my acquaintance, it gives a "unnervingly accurate" - portrayal of life in the hothouse that is the House of Commons. But can the high jinks she describes really have their basis in reality? "This is a very bizarre, gothic place," she explains, "and attracted to it are some very strange personalities, and some enormous egos - people who are incapable of considering the needs and the wants and the pains of others. And that in itself makes them quite extraordinary. They are often very attractive figures. These are people who look at themselves in the mirror in the morning and like what they see." The vast majority of the 651 men and women MPs, she admits, are "honourable, decent and dull and not easy fodder for writing. So you pick the ones that are not honourable, not decent, and not dull and you have a lot of fun with them. She did not have fun with them in 1983, when as one of only 13 female Tory MPs she arrived in Westminster. Although by no means a rigid feminist, she was appalled. "I had got very angry at the way chaps here talked about women. And they would do it in front me because I wasn't `a woman', I was a fellow member. And I would get hot under the collar, disgusted and embarrassed. And I got upset because I'm a Tory member of parliament and I thought that Tories should behave better than some of them were behaving. And remember it was not known then." It being sexual shenanigans. Although A Parliamentary Affair was not published until 1994, she started it in 1992 before the antics of David Mellor in his Chelsea strip hit the tabloids, and well before John Major's Back to Basics campaign (autumn 1993) and the string of resignations that followed. Currie believes that her fictional account might even have precipitated media exposure. "I wasn't the only person aware of what was going on and I wasn't, the only person cross about it. From the moment I handed over the script people were getting interested and very excited." Journalists simply put two and two together, she believes. "They flicked back through their notebooks and took a chance and printed it and there's no doubt, in one or two cases set the guys, up." The incursion of the media into politicians' private lives - is one of the themes that form the backdrop to Edwina Currie's second novel, A Woman's Place, out in paperback this week. It brings together all her old passions and compassions - the plight of homosexuals racism, the running down of the health service plus a new fear - stalking and of course sleaze - in short the underside of Conservatism through which her alter ego Elaine Stalker MP (Currie in all but hair colour) picks her unsteady, if brave, way. "For anyone in parliament who does it, and there have always have been quite a few writing novels is simply another way of getting the message across. On the other hand, if all you do is write a polemic you'll bore your readers. You might as well write about what you know. And you might as well put in emotions that you really feel" But from Disraeli, to Douglas Hurd no one has ever blown the whistle quite so loudly. "I've always looked for the most pointed and effective way - to say something. I hate obfuscation and that is probably why I get a reputation as being outspoken. In fact I say much the same things as other people do but tend to say them in a very clear way. I know how to focus, how to concentrate on the topic to the point where you're driving it home. But you mustn't brow beat the reader who bought the book to be entertained." After this week's front page allegations of bribery and corruption in relation to the extrade minister, Neil Hamilton, I wonder if she feels vindicated? The MP reflects and allows herself a half smile. "I think most of the passing of brown envelopes under the table has gone. And I'm glad of that." But nonetheless, she says, it highlights a problem that is inherent in MPs' low pay. "It may be why one or two colleagues are leaving parliament. They need the money. You could make a hell of a lot of money doing what one or two characters I won't name have been up to. And of course they weren't paying tax on it either." The only long term answer, she believes, is root and branch parliamentary - reform money, hours and terms - crucial, she says, if the British parliament is to attract MPs of quality who are not only more normal" but are truly representative of the British people, which in her estimation should include "about 30 blacks and Asians and about 300 women". Edwina Currie has never been one to shun the limelight. Indeed she clearly thrives on it, turning her head towards it like a sunflower. Perhaps it is simply part of the necessary armour to survive. As to the charge that the new rush of celebrity novelists are in effect cheating - put to her at a public forum last year - her defence is fierce. "How do you think we get to be celebrities?" she rounded on the heckler. I'll tell you how. We work bloody hard. When you're watching TV we're still working. If we have a deadline to meet for nine o'clock, we'll work through the night. And work through the next day. We sell ourselves, we push hard. We ask for advice, we take advice. We work very hard at what we do and work very hard to improve ourselves. We are not celebrities by accident. Iain Dale's Diary. political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com. Saturday, February 18, 2006. My Top Ten Political Novels. Paul Linford has posted his Top Ten Political Books. So always being one to jump on a bandwagon (!) I thought I'd follow his lead, but give you my Top Ten Political Novels instead. My definition of a political novel might be different to some people's, but you will gather from this list that I enjoy a plot which centres around Parliament. I started to write a political novel myself a few years ago (which unbelievably featured Charles Kennedy as Foreign Secretary oin a Tory led coalition!) but only wrote one chapter. I came across it again the other day on an old computer and it read rather well. Maybe I should have another go! 1 Second Term by Simon Walters A ripping yarn about a Labour Prime Minister trying to get a second term in office. I published this book at Politico's even though we didn't normally do fiction. Several of the fictional pieces then turned into reality. Strange but true. Buy it HERE. 2 Aachen Memorandum by Andrew Roberts A little noticed novel by historian Andrew Roberts. Centres around the implosion of the EU in 2045. Absolutely gripping. Now sadly out of print. 3 A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin Left wing firebrand Harry Perkins becomes PM but doesn't reckon on the opposition of the security services. Subsequently a brilliant Channel 4 drama. Buy it HERE . 4 House of Cards by Michael Dobbs The first of the trilogy, featuring the cunning chief whip Francis Urquhart and his memorable phrase, "you might say that, I couldn't possibly comment". Buy it HERE . 5 Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst Set in the latter Thatcher era it centres around the life of a coke snorting, gay sex addict who actually gets to meet Mrs T. Won the Booker Prize and is about to become a BBC2 drama. Buy it HERE . 6 Winston's War - Michael Dobbs First of the tetrology of novels with Winston Churchill as the main character. Dobbs has started a new genre in historical fiction which works surprisingly well. Buy it HERE . 7 51st State - Peter Preston Former Guardian editor imagine how Britain might become a 51st State of the United States. Far fetched but somehow he makes it seem just that little bit feasible. 8 Black Book - Sara Keays Cecil Parkinson's former amour writes a salacious novel about the Black Book in which whips record the transgressions of their fellow MPs. 9 A Parliamentary Affair - Edwina Currie Edwina's novels are highly readble and enjoyable, with a fair degree of bonking thrown in, it has to be said. This and its sequel, A Woman's Place are undoubtedly the best. 10 Palace of Enchantments - Douglas Hurd Hurd's best novels were written in the 1960s and 1970s and have all been recently re-released. This one features a junior Foreign office minister who is desperatre to become Foreign Secretary. Buy it HERE . Literary Analysis Of A Parliamentary Affair By Edwina Currie. Gerot And Halliday: Three Metafunctions Of Language, Theory, And Behavioral Theory. Mood system categorizes each sentence according to the type of sentence. There are three types of sentences, namely declarative, imperative and interogative. The mood analysis continued with determining the adjunct. There is three kind of adjunct to be analized, these are circumstantial adjunct, conjunctive adjunct and comment adjuncts. Circumstantial adjunct answer the question ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘by whom’.… Influences The Comunicative Modes Of Multimodality In Communication. CONCLUSION 4 5. REFERENCE LIST 5 1. INTRODUCTION Writers and speakers have different styles of communicating with their audience. These communicative styles are determined by various factors such as the type of audience the speaker is addressing, or the type of situation the communication is taking place or perhaps the matter that is discussed (Nordquist, 2016). These factors are known as multimodal factors and they contribute a lot in word selection and other communicative modes that the communicator chooses in order to send an understandable message to his or her recipient.… Creative Writing: The Handmaid's Tale. He appeared to be pretty beat up in the alley.” Fleance was apoplectic, “Surely you didn’t bring me in just because I am hurt. You knew I was Banquo’s son!” Katerina only examined the rusty floor. “No matter.” Winnie smiled. “We will help you return home only if you do something for us.” Fleance hesitated, “What?” The witch narrowed her silvery eyes, “Promise us you’ll stop at nothing to fulfill our prophecy.” The second sister cackled, “Yes, that Macbeth fellow has been acting awfully dreadful.” Winnie ignored her sister, her gaze intently fixated upon Fleance, “So do we have a deal?” Fleance wondered how they even knew Banquo had shared the prophecy with him. He also wondered what Macbeth had done to ensconce himself on the witches’ bad side.… Jeannette Walls Theme. She would hide herself while eating a chocolate bar and when she was caught by Brain she took the role as a child. “Mom started crying. “I can’t help it,” she sobbed. “I’m a sugar addict, just like your father is an alcoholic.” Page 174 Beside Rose Mary lacked of physical support Rex was just as worst as she is. He would leave the kids inside the car while the engine was still on just so he can escape a medical bill.… Character Analysis Of Miss Havisham In Charles Dickens Great Expectations. Before seeing the lady he was “half afraid” and reluctant, then she is perceived as a symbol of purity, and then as a grotesque lady in decay. This fact means that he gets the information at the same time as the reader, and it reinforces his uncertainty. So in this passage the author is trying to show us that the narrator is not reliable because he does not know everything, and what he knows is filtered so what he says could be quite subjective. In conclusion, the different meanings attributed to Miss Havisham prove the uncertainty of the narrator. Are narrators really reliable?… Settings And Characters In Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte. “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte is a story about a youthful orphan, named Jane Eyre, who was living an awful life with her aunt and cousins, the Reeds. Jane’s character developed throughout the novel. Bronte acquired the buildup in her characters by the multiple locations in the novel, since the settings mostly reflects the human’s emotions. The different locations Jane encountered had a huge impact on her character and the mood throughout the story. The novel started at Gateshead Hall, where Jane was basically trapped in there, in her aunt’s house.… What Is Poverty And A Women On The Street By Jeannee Walls. The third difference would be the explanation of the how the two stories are told because Jeannette Walls’ story is presenting a daughter that is feeling self-hatred from seeing how her finical money is affecting her life but Jo Goodwin Parkers story it shows a lady that is giving her own opinion about poverty and how it affected her life. In the story “What is Poverty?” is started out with this, “You ask me what is poverty? Listen to me.” With her saying this, she is coming out front with her opinion and therefore people should listen. In Jeannette walls “a women on the street” presents explanations between two individuals that are more emotional staple because they are sharing life together no matter how horrible it would be. In Jo Goodwin Parker “What is Poverty?” the women is less emotional stable because she is going through the hard journey by… The Role Of The Mother In Tillie Olsen's I Stand Here Ironing. This woman tells us of her struggles as a working single parent. When we meet our main character she is busy with housework, as she often is, when she receives word from someone who is concerned for the emotional well-being of her oldest daughter, Emily. This person, whom one would assume is a school counselor, is concerned and looking to Emily’s mother for answers. Emily seems withdrawn and often times reserved, thus causing the narrator to question whether or not her actions played a role in the development of this behavior. In light of this, Emily’s mother brings the readers with her throughout her stream of consciousness reflecting on her inner feelings of guilt with the way she has raised Emily.… Themes In The Moths By Helena Maria Miramontes. Necessary Endings Helena Maria Miramontes is an American writer and English professor. She has written novels and shorts stories, like “The Moths” which is included in her collection of”The Moths and Other Stories.” The Moths is a coming-of-age story about a 14 year old girl who takes care of her sick abuelita. The characters of the story are the mom, the father, the girl’s older sisters, and the narrator which is the girl. The narrator is described as being different, unlike her older sisters she is selfish, disrespectful, she is not girly and has big hands and a deeper voice. She is often beat up at home, and because of this she spends most of her time in her grandma’s house, helping her in her garden and also taking care of her.… Angela's Ashes Quotes. The moods and emotions of caution, guilt/doom and confusion were all expressed in the passages that involved that of Theresa Carmody. Overall, the literary piece that involved these passages exempts powerful emotions and…