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  What’s the point?  One Millionaire David Cameron is married to a millionaire. He earns a good salary. What point is he making by ‘celebrating’ with a Ryanair no frills trip? The only things that make flying bearable are the frills. Why the self-flagellation? Who is he trying to impress? Most people would regard [...]

Interesting article by Nick Clegg and Iain Duncan Smith on the need for greater social mobility in today's Telegraph.  They are absolutely right to point to the problem.  What bothers me are their proposed solutions, which all seem to be about government doing more. The coalition duo begin their article by accepting that Labour's big [...]

Sombre news from the forgotten war in Afghanistan. Ten years of vast sacrifices in blood and treasure have achieved nothing. A mob is so anti-Western that peacemakers have been lynched. The Afghan Police were impotent spectators. Perhaps this will expose the foolish optimism of Liam Fox. He still believes that an [...]

  How much can the Lib-Dems take? Can the anti-nuclear Lib-Dem MPs continue to back a doomed policy? They were clear in their denunciations before the General Election. Simon Hughes never changed his mind. Now Nick Clegg appears to have cracked. The Deputy Prime Minister cast doubt on the future for nuclear [...]

  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 [...]

Responding to revelations about Jonathan Rees Shadow Culture Secretary, Ivan Lewis said: “These revelations about Jonathan Rees raise questions about David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s judgment in appointing Andy Coulson to such a senior post as Director of Communications in Downing Street. “Both the Prime  Minister and his deputy need to answer questions about [...]

Amazing what a few months in office can do. Last summer the Coalition agreement promised "early legislation to introduce a power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP is found to have engaged in serious [...]

Yesterday - the first day back after Parliament's half term recess - David Cameron made an 'urgent' statement to the House on the situation in Libya. Many would say that his comments, which included an update on the evacuation of British nationals, were long overdue. Certainly, in comparison [...]

Today the lucky members of the Public Administration Committee visited the hallowed lair of Facebook. This is the sumptuous world of numbers exploding exponentionally, of a conversation that involves a billion faces worldwide.   Chairman Bernard Jenkin led us to the plush nerve centre in the backstreets behind Oxford Street. We were welcome [...]

Newly released government papers seem to suggest British foreign policy towards Libya was focused on helping BP.  Would that be the same BP that hired former British diplomats and others who might have previously helped shape British foreign policy in the region? Why do you suppose they might have wanted [...]

A poll in the Sun suggests that Nick Clegg is more popular amongst grass roots Tories than most Conservative cabinet members. Why?  Because he's leading the way with the kind of radical, decentralising reforms we ought to be seeing implemented from every government department.  A fair bit of Nick's agenda could [...]

"Nick Clegg plans ten months paternity leave" ran the headline. Good old Nick, was my first thought.  His wife must be about to have another nipper, and he wants to take some time out to be a dad.  And why not?  But of course the headline wasn't [...]

First it was a Tory whip that had a very public spat with Mr Bercow. Then the Prime Minister apparently told unflattering jokes about him. Now another of my colleagues is reported to have had a bit of a confrontation.  I don’t think I can be accused of excessive deference to House of [...]

  The Tories have re-packaged a failed idea and  proudly promised that e-petitions will build a  path to a new democracy. Tony Blair fell for the  same superficially attractive myth. Enthusiasm for hi-  tech solutions is in inverse ratio to understanding of  new technology.  Tony’s knowledge of the Internet is on  a protozoan scale. He embraced e-petitions [...]

I don't think it would be fair to end this week without commenting on yesterday's vote to treble tuition fees for university students to £9,000 a year. I voted against the Government because their plans are not necessary, not fair, and not good for higher education. Such fees are not [...]

LOCAL Cardiff West MP, KEVIN Brennan, has beaten Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, to be named Social Media MP of the Year by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.The BCS awards recognise MPs who have embraced web technologies and are using them to engage effectively with their constituents.Mr Brennan managed [...]

The headlines on Wednesday were full of tales of the students who descended on London and caused chaos, lighting bonfires and vandalising buildings. Sadly, in doing so, they took the news away from the very reason they were protesting in the first place - cuts to education.Everyone is probably well-acquainted [...]

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NICK Clegg shone some valuable light on the nature of The New Politics this afternoon. The first aspect he highlighted is one with which all readers of this blog will be familiar: the New Politics makes a positive virtue of ditching manifesto commitments, in this case the LibDems’ previous opposition to [...]

Nick Clegg did a great job at PMQs today defending the coalition position on tuition fees. He is excellent when on the offensive. His best moments were when he highlighted Labour's hypocrisy. It is not a good situation outside Westminster. The ques... [...]