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I am told that there is a new welcome emphasis on the public’s views at Downing Street. They are taking polling more seriously. It was worries by the public about the Health reforms that lies behind the recent decision to consult again and if necessary to change the plans. I trust [...]

KEVIN Brennan MP, is urging businessmen and women in Cardiff West to come forward and demonstrate their entrepeneurial ideas in a bid to scoop a £50,000 prize.The competition is open to existing businesses as well as those who simply have a fantastic new idea and the winner will not [...]

  No party ever prepares for opposition. Even predictable defeats are a shock and a trigger for prolonged misery. Nigel Fisher’s book ‘How to be in opposition’ is a tale of years of arid futility occasionally enlivened by minor triumphs. Heroes of past oppositions are described for our admiration and encouragement. Neil [...]

The £7 Billion Ireland bailout and (potential) £4.8 Billion bailout of Portugal, easily dwarf the £6.2 Billion of painful, deficit-reducing savings we've managed to make over the past year. Coalition ministers say that they were opposed to the last minute deal outgoing Chancellor, Alistair Darling, did to make Britain liable for the Euro 60 Billion [...]

  Once the darling of the middle-of-the-road voters Nick Clegg has had a hideous 48 hours. Anyone can forget a microphone in the pocket,but his comment will return to haunt him. If he is to recover a separate identity for the LibDems his confession  of no differences between the two parties will [...]

                    The Portuguese government has fallen because it was unable to push through yet another austerity package. The  bond market demands ever higher interest rates to lend money to the ailing country. The economy remains mired in poor performance. Now all the talk is of another EU led bail out. [...]

Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): I remind the House that I offer industrial business advice to a Swedish, quoted international industrial group and investment advice to a British investment company. Some Opposition Members have expressed displeasure that Government Members should have mentioned the circumstances in Greece and Portugal. The Opposition rightly [...]

  Former pal and MP Gordon Prentice reports from Canada:  "Michael Thompson, an inventive councillor in Toronto, has claimed $300 expenses to cover the cost of a pastor  “blessing his workplace” at City Hall. His office is blessed at the start of every new Council term. Even Westminster’s most ingenious and resourceful [...]

                Reform have produced a sensible pamphlet entitled “Off balance” prior to the Budget. Unlike many commentaries about the last five years it agrees with this website that large errors made by Central Banks and Banking Regulators in leading western economies caused the violent boom and bust cycle. It was [...]

Delyn MP David Hanson attended the launch of a new book chronicling the history of Caerwys. Over...

Delyn MP David Hanson attended the launch of a new book chronicling the history of Caerwys.   Over 100 local residents crammed into the Town Hall to get their free copy of ‘Caerwys- a History Since Victorian Times’ by Dr Tim Erasmus   Around the Town Hall there was a display of the most [...]

I awoke to the BBC revealing some of the details from 1979-80 from the Thatcher archive. As always, and as then, the talk was about the cuts not working. If they cared to look back at the figures, they would see that in her first year in office Margaret Thatcher’s [...]

On 18 October 2010 Alan Johnson gave his first major speech as Shadow Chacellor at KPMG in central London ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review. The full text of the speech is below.    Check Against Delivery Alistair Darling took this country through the most devastating global economic crisis since the Great Depression. [...]

                The Euro crisis has not been resolved. It is a rolling crisis, a series of accidents and market falls, often made worse by rows around the Council of Ministers table or by unfortunate and diverse spin from member states governments.               This week Portugal and the markets have returned to [...]

                       I have been involved in turning round companies that had too much borrowing, too little cash and too big a running deficit.  When a new team goes in to save them, everything in the first few months is designed to stem the outflow of cash. You first have to [...]

               On this site I last reported  public spending up 11% in cash terms in November 2010 compared with the same month a year earlier. I pointed out that the average increase was a more modest 7% from May 2010.  November was a particularly expensive month.               It is good news [...]

Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): I, like my right hon. and hon. Friends, welcome the two aims of this legislation. The first, to hold a referendum on any future transfer of power, is vital to try to secure some democratic legitimacy for what might happen next. The second, to assert [...]

               I was intrigued to see criticism of the BBC for running endless stories of cuts in public spending. However, I also recollect that last summer and autumn I was a very lonely voice pointing out that the government plans to increase current public spending in cash terms every year [...]

                Every year that Labour was in power they announced a clampdown on avoidance and evasion of tax. Every year more complicated provisions were put into Finance Acts to make it more difficult for people to evade tax (illegal), and to make more avoidance schemes (legal) into illegal devices. You [...]

Delyn MP David Hanson is urging his constituents today to save money on their household gas and...

Delyn MP David Hanson is urging his constituents today to save money on their household gas and electricity bills and reduce their carbon emissions by taking up the energy efficiency measures that energy companies in the UK offer. Following an agreement with the government in September 2008, the major energy [...]

  A bracing start to a Sunday Morning. The splendid BBC Wales Politics show 'Sunday Supplement' began with a forensic probe into the Big Society. They chose a great point to start by playing this from this week's PASC meeting.\   Q138 Paul Flynn:  Every idea that you’ve come up with has been [...]