They Blog For You

Having been bailed out after their unprecedented greed and recklessness by the State at a cost so far of some £850bn (59% of Britain’s entire GDP), the banks are now sending the most provocative signal they can that they don’t care a fig about government, society or public opinion – [...]

This week Westminster has been preoccupied by possible changes in the voting system. The bill to give the people a referendum vote [...]

Hugh Richard's funeral service was in  Hereford Crematorium today.  The tributes were touching and inspiring. it was wonderful to see again friends from the Nuclear Free Wales campaign of 1980-81. So many are still engaged in the environmental movement. Some have massively contributed to the widening understanding of the perilous [...]

A leading newspaper on Sunday had a most interesting Appointments Section. Out have gone all the additional public sector roles we became used to under Gordon Brown’s Labour government. Out have gone most of the eye catching public sector salaries higher than [...]

The original script for the new government was radical reform of education and steady as you go for the NHS. Mr Gove spoke with racy and fervent language of the new schools he wished to allow. Mr Lansley spoke more quietly about the [...]

The deal on offering us a referendum on AV was cooked up by politicians seeking to cobble together a coalition to gain them power. Hardly new politics. The plebiscite is not being offered to us on the basis of high principle, or as a consequence of careful consideration on [...]

Apparently those wicked speculators have been at it again. Not content with bringing the banking system down by sellling shares in banks that were just going through a slightly dificult time, they are now driving the price of wheat up so the poor [...]

Yesterday I was talking to a former Labour Minister. He reminded me of the strength of the Blairite view that politics was changed fundamentally by the advent of “the 7 x 24 news cycle”. It was change in the media, they argued, [...]

THE VOTES have been counted and I’m chuffed to bits to have maintained the top position in the MPs’ category of the Total Politics Top Blog Awards 2010. This is despite some serious competition from (among many others) John Redwood, Douglas Carswell, Tom Watson, Lynne Featherstone and Kerry McCarthy. So, thank you [...]

CAROLINE Lucas, the Green MP, has announced she will be tabling an amendment to the AV Referendum Bill to allow more “PR” options to the question. Next Left, inevitably, is calling on Labour to support Lucas’s, or a similar, motion. Fat chance. What’s fascinating , however, is that, since full proportional representation [...]

Both the USA and the EU need to create more private sector jobs. In both the American and European continents unemployment is too high. Tax revenues are depressed and social expenditures large as a result. Both the [...]

It’s not a topic I wanted to write about. I have studiously ignored the rumours and stories circulating on other websites and at a fairly empty Westminster. Today I cannot ignore it, as Mr Hague himself has issued an unusual statement and has invited [...]

I have refrained from commenting much on the Labour leadership. I have always thought it a two person race between the brothers. David is clearly the front runner, but I just feel Ed might steal it, given his sharper movement to the [...]

Let us suppose Mr Hawking does now have a full explanation from the laws of physics of how the Big Bang created the planets and stars as we now see them. Some scientists will assert that the job is done, and they now [...]

A former Director General has stated that the BBC did have a “massive bias to the left”, He admits that many BBC journalists struggled to understand Margaret Thatcher’s popularity with many voters, refused to see Euroscepticism as a serious political position and [...]

SIX months after launching this blog in March 2008, I was chuffed beyond reason to be voted top Scottish blog in the Total Politics Blog Awards that year. Now I’ve scooped the top spot for the third year running. Although I try to be blasé about this sort of thing, there’s [...]

Tony Blair was right about Gordon Brown. Today we have confirmation of the bitterness and disagreements at the top of the Blair government. All that spinning and all those stories turn out to have been well founded. [...]

One of the surprises of recent months has been the emergence of proposals for substantial change in the way the NHS is managed. They emerged gradually and quietly in Opposition, in contrast to the Education changes which were well heralded. [...]

There may be delays in moderation over the bank holiday owing to my schedule. Worry not – things will appear shortly afterwards.

There may be delays in moderation over the bank holiday owing to my schedule. Worry not – things will appear shortly afterwards. [...]

The waning morale-sapped band of Tory bloggers jerked themselves into mildly abusive mode about NHS Direct. It must be party loyalty. Checking with the company I had today, I found nothing but praise. A surprising number of people have used the service. The frequently repeated adjective was ‘reassuring.’ Several people told of anxiety lifted after a telephone [...]