They Blog For You

I WAS as intrigued as everyone else at the prospect of Charlie Kennedy crossing the floor and joining Labour. Setting aside my obvious tribal motivation, that’s the kind of drama that political anoraks thrive upon. But it was not to be. Not only was it not to be, it became quite [...]

The link is to a Panorama programme tonight about a family court case.This case was unusual because the Ward's were allowed to get a second opinion. Normally the parents are refused a second opinion and lose the case.It should also be noted that quite large expert fees are [...]

When US troops left Iraq recently, some were criticised heavily for saying “We won”. It wasn’t that kind of war. The understandable wish of young people in a dangerous job to claim their presence had been worth it, the soldier’s [...]

There is something of the Nimby in all of us. As an MP I am very conscious that in many cases I am expected to be chief Nimby, to come to the aid of those who want to save a [...]

On my first day back behind my desk I have just sat through the most extraordinarily compelling set of presentations on the England 2018 bid. The FIFA inspection team are in town to do their report on the technical aspects of the bid and I was part of the team [...]

I TOOK part in The Westminster Hour on Radio 4 this evening. You can listen to it here. Clegg's staff were quietly relieved that it was a radio, not a TV, interview The programme was dominated by Carolyn Quinn’s interview with Nick Clegg, during which she quizzed him on the future of [...]

Which political party members are smiling after 100 days of coalition? The answer is a bit of a surprise. The Tories have gorged on the Daily Mail diet of low hanging fruit. It will turn nauseous on them. Yes there is applause in scrapping speed cameras as part of the armistice [...]

Delighted to see that the Mail on Sunday reads my blog. Incidentally, when doing the newspaper review on Sky this morning with Polly Toynbee, I was struck by the fact she (and I) seemed to draw most of our stories [...]

IT’S ODD that Fraser Nelson, who has been around the Commons for a long time, should get it so wrong in his latest News of the World column: When Charlie turns up late for Commons debates (i.e. most days) and can’t find a seat, he usually toddles off to the [...]

Latest evidence indicates that the Government realises (but won’t tell us) that Britain faces, not just the most horrendous public spending cuts since the last World War 70 years ago, but also a painful and costly recovery if and when it finally materialises.   Secret talks with the oil industry [...]

TODAY’S Sunday Times has details (paywall) of the autopsy of David Kelly following the weapon inspector’s death in July 2003: The pathologist who did the autopsy on David Kelly has broken his silence to reveal how the scientist died and says it was a “textbook case” of suicide. Nicholas Hunt says [...]

There is a three letter word the BBC and others does not wish to mention – tax. The main reason Mr Rudd, the previous Labour PM lost his job, was higher taxes. Parliament and people disliked his higher taxes and [...]

Each year the state spends on average £10,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. The idea of public accountability, democracy and more transparency over how public bodies spend your moeny is that you [...]

Total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 332 What a pathetic defence. Under friendly fire in Bristol, Clegg defended the Liberal Democrats' record in government, claiming the party was pushing for fairer policies, for example, the restoration of the earnings link for state pensions from next April. It was said [...]

This is another case of an adoption that reverses as soon as the children get old enough. There will be a lot more of these. [...]

KEEP it tasteful, folks. [...]

The sudden withdrawal of the Guernsey tax exile, David Rowland, from taking up his appointment as Tory Party treasurer shows there is just a glimmer of political concern in the Tory High Command about the iniquities of massive tax avoidance.    Not much, though.   The appointment of Sir Philip Green, that [...]

Polling shows that today’s Australian election is a neck-and-neck contest between Labor and the centre-right Liberal Party. Even if Tony Abbott, the Liberal leader, doesn’t quite make it to become Australia’s next Prime Minister, this has been a striking turnabout for him [...]

Labour’s big change in transport policy was to increase the amount of subsidy going to the railways substantially, whilst cutting back the amount spent on roads. We received little by way of new railway line or roads during the last thirteen years, [...]

The US  retreat from Iraq silently under cover of night says it all.   But there are painful lessons, wholly contrary to the spin, which Western opinion (and particularly US opinion) needs to learn but will find hard to swallow.  For almost everything about this catastrophe was wrong from start to [...]