Norris wakes up at last
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0 ust months after his resignation from the post of minister of transport, it appears that Steve Norris has suddenly turned into the trucker's friend.
Although Norris did little to endear himself to the trucking fraternity while in the seat of power, it appears that his thoughts are at least —and at last—turning towards the faraway plight of his lorry driver constituent, Steve Bryant.
The latter, who is nearly three years into his 10-year sentence for drugs smuggling in Tangier jail in Morocco, finally gave up on getting much help from his local MP Norris, apart from a few letters to the Foreign Office, and went on hunger strike at the beginning of last month .
The starvation programme —backed up by demands from Commercial Motor, his Euro MP Hugh Kerr and the pressure group Fair Trials Abroad—has just won important concessions from the Moroccan authorities,
luring Bryant back to his food bowl.
Norris has just decided to get going on the case and the soon-to-be-retired NIP is expected to push for a pardon for his emaciated friend.
Surely he hasn't just woken up to Bryant's plight? Could it be more to do with Norris needing to polish up his image among the road transport fraternity? After all, if Bryant gets out it could prove conveniently close to his installation as the Road Haulage Association's director general in May.