Those 57 Liberal Democrat MPs, whether on the Government payroll or not, are going to have some very tough choices when they come to vote on all the amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill. It’s been suggested that the difficult position the Party finds itself in is all down to communications. Tell the world about [...]
The Liberal Democrats’ vision of a John Lewis economy, and an end to ‘crony capitalism’, as articulated by Nick Clegg, is welcome. So why, then, is this approach not yet embedded in Government? Rewards for failure, a failure to listen to small business over big property interests, short-termism and the perpetuation of a failed business [...]
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Reading East’s hapless and irrelevant MP has not had one of his better weeks. His bizarre call for Parliament to waste time debating ‘good taste’ in film (see http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/16/meryl-streeps-margaret-thatcher-disrespectful-complains-tory-mp_n_1153185.html), triggered by a viewing of the ‘Iron Lady’ biopic, does nothing for political debate, nor for his constituents. Is he [...]
I’ve now been pointed to the details of new BBC political programming to replace the Politics Show at http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2011-11-22/bbc-daytime-politics-shows-undergo-restructure. There are a number of things wrong with this. First, it contains the odious right-winger Andrew ‘Brillo Pad’ Neill, who wears his politics on his sleeve, trivialises it and could not conduct an interview if his [...]
The last edition of a very good programme. Political debate in the UK will be a lot poorer for its passing; the exchange between John Redwood and Matthew Oakeshott was a good way to go. Local and regional debate will be seriously diminished by the end of the excellent Politics Show South, presented by the [...]
