| 1 | 1 | | John Carlisle is the sort of man you might just notice in an empty room. He is the |
| 2 | | sitting member of parliament for Luton North and, without wishing to be rude to Luton |
| 3 | | North, is the perfect chap for the job. For if his constituency were to be somehow made |
| 4 | | flesh it would walk around looking very much like John Russell Carlisle. |
| 2 | 5 | | This is an obvious disadvantage for a member of a ruling party which has a surfeit |
| 6 | | of smart grey suits and blue ties in its ranks. An MP must make his mark: he must catch |
| 7 | | the eye of the speaker, of the government, of the party managers and of the press. If you |
| 8 | | are simply the leader of Luton’s Conservatives, it is not easy. |
| 3 | 9 | | The common solution to the problem, which Carlisle has grabbed with a rare |
| 10 | | enthusiasm, is monomania, the obsession with a single idea or interest. The member must |
| 11 | | then talk about it until his gizzard goes grey. In the case of Geoffrey Dickens MP it is |
| 12 | | paedophilia, with Tam Dalyell it is battleships of a foreign flag and in Clare Short's case |
| 13 | | it is pornography. For John Carlisle the idée fixe is sport and polities. |
| 4 | 14 | | Carlisle had a false start in choosing his obsession. In 1981 he launched a political |
| 15 | | campaign of the most devastating order against East European vacuum cleaners which |
| 16 | | he felt were competing unfairly in British markets. He may have had a point, but he also |
| 17 | | had the good sense to perceive that vacuum cleaners were not an issue of moment. So he |
| 18 | | moved on to his latest fixation, a subject which could not be more topical or, if you prefer, |
| 19 | | a topic which could not be more subjective. |
| 5 | 20 | | Carlisle, 44, believes that all sporting links with South Africa should be reinstated |
| 21 | | and that in general sport and politics should not be associated with each other. This view |
| 22 | | does not go down well in Britain's universities and Carlisle has been pelted, kicked and |
| 23 | | jostled on campuses as far apart as Oxford and Bradford. His argument is this: what on |
| 24 | | earth does a Test match with South Africa have to do with apartheid? And why does the |
| 25 | | Commonwealth have to suffer because of Britain's failure to implement sanctions? |
| 6 | 26 | | During our conversation last week a familiar inconsistency emerged. He produced |
| 27 | | the rusty idea that sportsmen convert each other and are really propagandists for |
| 28 | | tolerance. 'H's much better to keep channels open', he said. "The athletes meet and talk |
| 29 | | and exchange ideas.' Surely this is politics entering sport and should thus be condemned. |
| 7 | 30 | | Anyway, I have never believed this business of sportsmen converting each other. |
| 31 | | Here are two rugby players conversing as they scrum down in the manner that Carlisle |
| 32 | | must imagine: |
| 8 | 33 | | 'Hi, Pieter. I'm Roger. I wonder if you’ve ever thought about our democracy. H's |
| 34 | | really very good coz everyone has a vote and you get to say what you want without being |
| 35 | | bullwhipped by the special police.' |
| 9 | 36 | | 'Well, Roger. You've really got a point there, I'll have a word with PW1) when I'm |
| 37 | | next in Pretoria.' |
| 10 | 38 | | Oddly Carlisle did support the boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games, so his |
| 39 | | passion for sport is not always the priority. |
| 11 | 40 | | Although he insists apartheid is bad, he appears to take a lenient attitude towards |
| 41 | | South Africa. He maintains his own dialogue with the South African embassy in London. |
| 42 | | He is secretary of the British South Africa Society and he often visits the country in |
| 43 | | pursuit of his ideas. One trip has been paid for by the South Africans. Even for Mrs |
| 44 | | Thatcher, Carlisle must still be an embarrassment. |
| | | |
| | | Henry Porter in The Sunday Times, July 27, 1986 |
noot 1: PW: P.W. Botha, Prime Minister of South Africa in 1986
