March 2012
23 posts
11 tags
The most sensational result in British by-election...
Nik Darlington 10.22am
George Galloway has completed an astonishing return to Parliament with a runaway win in the Bradford West by-election.
With typical understatement, Mr Galloway described it as a “Bradford Spring” and “the most sensational victory in British political history”. Here he is, in his inimitable - and it would be churlish not to say captivating - style.
...
4 tags
The Ellis Doctrine: a step-by-step guide to when...
Aaron Ellis 11.03am
Libya is turning out to be something of a failure. Its cities are divided by competing militia and the country is divided against itself.
Abdel-Rahim el-Keeb, the prime minister, heads a government that has been described as “virtually paralyzed”. Islamist gangs desecrate British war graves and imprison black Africans in cages, forcing them to eat the old Libyan...
20 tags
Planning reform: a victory for conservationists,...
Nik Darlington 11.03am
Some (moderately) good news! The Government published the final version of its new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) yesterday and it is a paramount improvement on earlier drafts.
What is more, the DCLG has managed to squeeze it in to even fewer pages (a mere 49 compared to 52), proving that as far as planning is concerned, size really isn’t everything.
...
9 tags
Some worthwhile news you may have missed: PM...
Nik Darlington 10.23am
It is a tall order for proper news to rear its head at the moment, with the media barely recovering from its infantile frenzy of fiscal grannies before leaping gleefully into the arms of a lascivious donor scandal.
The Sunday Times’ undercover sting of the former Tory party treasurer was a timely reminder that News International, despite dangerous dalliances with...
9 tags
Governments can lead industrial strategy, and Lord...
Nik Darlington 8.48am
“Eleven years is a long time in this industry,” said technology pioneer Steve McConnell.
It is. Eleven years ago, I was plugging a clunky laptop into a telephone line in order to download a web page in the same amount of time it took Roger Bannister to run a mile. Sometimes even as long as it would take Ed Balls to run a mile. Yet this morning I travelled to...
16 tags
A curate's egg of a Budget?
David Cowan 6.02am
On Wednesday, George Osborne grew in stature as a Tory Chancellor. The Budget was the most definitive account of the Government’s plan for growth. Yet it was mainly framed as a tax reform budget, and it is by this standard it should be judged.
In which case, it was also something of a curate’s egg. In places it was bold and radical, while in others it did not go...
20 tags
Breaking down the Budget
Sara Benwell 10.53am
Another year, another Budget. Another abortive attempt to find a pub with a garden and a telly with the Budget on it, so that I can enjoy the sunshine and a glass of wine (but perhaps not, thank you very much George, many more cigarettes).
This year’s Budget has been called ‘radical’ by members of the press. It contains many positive elements, including tax...
11 tags
Coalition hasn't killed the NHS, but its planning...
Nik Darlington 10.14am
In affectionate remembrance of English cricket, which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882, deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. RIP.
NB: The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia.
It probably wasn’t the first instance of an ironic elegy by an English newspaper, but the Sporting Times’ obituary for...
23 tags
If Osborne succeeds, he could join Neville...
David Cowan 10.26am
As George Osborne has approached his third Budget as Chancellor, the press has been abuzz with speculation about future taxation.
This has largely been fuelled by the public airings of Liberal Democrat tax demands, such as an accelerated timetable for raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 (itself a policy strongly supported by Conservatives) or Nick Clegg’s...
15 tags
After Hilton, Conservative radicalism looks set to...
Michael Burgess 10.32am
So David Cameron’s closest adviser has embarked on a year-long American sabbatical. Meanwhile, the coalition is experiencing its roughest ride since the tuition fees rise, as the Health & Social Care Bill struggles its way on to the statute book.
As a backdrop, the run of opinion polls in which the Tories have enjoyed virtual parity with the Labour party at...
6 tags
What does the base rate decision really mean for...
Sara Benwell 7.35am
The Bank of England announced recently that it will continue to hold the base rate at 0.5 per cent, the lowest level in its 318 year history.
This is the third year since the Bank’s decision to slash rates to this level back in March 2009 and many analysts predict that rates may continue to be held till 2015, with some predicting they could even be slashed further to 0.25...
9 tags
We must leave the Gordian Knot of Afghanistan
Aaron Ellis 7.30am
‘A blow, expected, repeated, falling on a bruise, with no smart or shock of surprise, only a dull and sickening pain and the doubt whether another like it could be borne’.
This is how it feels any time a great tragedy is reported from Afghanistan.
One often asks, warily, “Why the hell are we there?”
The deaths of six British servicemen in Helmand last week prompted David...
8 tags
The Government must not trample over the first...
Alexander Pannett 10.25am
Last Thursday, Vince Cable announced that the Green Investment Bank would be headquartered in Edinburgh after a long running selection campaign involving 19 British cities.
The decision has been criticised as being led by political concerns to tie Scotland to the rest of the UK in advance of the proposed Scottish independence referendum in 2014.
However, this overlooks...
9 tags
Ignorance about the Health Bill shows how few...
Nik Darlington 7.50am
Of course, none of this was in any of the parties’ general election manifestos.
I paraphrase, but is one of the most irritating claims in this berserk public debate about NHS reforms, right up there with “NHS privatisation” and “two weeks to save the NHS” (or, as Mr Burnham said way back in October 2011, “72 hours”).
The error,...
11 tags
Nick Clegg attempts to steal the TRG's clothes
Alexander Pannett 8.31am
On Saturday a beleaguered Nick Clegg faced down his mutinous party at their Spring conference and attempted to re-define what set the Liberal Democrats apart from other political parties.
His speech gave an indication of the tactics he would use at the general election in 2015 as he seeks to win back the trust of the electorate.
It is interesting then, that he chose to...
17 tags
Why Scotland needs Devo Plus, and why...
Alex Fergusson MSP 6.00am
Immediately following the recent launch of Devo Plus, a group on which I am pleased to sit, the Tory Reform Group tweeted:
“Devo Plus is a campaign that unionists would be worthwhile supporting.”
Needless to say, I entirely agree, but allow me to explain why.
I must begin by saying that I am every bit as much a unionist and a Conservative as all of my...
11 tags
Government must consider radical action on child...
Victoria Roberts 11.41am
Taking inspiration from a recent interview in the Times (£) with the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, I would like to set out what we could learn from Scandinavia about child care. The things that could, longer term, keep women at work in those crucial career-building years, so that one day we could see an increase in the amount of women in the highest...
9 tags
Come on chaps, Dr Vince is taking us all for a...
Nik Darlington 10.28am
Within moments it dawned on me. Vince Cable’s letter to David Cameron and Nick Clegg is not meant to be taken seriously. The minister with the Dickensian fizzgog has penned a satire of Swiftian proportions.
Because His Vinceship, as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade, possesses “overall responsibility for...
15 tags
The Big Society has life in it still, but more...
Samuel Kasumu 6.00am
The ‘big society’ was supposed to be the key Conservative policy that would tie the rest together. An underpinning philosophy that could rebuild communities, reshape public services and above all demonstrate that Conservatives could do compassion.
But this ‘big idea’ failed to capture the imagination of the public from the start. And the recent news...
18 tags
Gay marriage is at the heart of the urgent need to...
Jack Blackburn 6.00am
Church and State are talking at crossed purposes on gay marriage, but what goes unnoticed is that this confusion goes right to the heart of our nation’s constitution.
As far as the State is concerned, homosexual relationships should be treated coterminously with heterosexual relationships. By extension of this fact, gay marriage ought to be permitted and accepted.
...
14 tags
Congratulations to the Sunday Telegraph, first...
Nik Darlington 11.22am
The Sunday Telegraph was in a bit of a flap yesterday over revelations that nine members of the Labour party’s front bench team have been receiving free advisory work from professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Ed Balls, Chuka Umunna, Jim Murphy, Caroline Flint, Liam Byrne and David Hanson from the front bench, as well as Alistair Darling and John...
8 tags
Integrating health and social care: "The NHS was...
Dr Dan Poulter MP 11.49am
My front-line NHS experience has shown me that under the previous government, there was an increasing and damaging emphasis placed upon nationally imposed, top-down, procedural bureaucracy, as opposed to improving the integration and delivery of key frontline healthcare services.
The result has been a failure to invest properly in healthcare and social services support...
12 tags
George Osborne has to dump this toxic 50p tax rate
Craig Barrett 11.48am
Time and time again, I am reminded of those words of Sir John Major, spoken early on in the Blair maladministration:
“The Conservatives are elected to govern, Labour governs to be elected.”
So nightmarishly often in those thirteen years was policy made on the hoof. We endured a bewildering array of ill-thought out responses to opinion polls, designed to...