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Tonight I have been asked to talk to a group of Economists about the state of the UK economy. I will start by praising David Cameron’s stated aim of creating conditions for a strong private sector [...]

THE LEADER of the House, Sir George Young, when challenged about the Future Jobs Fund: Interesting distinction.

THE LEADER of the House, Sir George Young, when challenged about the Future Jobs Fund: Interesting distinction. [...]

If a week is a long time in politics, then a full five year parliament is an eternity. In the immediate aftermath of the 2010 General Election, commentators speculated that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government wouldn’t last; that this marriage of convenience would crumble under the pressure of tough decisions [...]

Daniel Hannan and I have a joint piece on the Guardian site today. It argues that the Orange Book Lib Dems and the Direct Democracy Tories could be more radical together than they might be apart.  "A generational opportunity to fuse Conservative [...]

A day after the killing by Israeli commandos of 10 activists on a flotilla in international waters carrying aid and supplies to Gaza, universal condemnation (with the notable exception of the US) of the Israeli action as neither proportionate nor necessary must now be superseded by a fundamental change of [...]

THE GREAT post-election panic is on. Whips of all parties are regularly seen in huddled, hushed conversations with anxious MPs. Bits of paper are exchanged in either direction. The whip offers a consoling, or occasionally encouraging, squeeze of his colleague’s arm or a pat on the shoulder, then they separate with [...]

The scales have fallen off the eyes of the self-righteous. A Lib-Dem spokeswomen on breakfast television today announced that the Daily Telegraph has a ‘political agenda’. How perceptive. Until now she has failed to notice the absence of a Telegraph headline saying, ‘Up your wisteria, Mr. Cameron’ or ‘Why Housing Benefit for Tory millionaires Osborne [...]

THE GREAT Repeal Act will, according to the Lord High Teamaker to the First Lord of the Treasury, make universal suffrage look like a superficial bit of public relations. And among the many radical changes we can expect to see in Clegg’s flagship Bill is a limit on the spread of [...]

I met up with Nicholas Graham Smith (who became involved with the Hampstead Hospice because of his wife's tragic death) and Deborah Wolton (author of a book on Hampstead Heath walks) to support and promote 'The Hampstead Hug''. This is a walk for charity on Hampstead Heath (two choices - 2.5 [...]

In opposition the Conservatives were sympathetic to the idea that the Treasury needs a more dynamic model to forecast the consquences of changes in tax rates. Many in the debate over CGT rates seem to still believe that higher [...]

Please find below the letter that I received from the Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond MP, to my letter dated 13th May. [...]

RATHER ill-advisedly, I kicked off a small debate among my Twitter followers this morning on the subject of Labour’s leadership election and the criticism MPs have been getting for offering the wider party too narrow a choice. I suggested that even if we have only three candidates – two Milibands and [...]

The link is to a post by Craig Murray who used to be the UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan.He makes the interesting point that Turkish vessels have been attacked by a non-member of NATO and that Nato's prime function is a military alliance established to defend its members against attack.It raises [...]

Firstly, my apologies for not posting anything on here for a while. The last few weeks have been unusual to say the least. I have no idea where May has disappeared to and now we're into June. We're gradually adjusting here in Parliament to being the opposition [...]

Over the last couple of weeks I've had the pleasure of going to two events that really highlighted some of Edmonton's bright and talented school children.The first was a "spelling bee" competition arranged for Enfield primary schools by a local independent charity organisation called Action for Social Integration. It [...]

Total number of British Soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 290 Could I come to love the coalition? It’s been a lonely thankless task trying to persuade parliament that New Nuclear is an expensive unaffordable mistake. I had had a debate exposing the vast insurance liability that has been dumped on taxpayers. The world’s only New Nuclear station [...]

According to Sony, in five years there'll be more ebook sales than conventional book sales.Given the success of the e-version of The Plan, I can well understand.... [...]

“DON’T let the coalition crush Democracy Village” writes Alison Banville in The Staggers blog today. what might our politicians find so threatening about Democracy Village? Let me see… perhaps the fact that they are prominently protesting against the war in Afghanistan (which all the main parties support) and [...]

The two current big environmental disasters say it all.   BP has contaminated huge stretches of the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana, and now its shares have lost a third of their value (a fall of $40bn), the company is subject to an ‘aggressive’ criminal investigation led by the US [...]

Back to work with a vengeance. Meetings on arts funding, the schools olympics, using 2012 to boost tourism and our plans for local TV and superfast broadband. One thing is very clear: it is incredibly helpful to be running a department you have shadowed in opposition for two years. I [...]