They Blog For You

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.  [...]

If unpaid internships are to be discouraged, I presume that the government will now put unpaid Parliamentary Private Secretaries onto the government payroll? Over the past year, an unprecedentedly number of MPs have been made PPSs under the Coalition.  Even quite junior ministers now make use of these unpaid ministerial aides. A internship, or work experience scheme, MPs [...]

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. [...]

I think it is ok for me to say that last week I stood down from the Health Select Committee. This is because I have been invited by the Speaker to sit on the Chairman's Panel. I will be chairing Westminster Hall debates, Public Bill Committees, an... [...]

Last week I attended a TUC event in Parliament encouraging everybody to stand together for public services and specifically for the NHS. You can see me in the photo on the left - big pink hands and all - supporting the cause with Frances O'Grady, TUC Deputy General Secretary. It [...]

Today I have just been to speak to Ashwell School Year 6 who are here at Westminster for an educational course. The questions were excellent, all about current affairs and my life as MP. I then went to meet representatives of our local Wildlife Trust including Chair Mike Master. They [...]

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 [...]

Total of British Soldiers killed in Afghanistan = 362   Today I've discovered a new heroine. I was chairing this morning's session of a Westminster Education Forum conference on scientific research. It was held in the swish location of Over-seas House in St James's Street London. The first of six speakers in my [...]

Delyn MP David Hanson has met with Flint Councillors and Sandy Mewies AMat Flint Court House to...

Delyn MP David Hanson has met with Flint Councillors and Sandy Mewies AMat Flint Court House to mark the end of the Court’s service to the town.   Despite a strong campaign the Tory-led coalition in Westminster has decided to close the historic court as part of a wider programme which will [...]

17 March 2011 Alan Johnson voted in favour of the below Opposition Motion tabled by the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury last night to reverse the Government’s VAT rise on petrol and diesel. The motion was defeated. “That this House recognises that rising world oil, food and commodity prices are increasing [...]

Westminster politicians sometimes make the mistake of thinking that they’ve tackled a subject because they’ve talked about it. But clever phrases are not the same thing as a policy. Immigration is a major issue and my constituents raise it with me more than ever. Dealing with immigration requires more [...]

I'm on the 29th floor of Milbank Tower for the launch of the People's Pledge, the new campaign for an EU referendum.What's so refreshing about today is the line up of those leading the call to let the people decide. Not a blazer or panama hat in sight. [...]

As part of the programme of events marking the 100th anniversary of the 1911 Census, Dr Jill Liddington, Honorary Research Fellow at Leeds University, will be speaking today at Westminster on how women across the country responded to the suffragette invitation to boycott the census. This reminded me of the battle [...]

  Wales has a 'parliament' with direct powers to enact its own laws for the first time for centuries. This is the fulfilment of a long held ambition I have had since first reading Welsh history as a child. In 1953 I joined a demonstration in Cardiff calling for a Welsh Parliament [...]

  Private Eye’s Gavel Basher’ is invited to attend all future meeting of the Public Administration Committee to add her/his entertaining interpretation to our deliberations. Last week I reproduced a verbatim account of my exchanges with him. These extracts are far more entertaining. I had forgotten the peal of laughter that [...]

Today has seen a great deal of positive response to the debate I held in Westminster Hall regarding the IPC process. It would be difficult to overestimate the depth of public feeling to this issue and I am happy to be taking a number of constituents ... [...]

Am I the only No2AV supporter a little concerned at the way things seem to be going? AV was only put on the political agenda in order to allow politicians to cobble together a Coalition in Whitehall. Yet somehow it seems to be the Yes2AV camp who has positioned [...]

This evening for the first time ever, MPs forced a division of the House of Commons for an in/out EU referendum.Defeated by 26 to 295, the result is nonetheless significant because it marks an important change in what it means to be a Eurosceptic. For two decades, Euroscepticism has [...]

When the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was given control over setting interest rates back in 1997, most pundits cheered. I wonder if it still seems quite such a wise move?In the decade that followed, the MPC set interest rates far too low, for far too long. [...]

  Yesterday there was one cloud over the Parliament. It was uncannily reminiscent of a map of Wales. Yesterday was a day of pride for Welsh Parliamentarians. Former Welsh MPs led the creative filibuster in the Lords. It was an extremely rare event for the sleepy Lords to challenge Government [...]