Glenda Jackson

I first became aware of Glenda Jackson in 1966 when I saw Peter Brook's production of the play known as Marat/Sade. Although she had a minor part there was a stage presence and I was not surprised to be able to follow her subsequent stellar career. I also became a huge admirer when she decided to leave her acting career and become an MP. She appeared to do this for all the right reasons and I naively expected at the time that her political career would also be glittering.

How wrong I was, and it is a sad and cautionary tale is it not about the way our political system drains energy. Who would be more likely to get a political soundbite - Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Gerri Halliwell or Glenda Jackson? It's a rhetorical question.

Glenda Jackson has probably been a very good MP. I believe she was given some junior portfolio in Blair's early government and then put forward as a stop-Livingstone candidate. After that, she appeared to have no more usefulness to the governing class and appears to have faded. This is one illustration of how the "system" makes very poor use of talent. It is not the system of paying expenses that is rotten but the system of making MPs semi-redundant.

It is no surprise of course that she has been scrupulous about her expenses. It is what I would expect of a principled person.