Respect where it is due

This is Janet Anderson. She's an MP for an area in Lancashire called Rossendale and Darwen, or Darwen and Rossendale if you come from the town which is just one letter - but a whole world - away from anything to do with Darwin.

Anyway, asides about small Lancashire mill towns put to the edge, Mrs Anderson is arguably the best lesson any former minister, or indeed current minister, could seek to learn.

Up until 2001, she held reasonably senior posts in Government. She was a senior whip and then a tourism and film minister. Then, in 2001, she was dropped to the backbenches.

Had she done anything wrong? Not that anyone could see and, this week, Tony Blair confirmed that.

His speech has been scruntinised across the world but it fell to the pages of the Lancashire (once Evening) Telegraph for me to pick up on the bit where he paid tribute to former ministers:

"People like Janet Anderson, George Howarth, Mike Hall.
"Good Ministers, but I asked them to make way.
"They did.
"Without a word of bitterness.
"They never forgot their principles when in office; and they never discovered them when they left office."

And it's true. Janet did just that. She never stopped being a good constituency MP but she continued being a good constituency MP and certainly didn't suddenly become a darling of the media, the ones we in newsrooms call the rent-a-gobs.

Claire Short, David Blunkett, and now Charles Clarke. The ones who seem to believe that revenge is a dish best served cold. Ironically, Blunkett was the one wheeled out by Sky News to tell Clarke that former prime minister should keep their mouths shut.

And more recently, people like Geoff Hoon, demoted from MoD to Europe minister, suggested Blair should leave sooner.

And then there is Chris Bryant, the MP who never made it to a minister, possibly because he was seen as a wild card after appearing on a gay website in his undercrackers. He pretty much started the 'time to go Blair' thing the other week - and he's not actually been removed from any post!

So perhaps, as the euphoria of Blair's speech dies down, people will remember this part of the one-hour script, the bit which sung the praises of those who have just got on with the job. No plotting, no ranting, just doing the job within the party - just like they were voted to do.

With a bit of luck, such a namecheck, while leaving the likes of Mrs Anderson 'chuffed' will also serve to show others there are rewards for playing things by the book. Like public respect.