Sheryl Mcintosh's Blog: Frank Field - an odd fish but perhaps a great one?

So, whilst I can be thankful that Mr Field has resigned from Labour and kept the anti-Semitism stories in the papers, it does not stop him being a strange man indeed.

There is a common thing in the House of Parliament that anyone who has served a long-time is judged to be an elder statesman, no matter what there record. Even Dennis Skinner and Bill Cash get treated as living saints - god forbid even Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Field has had as his cause for many a year the welfare state and needs of those who use it. It is truly an honourable endeavour - one that he shares with Iain Duncan-Smith.

Yet Mr Field, for a Labour politician has some odd views indeed. he is anti-immigration and pro-brexit. He admitted to admiring Margaret Thatcher. In this way he is perhaps a glorious, champion of the real working class - which is why he stands out so badly now in the Islington middle-classs communist phase that Labour is going through.

Even more interesting for Mr Field, is that Blair challenged him to think the unthinkable. So unthinkable were his recommendations on welfare that Blair fired him with no intention of listening to him anymore. David Cameron, in his Blair copying ways, hired Field to show he was inclusive. With the same result, his ideas got him fired by Cameron too.

So whilst Field will be celebrated as this great thinker, the truth is he is a man unable to persuade the Government to enact his reforms - so perhaps a failure. But here are his main 5 ideas:

- Scrap means testing for benefits as it does not stack up on a cost/benefit analysis
- Use non-state Friendly societies to get people to work together to improve their lot and reduce the role of the state
- Reduce non-contributory benefits that encourage idleness
- Use different measures to assess life chances to channel funding support to the most underprivileged families
- Increase sure start centre support to help the worst of families bring up their kids

When you look at that, no wonder Brown hated him as Brown wanted everyone on the teat of the state to generate the welfare vote and Cameron was non-plused with ideas about increasing spending during the austerity years.

However, all of those ideas are good ones and better that what we have now - damn shame his career will be remembered only for it ineffectiveness and for the fact he himself nominated Jeremy Corbyn!