'The secret of modern Britain is that there is no power anywhere'

Rory Stewart: 'The secret of modern Britain is there is no power anywhere'

Tory MP Rory Stewart's career has included tutoring royal princes, a 6,000-mile trek through Afghanistan and a stint in Iraq. He says foreign intervention doesn't work. Can he be any more effective back here in the UK?

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• • Decca Aitkenhead
  • The Guardian, Friday 3 January 2014 17.58 GMT
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'Anybody running a small pizza business has more power than me' … Conservative MP Rory Stewart. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

If the 15-year-old Rory Stewart could see himself today at 40, "he would think I was a bit pathetic". He would see at once "all the ways in which I've compromised, and sold out. And he would be absolutely right." What would he have made of his decision to be a Tory MP? "Really confused, I think," Stewart smiles. "Yes. Really, really confused."

A lot of other people have been, too. Stewart is a Scot born in Hong Kong, raised in Malaysia and educated at Eton, who studied PPE at Oxford while tutoring Princes William and Harry in his spare time. On graduating he joined the foreign office, posted first to Indonesia to help sort out East Timor, and then to Montenegro to deal with Kosovo. Between 2000 and 2002 he walked 6,000 miles through Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, staying in villagers' houses, before being dispatched to Iraq to take charge of two provinces and to help write the country's new constitution. He wrote two bestselling memoirs about his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, Harvard made him a professor, and he founded a charity in Afghanistan at the request of its president and the Prince of Wales.

By 35 he had led so many adventures that Brad Pitt's production company bought the rights to a biopic of his life. And then he came home to become the Tory member for Penrith.

Happy New Year for 2014

The Respect Party would like to wish everybody a Happy New Year and our best wishes for the coming year.

2014 is the 10th anniversary of Respect and we will be launching the Respect Renewal in the coming 12 months, a renewal of our aims and objectives to go forward into the next decade as the credible alternative to the Labour Party.

If your membership has lapsed and you would like to renew, please click the 'Join Respect' tab above and follow the instructions.

Best Wishes,

Respect Party

Galloway appeals to Michael Gove about Bradford College cuts

Dear Secretary of State,

Please find attached a letter from Michele Sutton, the principal of Bradford college about the appalling effect spending cuts from the Education Funding Agency will have on Bradford College and those who wish to access the excellent courses available there. Some 500 students at Bradford college will be affected in the first instance and it seems this dramatic cut in funding has seen no prior consultation with any of the affected educational institutions. As you probably know, I believe the government's austerity measures are unnecessary and counter-productive. But even if one were to accept the rationale for austerity, this is a cut too far. I strongly urge you to reconsider and withdraw these cuts specifically in relation to this college whose continued success in offering quality education in Bradford is so vital to the future of this city.

Yours sincerely,

George Galloway MP

Top cop Khan cops guilty pleas

DI Afiz Khan, known to his mates in Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism unit as Alfie, has pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office at Southwark Crown Court today.

Khan was the head of the Muslim contact operation, which spies on Muslims, at the Metropolitan police's anti-terrorism unit SO15 . He remains on bail until the conclusion of his lover Aisha Ali Khan's trial in June next year. He will then be sentenced, and on previous examples can expect to be jailed.

Aisha Ali Khan is the former secretary of George Galloway. She and Afiz Khan have claimed to be married. This is not the case.

Three other charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty pleas. One of these involved the handing-over of the Respect party membership list to Khan and SO15.

Galloway calls for principal and trustees of Kings Science Academy to step down

The Bradford West MP George Galloway again called for the principal of the Kings Science Academy and the school trustees to stand down.

"I have had several calls and emails from concerned parents about the stewardship of the school and their children's education. Frankly I cannot understand why the principal Sajid Khan and the trustees have not stepped down while the police investigation continues," said Galloway. "First there was hugely damning report about the management of the school and then, belatedly, the announcement of the police inquiry. Until this finishes Khan and his buddies should do the decent thing and step away. It is normal in politics, almost de rigueur, that ministers demit their responsibilities when inquiries about their handling of affairs is live. I never thought I would say that I commend the example of Andrew Mitchell, but I do."

He continued: "This has nothing to do with the fraud inquiry. I would simply say to Khan and the others, 'do the decent thing'. If you are interested in the children's wellbeing and the parents' concern that is the honourable and the necessary step." The education secretary Michael Gove should insist on their sidelining if they don't do it voluntarily, he added.

George Galloway has already submitted a motion about this, which is reproduced below.

ACADEMY AND FREE SCHOOL RESIGNATIONS

• Session: 2013-14
• Date tabled: 25.11.2013
• Primary sponsor: Galloway, George
• Sponsors:
  That this House views with concern that the superhead of five London free schools, Greg Wallace, has resigned after an investigation into claims he awarded a contract to a man with whom he had a close personal relationship; notes that Greg Wallace was described as one of the magnificent seven superheads by the Secretary of State for Education; further notes that the trustees of the controversial Al-Madinah free school, labelled by Ofsted as dysfunctional, have resigned; contrasts this with the situation at Kings Science Academy in Bradford where the Principal, Sajid Raza, remains in position even though he has employed several of his own relatives and presided over a regime which issued fraudulent invoices; further notes that the Secretary of State for Education has refused to condemn Sajid Raza; further notes there is a police investigation into Kings Science Academy; and calls on the Secretary of State for Education now to encourage Mr Raza and the trustees of the Kings Science Academy to resign.

Kahns up in court tomorrow

Aisha Ali Khan - George Galloway's former secretary - and Detective Inspector Afiz Khan, no relation, are next up in court tomorrow (Thursday, 19 December) at Southwark Crown Court for a plea and case management hearing. They will be required to enter pleas and the case has already been set down for trial on Monday 23 June 2014 with a time estimate of five days.

George Galloway on the death in Syria of Dr Abbas Khan

The British doctor Abbas Khan died in custody in Syria yesterday (Monday). Bradford West MP George Galloway had been negotiating for months with the Syrian government over the release of Dr Khan and was due to fly out this week to bring him home.

"I think we will have to wait for clarification on how exactly he died," said Galloway, "but this is heartbreaking and devastating news for his family who have been working so hard for so long to secure his release. Particularly because his freedom had been agreed and he was due to return with me in the next few days. My sincere condolences go out to his family whose pain is unbearable."

Dr Khan, a young orthopaedic surgeon, had been seized by Syrian government troops in Aleppo in November last year after he entered the country on a humanitarian mission, but without a visa. His death was intimated to the family yesterday.

Galloway said that he had been due to fly out to Damascus this Friday having been promised that he would be returning to Britain with Dr Abbas. "I have been in contact with the Syrian government many times, up to and including the president, the foreign minister, the justice minister and other ministers. Last week I received a call from the foreign minister telling me that the president had asked him to contact me to come to Damascus to bring Dr Khan home before Christmas. Obviously this had to be kept confidential but the family were kept fully informed. I was in the process of booking a flight for this Friday when I got the appalling news."

The MP added: "I have spent the last few days dealing with our Foreign Office and the Syrian foreign minister, working out travel arrangements for the hazardous trip, as well as security arrangements. Dr Khan's family have also been talking to them, arranging an emergency passport. 

"If the family think that I can be of any assistance in dealing with the Syrian government, or can help in any way, I am at their service. This is just such a terrible tragedy."

Ends

Further information: Ron McKay on 07980 675998