They Blog For You

The political elite in SW1 are out of touch with the public on law and order, according to the Sunday Telegraph.  In a poll commissioned by Lord Ashcroft, 47 percent of voters think that no party has the right approach. [...]

  The Newport Chartists would have said ‘Yes’ to AV. It was in my constituency in 1839 that 20 Chartists were gunned down. They were marching for democracy. All the points of their Charter were achieved – except annual parliaments.  They were impassioned because of the gross injustices of the franchise of [...]

Apparently there is to be no deal with defecting Gaddafi henchman, Mr Moussa Koussa. Strange.  I thought HMG had been cutting deals with him and his ilk for much of the past decade.  [...]

It’s difficult to get excited about the AV referendum.   It will probably be won not because of the merits of the AV system, not even because most people necessarily understand what it means, but because by 5 May the Tories, who are campaigning hard for a ‘no’ vote, will be very unpopular.   However, [...]

Isn't that convenient?  Facemasks might mean arrests in future, In particular at the royal wedding - apart from bridal veils.. Any other attempt to disguises features will prove guilt and offenders will be thrown into the slammer. Soft cop on Saturday will be hard cop for the nuptials. The reactions of the [...]

It's almost exactly a decade ago I first proposed the idea of directly elected police chiefs, in my pamphlet Direct Democracy: empowering people to make their lives better.This week the primary legislation to make it happen comes before the House of Commons. I've rarely been quite so keen to vote [...]

Why didn't I think of that? It was such a strange question that I had never given it a thought. Aled ap Dafydd asked me on the Welsh Politics Show today, 'Why did AV in Australia double the number of voters who spoil their ballot papers?.' I do not believe they [...]

Last week, on two separate occasions, I asked both the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, questions about Libya and the Middle East.The situation in Libya has progressed a lot over the weekend so my question is somewhat redundant now, but I wanted reassurance from the [...]

The mood in the Commons was sober, worried, passive and resigned – not welcoming the dawn of a new era in the Middle East, but fearful that this could be the start of a third, long Western war against a Muslim state.    A bloodbath in Benghazi had been avoided in [...]

The news from Fukushima is dreadful. But some of the honeyed words and contrived deception persists. 'Smoke' is reported from an unknown source. No radiation measure is published. There is no smoke without fire. Here there is smoke without a radiation leak. What is burning? Spent fiercely contaminated fuel rods are [...]

  The Guardian listed me as one of the only four MPs who are opposed to the UN decision on the 'no-fly zone.' They have been misinformed. I have made no comment either way, publicly or privately. I feel conflicted about the decision but on balance I am in favour. This is [...]

  Tomorrow will the day from hell for the coalition.There are likely to be statements on Japan and Libya. The indefensible Prince Andrew may again come under critical attack. The world is traumatised by the nightmare images we are witnessing from Japan. I am sure the Government and charities will do all [...]

The Economist tells us that “there is a non-trivial chance that Britain might fall out of the EU one day. Such a falling-out would involve a hasty withdrawal from a Europe that had taken an impossibly unpalatable turn. The chances of such a messy crisis are rising.” Yep. But far from [...]

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've a guest piece on Left Foot Forward this morning on the theme of defence procurement.  Having big corporate interests hijacking public policy is not in the interests of either the centre left or right.  Yet I fear that corporatism is back in vogue - in Whitehall, in domestic [...]

As Gadaffi totters and Saudi Arabia, the Big One, comes into the Arab revolution’s sights, the hypocrisy that has long held the Arab states in bondage is coming home to roost.   The West’s deal with the Arab dictators is coming unstuck, big time.   Despite all the Western pretensions about democracy, [...]

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 [...]

According to Tim Montgomerie's excellent article on ConHome, of the papers Downing Street deals with 30 percent are generated by the Whitehall machine, 30 percent from the EU, and only 40 percent deal with the Coalition agenda.In other words, 60 percent of the government agenda is determined by unelected, unaccountable [...]

  The intense timetable of Inter Parliamentary Union visits is a surprise to me. It's a good ten years since I lsat joined one.   Today has been  dawn to dusk with Georgians who are all impassioned about their own country. Yesterday it was the new Embassy built at a cost of [...]

                    On Thursday I gave a lecture to a Cambridge University audience on the conduct of public policy. I chose to speak about UK economic policy over the last thirty years. Today I will share the summary of what I said about independence in Central banks, and tomorrow my conclusions [...]