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Commenting after it emerged that children seeking swimming lessons at the Aquadome in Inverness are being told they could face a 1040 day wait, local MP Danny Alexander said: "Every child should have the chance to learn to swim. Swimming is a very important skill in terms of safety, and can [...]

Withdrawing from Afghanistan has for a long time been the obviously right policy, but given that the tide of battle has clearly now turned decisively in favour of the Taliban, this will now be widely perceived at best as making a virtue of necessity and at worst as an early [...]

  On Saturday the West Suffolk Conservative Association chose my successor.   There were six candidates, all of very high quality. At a Constituency Executive meeting two weeks before none had emerged as a particular front runner, so it was all very open. It was [...]

The Tory wobbles and gaffes over the economy, Ashcroft and marriage tax is seized upon by Peter Mandelson and other Cabinet members today. Quotes from Peter M. dropped in my inbox: Peter Mandelson said: “The Conservative leadership’s plans for the economy are far from clear. “In the coming financial year, starting two [...]

Walking down the back of the Speaker’s Chair corridor at 11pm one night last week, I encountered the Speaker. He had just finished sitting in the Chair for an adjournment debate. It is a tradition that, if the Speaker is walking down a corridor, M... [...]

Bad Science Dr Ben ‘Bad Science‘ Goldacre and myself will be at the Oxford Union tonight, for an event on “AIDS denialists, MMR, Homeopaths, Gillian Mckeith, libel laws and the rest of the Daily Mail”. We’re there from 8pm on Monday 1st February, and it’s a free event, so do come along [...]

• Norfolk will get a ninth member of Parliament at the next General Election • The size and shape of almost all Norfolk's Parliamentary constituencies are going to change There will be a General Election this year, which must be held no later than Thursday 3 June 2010. When Parliament dissolves, [...]

• Norfolk MPs co-sign letter to Transport Secretary • MPs call for improvements to county's rail infrastructure SOUTH NORFOLK MP Richard Bacon has joined forces with other Norfolk MPs to call for improvements to the Greater Anglia rail franchise. Norfolk’s eight Members of Parliament were co-signatories to a letter to Transport Secretary [...]

Today marks the 100th anniversary of Labour Exchanges, or jobcentres as we now know them. And 100 years of support for jobseekers and employers.The first Labour Exchange was opened by Winston Churchill on 1st February 1910. In those days, Labour Exchanges had separate entrances for men, women, children [...]

I have today received a letter from Medway Council informing me that the application (MC/09/1078) for the erection of a two storey building to include a hot food take away and 2 one bed flats at the Shell Garage 16-22 London Road has been refused. Thanks to all who [...]

Britain’s Job Centres have plenty to celebrate on their 100th birthday today.  As the Financial Times (no other) reported on Saturday, Job Centre Plus has “come into its own” during the worst global downturn since the 1930s.  One of the reasons unemployment is 450,000 lower than people predicted and much [...]

The more Tory policies are exposed and scrutinised, the quicker they unravel.  Their major muddle now over the economy comes after climate change last week and marriage the week before.  In my policy area they have just announced their 3rd u-turn in a year saying they would use part of the TV [...]

Total number of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 253 A thinly attended House of Commons heard a statement on Afghanistan and the Yemen. The civilised peaceful heaven of the Commons is a world away from the bloodstain hell of chaos of Helmand where two more of our solders were killed [...]

The Democrats' shock defeat in Massachusetts plus the deepening impact of the recession on US jobs and incomes are having a devastating impact on US foreign policy. Having started with a welcome post-Bush drive to conciliate long-standing opponents in an effort to ease [...]

News that Gordon Brown will announce a vote in the Commons on a referendum on electoral reform was welcomed by Loughborough MP today. Andy said "I have long been a supporter of electoral reform and a more proportional voting system. I welcome this chance to put this vote to the people [...]

Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey MP Danny Alexander today received an assurance from Treasury Minister Ian Pearson that he would look again at the Highland Council proposals to ease payments servicing the local authority's housing debt. During today's Treasury questions in the House of Commons Danny reminded the Minister of [...]

The Democrats’ shock defeat in Massachusetts plus the deepening impact of the recession on US jobs and incomes are having a devastating impact on US foreign policy. Having started with a welcome post-Bush drive to conciliate long-standing opponents in an effort to ease tensions where aggressive threatening had [...]

The Foreign Secretary announced the creation of a UN sponsored Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund for Afghanistan. The idea is to give those who are sick of the fighting, and not part of Al-Qaeda, the chance to become part of the new Afghanistan. They will create a fund to pay [...]

There was an unexpected interlude of hilarity yesterday in the otherwise dry-as-dust Work and Pensions Questions, which customarily takes the form of a litany of statistics, each of them grim and each of them concealing hundreds of thousands of untold individual miseries. The senior Conservative, David Heathcoat-Amory, rose to his feet [...]

  Over the weekend I decided that, as a retiring MP, I should absent myself from the selection process in my own constituency. My view was that the day should be for the new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate alone.   In consequence of this I went up [...]