They Blog For You

The Banking Commission says its key objective is to protect the UK taxpayer from another bailout. At the same time, they suggest a sort of two-tier system within banks, as opposed to institutional separation. Sounds to me like they're proposing the sort of changes I was aiming at [...]

Henry Porter in The Observer has also come out in support of the campaign against hyper injunctions."MPs are rightly alarmed by the encroachment on parliamentary privilege but they should now take the hint that this is a matter for them. We need a commission to investigate the interests of privacy [...]

Chloe Smith will tomorrow be joining staff and pupils of Sprowston Junior School to take part in Aspirations Week and Red Nose Day fun. Sprowston Junior School have invited Chloe Smith MP to the finale of their 'Aspirations Week' programme to talk to the pupils about why she wanted to become [...]

The Elders is a group of independent senior statesmen founded by Nelson Mandela to offer help in resolving political and social conflicts around the world.  It’s the experience of the Elders, coupled with the fact that, since none of them is seeking political office themselves, they have no axes to [...]

Isn't it ironic that the Protection of Freedoms Bill seems to want to ban things?  Banning the state from doing things generally enhances freedom, but banning the public from doing things rarely strengthens our rights and liberties.  Amongst other proposals, the Bill wants to outlaw car [...]

LOCAL MP Kevin Brennan and Rhodri Morgan AM have welcomed the selection of 'committed community candidate' Iona Gordon to stand for Labour in the upcoming Riverside by-election on March 3.Iona is the Chair of the Cardiff Cycling Campaign and is the person behind such fantastic local schemes such as English [...]

  Newport East MP Jessica and I have asked for a delay in the consideration of the job losses at Newport Passport Office. We wrote to ministers and toniht tabled this Early Day Motion. It would be an even greater travesty if a decision was maded without full knowledge of the [...]

                   As I arrived early  at work this morning the contractors were busy putting out sandbags and reorganising the crowd barriers around Parliament Square. They are expecting a fourth day of peaceful protest doubtless laced with extreme behaviour. Last week almost 3000 policemen and women had to be taken off [...]

  Why the feigned surprise on Wikileaks news that Karzai, the ingrate, insulted the courage of our British soldiers?. What's new? I looked up part of a speech I make in the Commons in March 2008. "Matters came to a bit of a head on Christmas day last year, when our ambassador [...]

A couple of weeks after listening to the great Jesus Huerta de Soto lecturing at the London School of Economics, the House of Commons today publishes my Bill on banking reform.  Read it here. Banks today enjoy a legal privilege that extends to no [...]

Raised one of the great issues of the moment at the journalists' prize bash last night.  When should Ann Widdicombe stand down from Strictly Come Dancing?  An expert opinion came from past dancing dilletante John Sargeant (pictured with former MP Marshall-Andrews). John, of course, abandoned his role because he was too popular. He [...]

This was a day to set the pulses racing.   There was anger, passion and pride in Cardiff. Wales has been aroused. In 1953 as a sixth former I joined a procession to very spot where today’s demo was held. I carried a sign that read ‘Senedd I Gymru’ – Parliament [...]

Sorting out DCMS's budget settlement was an extraordinarily gruelling process, all the more so because we ended up negotiating the BBC's next licence fee settlement as part of it. The latter incidentally must be the fastest negotiation in the Corporation's 83 year history - and if [...]

YESTERDAY Ipsa rejected a claim I made for the costs of supplying drinking water in my constituency office (“What? MPs use public money to supply free water for their staff? Outrageous! Welcome to the real world – I work in the public/private sector and I have to drink my own [...]

Maria Miller, Basingstoke’s MP attended St Gabriel’s Church in Popley on Sunday 19th September to mark the RAF’s 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Maria said: “For decades Basingstoke has had a close association with the RAF. Not only do we have our local air base, many Basingstoke businesses [...]

TIME to clear up some popular misconceptions about MPs’ expenses and how the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) “works”. There seems to be a view out there that MPs get generous allowances in addition to their basic income. This certainly used to be the case, but isn’t any longer. The [...]

Next week, Steve Baker and I are floating an idea for banking reform with the Financial Services (Regulation of Deposits and Lending) Bill in the House of Commons.  At present, when you deposit money in a bank, that bank - [...]

      A blissful day of cleansing sunshine. A trip to rural Leicestershire to meet Labour Party idealists was the perfect way to rinse the poison of Blair's treachery out of my mind. In his interview with Andrew Marr, he revelled in boasting that he abused his office to sabotage Labour Party [...]

The sad news came in an e-mail this morning. Hugh Richards died yesterday. A message from his wife Mag read. 'He died  at home. However, it was a peaceful death in his own bed listening to music. I know you will be upset as we all 'go back a long [...]

IPSA have embarked on a charm offensive to mark its three-month anniversary. Now, you should know that both Ian Kennedy, Ipsa’s chair, and its chief executive, Andrew McDonald, are very touchy and a tad hysterical when it comes to criticism. Kennedy told The Telegraph just last month that… All of these are [...]