They Blog For You

I just did an interview on the Daily Politics about public spending cuts - and why the government was actually finding it rather more difficult to curb spending than the rhetoric suggests. It is a mathematical fact that total public spending is actually set to rise from £669 Billion in the last year of Labour, to a projected £740 Billion [...]

The link is to Yesterday's bill of rights debates.There is no sense me copying the whole of the debate here. You can simply click on the linkThe issues looked at are:1. Freedom of speech2. Super and hyper-injunctions3. People's right to talk to MPs4. The lack of accountability of the [...]

Public spending is still going up by 6% a year, though there are plenty  of discussions about cuts. One of the reasons is the surge in interest payments we now have to make, as so much has been borrowed in the last couple of years. It makes controlling the deficit all [...]

I have been contacted about my comments in parliament today. My response is: "It is a legally complex situation and I am not saying anything outside parliamentary proceedings".On the wider question, however. I would say:"I am concerned about two things. Firstly the development of a law of privacy [...]

  On March 3rd, the Public Administration Select Committee heard from Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude. here are a selection on uncorrected exchanges. Tremble for the future of the country.     Q194  Paul Flynn: I think I feel inspired by this born‑again socialism that we are hearing this morning.  You do not believe in [...]

On Friday I put my name down as a co-signatory of an Early Day Motion on the reforms to the NHS. My mindset is not completely stuck in the mud; I do welcome change and evolution and even reform, but not just for the sake of it, and not if [...]

Downing Street has been beefed up with a Policy and Implementation team. It's intended to ensure that what the PM wants to happen actually happens. Maybe.Perhaps what really needs to happen is that the Treasury needs splitting into two? Leave a rump Finance Ministry behind, and transfer [...]

Since the General Election the political debate has understandably focused on the economy. But on May 5th we will all be voting about whether to change the voting system to the Alternative Vote, a proposal that I believe would massively reduce the accountability of members of [...]

Several times over the past year or so, I’ve suggested (here and here and here and here) that the biggest problem for any Cameron-led government was going to be the civil service. It’s good to see the commentariat starting to see this.  Even ministers now clock the fact that they might "pull the levers, but nothing happens".  [...]

How do you stop a politician driven by whim or fixation from foisting on his party, his government and the nation profound and fundamental changes to a deeply cherished institution that almost nobody wants and which were never even mentioned in the party’s manifesto?   They weren’t mentioned either in the [...]

The Coalition Government has launched a ground-breaking website, www.police.uk, which provides data maps that show crime statistics at a street-by-street level.  This means that everyone can see exactly what crime is happening and where it is going on in the local area. The interactive map breaks down incidences of crime into six categories: [...]

First it was British MPs and their expenses. Then US diplomats and their wikileaks. Now perhaps it'll be Middle East tyrants and their lack of legitimacy. All around, we can see how digital technology brings hyper accountability. By CD, memory stick, twitter and email, digital technology breaks [...]

Four breakdowns in the last three days all point to the same central flaw which is now endemic in British society.   Public order policing is out of control and clearly would have remained so for many years had not the undercover police spy Mark Kennedy gone native.    Phone hacking of public figures [...]

Thye Chilcot Inquiry seems to be getting near the truth about the lead-up to the Iraq War (nearly 8 years on after the event), but there are certain profound constitutional questions which even it may not answer, perhaps not even raise.   The most profound is: how should the State hold [...]

MoD has run out of money again, so it would seem. Alas, we shouldn't be surprised. As long as we continue to allow a handful of powerful defence contractors to carve up the budget, there will never be enough.Labour's Defence Industrial Strategy deliberately restricts the range of companies [...]

There are many other disturbing issues about PC Mark Kennedy’s 10-year under-cover rampage against environmental activists than whether he slept with a number of female participants to gain information.   Perhaps the most obvious one, which seems to have gone unremarked on so far, is how it is justified for the police, given the pressure on resources [...]

             Today we will debate Parliamentary sovereignty. In truth, it should be called popular sovereignty. If Parliament can make and unmake laws, raise taxes and spend them without interference from the EU or judges, then the people are sovereign, because they can dismiss the Parliament in elections and influence it [...]

The appearance of Bob Diamond this week in front of the Treasury Committee should be explosive.   There are two issues.   Do the bankers see themselves as an elite who are not subject to the rules and constraints that the rest of society have to abide by?   And are the bankers willing [...]

David Cameron has criticized Whitehall's spending culture. Commenting on how officials were looking at ways to spend, rather than save, money, the Prime Minister declared "Frankly, it's a culture that needs to change and we are going to change it."At the same time, Francis Maude is looking to curb the [...]

  All hail PASC! The splendidly independent Public Administration Committee that frequently challenged the Labour Government is now taking on the Tories. Today's exposure of the futility of the promised savings from the Bonfire of the Quangos is splendid evidence of the value of independently minded select committees. We say  that the coalition [...]