Chris: never out of the running

CHRIS DAVIES: Euro-runner

Martyn Meets... Euro MP Chris Davies, part two
WINNING is habit forming, so I am reliably informed, and Chris Davies is man used to winning.

As a Liberal-Democrat in the current political climate I suggest that is a precarious position and it is one that the affable, endlessly entertaining MEP acknowledges with a wry grin.

For we live in changing times and with more years of austerity, and the misery that will be visited upon great swathes of the population in the run up to the next election for the European Parliament in June 2014, he cannot possibly view his next political horizon with any optimism.

Wrong.

But, as I keep saying, this is a man who thrives on challenges who drinks at the fountain of adrenaline.

He certainly won’t be giving up without a fight, that’s a certainty. He relishes the many and varied challenges thrown up by the European Parliament and the scepticism with which the institution is viewed in this country.

“Those viewpoints are influenced by the right-wing press, and that’s a fact,” he states with a clarity of vision that suggests he well aware of task ahead.

It doesn’t help, either, that the majority stakeholders in the coalition government are constantly talking about opting out and that, too, is a predication he meets with a resigned shaking of his ever-youthful head, a shrug of the shoulders and a demeanour that suggests he has been dealing with such challenges for the whole of his 57 years.

He has a thick skin, almost a pre-requirement for a Liberal Democrat in the current climate, and a wry acceptance of his lot.

Days before our chat he had invited criticism in great, engulfing swathes by defending a man who had been jailed for wearing an offensive slogan on his T-shirt in the wake of the shooting of two policewomen.

“Well, as a Liberal I had to say what I said . . . that’s what Liberals are about, freedom of speech, or society or whatever. It is completely wrong for someone to incite someone to commit a criminal act or kill someone, but even offensive idiots should have the right to freedom of expression in a free society.”

He had no regrets about the statement or the sentiment.

And there, in a nutshell, is the man. A Liberal to his core.

Here is a man who, on discovering at Cambridge University there wasn’t a Liberal Democrat element, simply set about creating one. And a hugely successful one at that.

Born in Lytham, where his father was a radiologist, he had arrived in Cambridge “by a fluke” as he puts it by gaining a research place.

Typically he put his time to good use and left with a 2:1 in history.

It was at the University of Kent where he half-completed — an oxymoron if ever there was one — a research study into the transition of transport from canals to the railway network, that he met his wife Carol.

They returned to live in her home town of Liverpool and Chris pursued his interests in politics eventually winning, after two unsuccessful attempts, a previous Labour stronghold ward once held by the formidable and legendary Bessie Braddock.

“It was here that I learned how to win,” he told me.

He was around Liverpool at the time of the national crisis that enveloped this magnificent city of contrasts when Militant Tendency was grabbing national headlines and Michael Heseltine was pouring millions of Conservative Government monies into the brooding community.

Chris became chairman of the housing estate management committee when the Liberal group took control of the council. He was also in charge of the evictions committee.

“I well remember those days. People wouldn’t pay their rent for six months, sometimes longer, but the head of rent collections was never worried. On the day he went round to evict people they would simply pay up the arrears in cash.”

These were heady days for Chris Davies. “I was hands on, I could get things done. I was working every day in the community. I had no thoughts at that time of becoming an MP, none at all. This was true Liberalism at work, people taking control of their own destinies.”

And then Militant Tendency won power. And the world changed.

“These were seriously nasty people” he recalled, citing one committee meeting when the chair strode in the meeting, dropped a huge pile of papers on the table top and demanded someone move a motion to approve.

“I tried to protest, a lone voice, but it was hopeless...”

His voice trailed off, as did his Liverpool career and he found himself out of office, out of power and out of Liverpool, working in London.

Working in public affairs, he basically read Hansard and wrote reports but the 18 months in the capital were “claustrophobic” with only his running to relieve the tedium.

A neighbour had introduced Chris, a decent athlete, to fell racing and so began a love affair with the peaks and troughs of the Pennines that endures to this day.

“The first race was a nightmare. It was nine miles around Coniston in the Lakes and I had a pair of Hi-Tec Silver Shadows. They were very lightweight. Running up the fells wasn’t a problem but coming down . . .

“I reckon about 150 people overtook me, but I fell in love with fell running.”

So much so that he is the current over-50s British champion at ultra limits - that’s double-marathons. On the day we chatted he was preparing for the Round Rotherham 50 the next day: 50 miles o’er hill and dale.

As I mentioned before, he knows how to win... which is how he came to Oldham.

Chris was invited to seek the Liberal nomination to fight Geoffrey Dickens for the Saddleworth seat.

He stood against Richard Knowles, the local man who was Mayor of Oldham last year and the first party vote resulted in a dead heat, 72 votes each. History records that he won the nomination in the re-run and twice stood against the Conservative incumbent, taking 31 per cent of the vote in the 1987 General Election and 35 per cent in the 1992 poll, each time finishing second.

“The Chronicle described me as a loser, but the truth was that, at a time when the Liberal vote nationally was going down, mine was increasing.”

In the 1995 by-election, following Geoffrey Dickens’s death, Chris Davies beat Phil Woolas to take the seat. It was a magical experience for Chris and his supporters who had defeated a resurgent Labour Party who had mobilised “hundreds of supporters and every Labour heavyweight politician” during the campaign.

It had taken 10 years to get to the House of Commons and Chris bathed in the atmosphere, speaking every week during his two years in office. Come the 1997 General Election, when Labour swept to power on roaring tide against the John Major government, he lost his seat.

“I asked two questions of the Prime Minister, I introduced four pieces of legislation and one night I camped out in the corridor outside the chamber door to make sure I was first in the queue for a debate.

“It was hugely memorable but, looking back, I can’t think of a single thing I achieved. And that is the experience of many, many MPs who are not in government.”

But he had won . . . and his next target was the European Parliament, a seat he has held since 1999.

He has no illusions that holding on to his place in Europe at the 2014 election will be easy.

He believes he is an achiever, he believes in his abilities and talents in the frenzied forum that is the European cauldron.

And he is a winner, remember. So I for one wouldn’t bet against Chris Davies being returned in 18 months time. Watch this space...