They Blog For You

  Tony Blair has never had a secure grip on reality. While he was swanning around the world in the General Election 2010 I was on the doorstep for five weeks talking to voters. They raised many issues, immigration, NHS, ‘scroungers’, global warming, jobs, and the credit crunch. No one mentioned ‘New [...]

THE VOTES have been counted and I’m chuffed to bits to have maintained the top position in the MPs’ category of the Total Politics Top Blog Awards 2010. This is despite some serious competition from (among many others) John Redwood, Douglas Carswell, Tom Watson, Lynne Featherstone and Kerry McCarthy. So, thank you [...]

Here’s a release from the Media Standards Trust: The Media Standards Trust today, Friday 3rd September, gives its full support to calls for a judicial inquiry into the allegations of phone-hacking at the News of the World. Tom Watson MP, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, [...]

Here’s my letter to the Met police: [...]

No fan of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), I do, however, believe that Parliament needs an external regulator.  That external regulator is called the voter. In order to ensure that the voter can do their job properly, there needs to be transparency so that folk can see what [...]

CAROLINE Lucas, the Green MP, has announced she will be tabling an amendment to the AV Referendum Bill to allow more “PR” options to the question. Next Left, inevitably, is calling on Labour to support Lucas’s, or a similar, motion. Fat chance. What’s fascinating , however, is that, since full proportional representation [...]

Coulsongate is throwing some very important light into a very murky area.   It now seems clear that the police knew that the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and the News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman had illegally intercepted the voicemail messages of many more politicians, sportsmen, celebrities and others [...]

Sorry that I've been a bit quiet on the blog this week. There was the bank holiday of course and since then I've been preparing myself for the return of Parliament next Monday. I missed out on saying "pinch, punch ..." Can you believe it's September already? What's that they [...]

Both the USA and the EU need to create more private sector jobs. In both the American and European continents unemployment is too high. Tax revenues are depressed and social expenditures large as a result. Both the [...]

      A blissful day of cleansing sunshine. A trip to rural Leicestershire to meet Labour Party idealists was the perfect way to rinse the poison of Blair's treachery out of my mind. In his interview with Andrew Marr, he revelled in boasting that he abused his office to sabotage Labour Party [...]

David Cameron is taking paternity leave so I’ve sent the attached letter to Deputy PM, Nick Clegg. This episode needs clearing up, once and for all. [...]

WAS a government special adviser involved in illegal and systematic tapping of private individuals’ phones? If the answer is yes, he will be sacked, then probably jailed. According to today’s Guardian (and the New York Times), Andy Coulson… “actively encouraged” a named reporter to engage in the illegal interception of voicemail messages. The [...]

Who said this: “If governments don’t tackle deficits, the bill is footed by taxpayers, who fear big deficits now mean big taxes in the future, the prospect of which reduces confidence, investment and purchasing power.   This then increases the risk of a prolonged slump”?   No, it wasn’t Cameron or Osborne.   [...]

The link is to the BBC story which includes the text:The UK should have addressed its public deficit back in 2005, former Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the BBC.Speaking to Andrew Marr, Mr Blair said: "We should probably have taken a tougher fiscal position than we did."He said that [...]

Aylesbury MP David Lidington is urging the local community to get involved in the sixth annual Countryside Alliance Awards, which are now open to public nomination.  Everyone who supports rural businesses, produce, and communities is strongly encouraged to nominate their favourites, and to help the South of England claim another [...]

THE FRONT page splash in today’s Times is a truly bewildering choice when there’s so much actual, proper news going on elsewhere. “Hawking: God did not create Universe” it reports (£). So what? Admittedly, Hawking is dead brainy and everything, but why on earth are his opinions on religious matters so [...]

Mark Thompson, head honcho at the BBC, has admitted that the BBC has had a left wing bias.  Progress. While refreshing to hear Mr T say what the rest of us have known for years, to fix the problem, it is important to grasp the nature of the BBC’s [...]

It’s not a topic I wanted to write about. I have studiously ignored the rumours and stories circulating on other websites and at a fairly empty Westminster. Today I cannot ignore it, as Mr Hague himself has issued an unusual statement and has invited [...]

I have refrained from commenting much on the Labour leadership. I have always thought it a two person race between the brothers. David is clearly the front runner, but I just feel Ed might steal it, given his sharper movement to the [...]

Let us suppose Mr Hawking does now have a full explanation from the laws of physics of how the Big Bang created the planets and stars as we now see them. Some scientists will assert that the job is done, and they now [...]