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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 [...]

                  The Chancellor said in his budget the Revenue will study the effects of the 50% tax rate on tax revenues.                 The Adam Smith Institutue has already published some of the important findings. (In the Revenue and Growth effects of Britain’s high personal taxes)They show that the Howe Lawson income tax [...]

If there is one single indicator illustrating the political health as well as the economic health of a government, it is RPDI (real personal disposable income).   Year on year that tracks changes in the value of household income after taking account of inflation.   For 20 years till 2005 it rose [...]

Chloe Smith, Member of Parliament for Norwich North, today commended the Government's Budget with its plan to reform the economy to support jobs and growth, and to take steps to help families with the cost of living – including an immediate cut in fuel duty. Furthermore the Budget confirmed as part [...]

                 We need to raise more tax from the rich to help cut the deficit. That much many people agree. The question is, how do you maximise the tax take from the rich.              In the past when the UK has cut rates of Income Tax and Capital Gains tax the [...]

                As readers of this site will know, I think the worst errors that led to the Credit Crunch were made by the banking regulators, the Central Bank and the government. It was lurching from too easy to too tight money and credit which brought the banks into stress. It [...]

                    Most agree that fighting the last war often leaves you wrongly equipped for what might come next. There is also a futility about trying to refight the last war if you have already lost it. However much you try, the past result remains.                   The Bank of England specialise in [...]

               Some contributors have written in to say they think the answer to the prisoners’ votes issue is for the UK to pull out of the Convention and settle its own ideas in Parliament. The piece I wrote did not express my view, but sought to say what I think [...]

  Below is the PRELIMINARY transcript of Tuesday Public Administration Committee. Corrections may be made later. Even though the press was largely absent it has aroused interest.  But only one reporter was present throughout. The cut and thrust of questioning is designed to elicit a response from a greatly experienced witness [...]

There is poison conflation of arguments that has created folly. On Thursday parliament will vote against votes for prisoners. It’s at best pointless and at worst damaging to persecuted people across Europe. There was a meeting  in the Commons to discuss the issue tonight. It was not a public meeting so [...]

PEOPLE have been mystified by the inability of Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan to recall her Presumed Consent Organ Donation Bill which she introduced into the House of Commons in 2002, but it seems that the probable answer is that her own consent had been presumed by the Tory whips.When she [...]

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 [...]

  Personal tragic accounts of the deaths of the 50 people with swine flu upset us all. Of course, we all saddened and alarmed by stories of apparently healthy individuals who lose their lives. Our reaction is to guard against possible future tragedies especially any that might touch our loved ones. [...]

It was just a year ago that Parliament was bereaved by news of the untimely death of  one of its best-loved members. More than 100 MPs stood in the snow outside the village church of Heather to hear heartfelt tributes to David Taylor. The tiny church was full an hour [...]

    The Daily Mail caught up with the 'revolving door' scandal this morning. But they omitted the main point. Shame. They are trapped by their political agenda into making it an anti-Labour story. While they quoted me at length, they omitted my main charge probably because it involves a Tory. The body [...]

 Good sense triumphed in the Commons this afternoon with a visit from Portugal's drug supremo. Dr Joao Goulao delighted an audience of drugs specialists with an account of the reward of courage on drugs policy. After a drugs commission in 1999 the country socialist party introduced depenalisation. Time magazine reported their success [...]

Delyn MP David Hanson has opened a community safety day organised by KeyRing at Danger...

Delyn MP David Hanson has opened a community safety day organised by KeyRing at Danger Point.      KeyRing's support is based on vulnerable people living in their own homes but sharing their skills and talents with each other and with their communities.   There is a volunteer in each Network who sees Members regularly [...]

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, today welcomed a report by the Bank of England which provides evidence for the continuing financial difficulties facing households. Chloe draws attention particularly to the section of the report which concludes that: "Nearly half of all households with debt were either somewhat or very concerned [...]

The arrogance of the banks knows no bounds.   Faced with new European guidelines putting some restrictions on bonuses, Barclays Capital and HSBC have as good as put up two fingers to the regulatory authorities by hiking up salaries to compensate for the bonus loss.   Why do we put up with [...]

I have linked to the page relating to the NUS alternative proposals. On page 5 it says: More funding for the higher education sector would be available, bringing long-term security and sustainability.  After twenty years of operation, we estimate the total revenues from personal contributions would be £6.4bn [...]