They Blog For You

                      I wish to examine the curious case of the possible resignation of Mr Norman  Lamb. Many people will not have known until the last couple of days the importance of Mr Lamb. He is a trusted adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister. He is a Lib Dem NHS expert, [...]

Our former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has apparently admitted that the unaccountable quangos he put in place to regulate the banks failed. He's right. His Financial Service Authority spent a decade subjecting every financial institution to a complex web of compliance - so much so that firms had to create entire compliance departments.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

  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 Prime Minister told the Commons today that he and his team had opposed the Euro bail out Mechanism deal negotiated by Alistair Darling, the out going Chancellor, last May. He was repeating what the Chancellor, George Osborne, told me when he said he had opposed it. Yet [...]

Today the Commons debates Libya. I'm open-minded (undecided?) about the need for military intervention.  But before I make up my mind, I'd like several questions answered. What are we getting ourselves into, and what is the scope of our intervention? And who is "we"?  Does it include democratic Turkey or post-popular [...]

I have been in the Commons Chamber listening to the Prime Minister’s statement on Libya and the UN Security Council resolution.  A full text of what he said can be found here. [...]

17 March 2011 Dear Colleague,  Further to my previous messages on Libya, I thought it would be helpful to send you an update on the situation in Bahrain and what action the British Government is taking. On the consular side, our travel advice is today advising British nationals against all travel to [...]

  Only three MPs questioned the Prime Minister this afternoon on the developing nuclear crisis. David Cameron said he was not going to ‘rush to judgement’.  I asked him to avoid rushing to complacency on nuclear safety. ‘The pictures of the two explosions from Fukushima have already churned up deep-seated fears of [...]

Does the Prime Minister wish to revise his judgement on the work of Prince Andrew that he gave me on the 9th December 2010? Special Representative for International Trade and Investment Paul Flynn: To ask the Prime Minister what recent assessment he has made of the work of the UK’s Special Representative for [...]

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 [...]

“I don't believe an In/Out referendum is right” David Cameron told Al Jazerra Television.  “Because” he went on “I don't believe that leaving the European Union would be in Britain's interests”. That a British Prime Minister is now having to field such a query suggests that our EU membership is no [...]

The Mail on Sunday’s Robert Verlaik reveals that a wealthy Tory minister earns £2m subsidies in EU farm subsidies that his department tried to cover up. Further proof that it’s cuts only for some. Robert writes:- "The family of a Government Minister whose department has covered up details of who receives EU [...]

Today it was stark, beautiful and peaceful. Desperately poor people eek out an existence from the poor soil. An European Unit monitors the ceasefire between Georgians and Russians. In the heat of August 2008 it was scene of terror and bloodshed. The Red Army had reacted furiously against an attempt by [...]

“The dominant sensation for a new prime minister on entering Number 10” writes Jonathan Powell in The New Machiavelli “will be how difficult it is to make anything happen. .... A new prime minister pulls on the levers of power and nothing happens”. Today’s newspapers tell us that Downing Street is [...]

  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 [...]

    You could not make it up. I have been banging on about the potentially corrupting revolving door. Top Civil Servants, Ministers, Generals could be tempted by retirement job prospects into acting for their own interests rather than those of the country. That is why the watchdog (ACOBA) to be given teeth. Sir [...]

Never one to do obsequiousness, I was absolutely delighted with David Cameron's answer to a question at PMQs today. Asked about the latest Human Rights story, he seemed to suggest that he is at last willing to take on the judicial supremacists - both in Strasbourg and on the other [...]