Cordelia suffers no burger ill-effects

IT was one of the iconic images of the 1990s, former agriculture minister John Gummer proving that there was nothing in the BSE scare by feeding his five-year-old daughter Cordelia with a hamburger during a fete in Ipswich.

Of course it later turned out that British beef wasn't as safe as all the then government ministers would have had us believe.

So what happened to Cordelia? Was she permanently scarred by this encounter with fame?

Apparently not - at least if the new pictures of the Gummer family are to be believed.

After he was re-elected as MP for Suffolk Coastal at the beginning of this month, Mr Gummer was pictured with his beaming family after watching his majority pushed up from less than 4,000 to nearly 10,000.

And Cordelia was again centre-stage in the family group - and this time seemed much more aware of the media's attention than she had 15 years ago!

She certainly looks like her father - although possibly not quite such a deadringer as her brother Benedict.

He looks so like dad that I've heard some people wondering if the former Tory minister is a mad scientist who's managed to clone himself!

Young Benedict is certainly enthusiastic - but if he wants to follow his father into politics he needs to guard against letting this enthusiasm run away with him.

Early in the evening at the Suffolk Coastal count he was running around telling everyone that the Conservatives were going to take Ipswich.

Where he'd got that from I don't know. As someone who was at the Ipswich count it was totally obvious from the time that the first ballot box was opened that Labour's Chris Mole was home and dry. He eventually finished with a more than healthy 5,000-plus majority.

Before Benedict launches himself into the world of politics he could do with a gentle word from dad on the importance of keeping his feet on the ground!

ARE Ipswich council's Conservatives ever going to come to grips with political reality?

Just as they've started to look like a credible political administration, their members seem ready for another bout of infighting.

Of course they'll be no strangers to this kind of behaviour - Ipswich Tories have always been quite skilled at fighting against each other.

But I understand that with two former group leaders who have been forced to stand down from their positions following referrals to the Standards Board for England, the group is now not in a happy position.

There are deep tensions under the surface - and although most people feel that Liz Harsant is the ideal leader, some in the group are already conducting something of a whispering campaign against her.

It all suggests to me that some Conservatives at Civic Centre are still more interested in pursuing their own individual rivalries than they are in honing a serious political machine.

AFTER 18 years on the council, no one can say that Bill Wright hasn't earned the right to be mayor of Ipswich - the only reason he hasn't been the town's first citizen years ago was that the former Labour administration wouldn't allow anyone from any other party to hold the office.

They always used the excuse that you couldn't have someone from the opposition being the figurehead of the council.

Over the last eight months Roger Fern has shown that argument is complete poppycock!

He's a Labour councillor, but has presided over a Conservative-led administration with great style and dignity.

In years to come his mayoralty will be looked back on as a great example for new mayors.

And he's proved that it is the individual, not the party they represent, that is important when fulfilling the duties of first citizen.