They Blog For You

Yesterday Conservative MPs held the first Economic affairs backbench committee meeting which I have been elected to chair. As early twilight descended on a Westminster preoccupied by the start of the summer recess we discussed the future economic agenda. [...]

One of the worst features of Labour’s regime was the proliferation of bodies that send out glossy brochures paid for by the taxpayer. The brochures got glossier, more numerous and often more vacuous as the Labour years went on. I [...]

FOR the disappointed masses who missed my appearance tonight on Newsnight Scotland, here it is. The main point of contention between me and LibDem MP Jo Swinson was the timing of the referendum which the government wants to hold on the same day as the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly [...]

Chloe Smith MP has today called for Norwich residents to nominate a group of inspirational young people to receive the Philip Lawrence Award. The national and widely regarded award will be given to a group of young people aged 11 to 20 who have made a difference in their community [...]

Total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 325Hard to believe but one cynic has suggested that I made up the Creole 'rats in the rafters' proverb quoted on yesterday's blog. For greater accuracy here is the description of Daily Telegraph journalists in its original language.Sa wat ka dit [...]

As the nomination period for the Labour Leadership contest ends with David Miliband taking 165 CLP nominations to his brother’s 147 with the others far behind, and the prospect of a new era opens up, one sentence reported from the Mandelson memoirs came forcibly to mind about why this hadn’t [...]

Talking of extending the range of sport on offer to young people - which is part of the Body Confidence project - last night I attended the launch dinner of the Women's World Rugby Cup. This worldwide tournament is taking place from mid-August to mid September in Surrey - and [...]

Today, especially if you're a Londoner, it probably won't have escaped your notice that there are exactly two years to go until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. I met with Olympic Gold medallist Jonathan Edwards in Parliament to mark the '2 Years To [...]

WHEN I was a reporter on the Paisley Daily Express in 1989, I was asked to track down the writer of an award-winning children’s TV programme, Press Gang, who happened to live in the town. I called Steven Moffat, introduced myself and he invited me up to his flat for [...]

Our current electoral system isn’t working.   Rather than allowing voters to determine the composition of the Commons, often it is the party machines that decide who gets to be an MP. Not merely undemocratic, the system we have currently helps explain why the Commons [...]

I’M DISAPPOINTED in Jeremy Hunt. His announcement that the licence fee might be cut is nothing more than a sop to the right wing obsessives in his party whose hatred for the BBC is second only to their hatred of the EU. Cutting the fee makes absolutely not a jot of [...]

I TOOK a short break with the family recently and we headed westwards to Devon. Having been raised in a semi-rural part of Ayrshire, I feel entirely comfortable living in the countryside. Carolyn? Not so much, to be honest. She’s a city girl through and through and the country air [...]

Yesterday in the Commons we witnessed the new unholy alliance between Labour and the one Green MP to try to limit the freedom. The discussion was about the rights of schools and Headteachers under the new Academies legislation. It was intriguing to [...]

The most remarkable, and disturbing, aspect about the simultaneous release today of 92,000 internal records of US military actions in Afghanistan to the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times is how blind, complacent, negligent or sycophantic the US (and other Western) media have been over a 6-year period [...]

Keep lying is the message from the US/UK apologists for the pointless slaughter in Afghanistan. The vast heap of unpalatable truths have been flung into the international debates of lies. It should be a cleansing process. The US Ministry of Lies  condemns the messenger for putting the soldiers at risk. Have [...]

Today I was made aware of some very appalling statistics regarding homes of a decent standard, or not as the case may be, in Enfield. The borough has a total of 11,357 homes in its social housing stock. This isn't a great deal and explains why so many [...]

I was just about to provide you with the link so you could listen to my appearance on LBC last Wednesday night, in case you missed it, but it appears that you have to sign in and pay for the privilege so I think I'll have to give that a [...]

We might elect politicians promising to tackle asylum abuses.  They may even get around to trying to do something about it. But then today the judiciary steps to say fast-track deportation is illegal. Even if [...]

KEVIN Brennan MP has continued his National Busking Campaign by appearing on BBC Wales' Roy Noble show to promote busking in our towns and cities.The Cardiff West MP recently tabled an Early Day Motion to push for a National Busking Day and for local authorities to develop designated busking zones [...]

Many of us think that carbon monoxide poisoning only happens overseas. Perhaps recent high profile cases of British youngsters dying abroad have helped to reinforce this idea. Sadly, this is not the case. People die of carbon monoxide poisoning in the UK, including Wokingham. Tragically, a young woman, [...]