Articles tagged parliament:
The Primate and the Premier are both facing a tough week
- 6 Feb 2023
This week will see not one but two embattled leaders trying to push their agendas forward, see off rebellions, and push their respective organisations forward. Both leaders preside over internal debates that are increasingly fraught. Both are facing serious rebellions. Both kn...
Truss’s ability to win votes in the Commons is about to be tested
- 10 Oct 2022
Forget all the opinion polls, frothy newspaper headlines, hyper-ventilating radio chat, portentous columnising and the general spume of current political debate; there is only one real test of any government’s ability to govern and that is its ability to win votes in the House...
Owen Paterson: try listening to the Father of the House
- 4 Nov 2021
Wednesday 3 November 2021 is likely to go down in the history of this parliament as the most difficult day to have been a Conservative MP. This is not a column about the rights or wrongs of Owen Paterson’s work commitments or the report that has been made about his conduct. He...
MPs need to settle down and put their support behind the government
- 30 Nov 2020
Eighty years ago, From the 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, London and several other major British cities were subjected to intense bombing. The bombing was specifically targeted at civilians and it came to be known as The Blitz. In the nearly six years of the war this period ...
That was the decade that was
- 6 Jan 2020
Four Prime Ministers and four General Elections this last decade of British politics has been a roller coaster like no other in living memory. The Queen’s enduring presence as the nation’s figurehead may have provided a veneer of continuity and stability but she reigned over a...
Whitehall is in for a shake-up but will it go far enough?
- 23 Dec 2019
Government is responsible for the provision and delivery of a range of services, directly or indirectly, on a scale no business or charity has to deal with. It is the provider and guardian of our safety and health of last resort. We rely, often unthinkingly, on government to d...
Get ready for the Boris revolution
- 19 Dec 2019
In 2005 Boris Johnson came to Great Yarmouth where I was the parliamentary candidate. I went to pick him up and take him to the event we had planned. He was accompanied by a journalist who was following him around collecting material for a profile they were writing. Sitting in...