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 | People’s MillionsI know, I know, it's another lottery post. But it's just a quick one and this time it's to let you know about something you might want to be part of.For the sixth year running, the Big Lottery Fund is opening up it's People's Millions competition to the public. From today you can put in a bid to receive up to £50,000 for a community project in the... |
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Timetable to E Day
Everyone’s keeping their cards close to their chests. Whips don’t know. Ministers won’t talk. But my best guess is Budget 23 or 30 March. Dissolution of Parliament Wednesday 8 April (though it should be April Fools Fay for this Parliament) Election campaign begins General...
Our Holocaust Hero: Coward
Yesterday I received some great news.The Holocaust Educational Trust wrote to me to thank me for my efforts in helping to gain official posthumous recognition for heroes of the Holocaust, including Edmonton's own Sergeant Charles Coward.His family - along with the relatives of 25 other British men and...
Cameron modestly claims Tories won the Cold War
At today's Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) David Cameron made an astonishing assertion: the Conservatives, he told the House, had won the Cold War.Now, the Conservatives were in office at the time the Berlin Wall came down. Labour were in office when England won the World Cup but I don't claim a causal...
Cool Gordon
Why is Gordon cool?It was a new Gordon Brown at Prime Ministers Question time today. He maintained his cool. He was quietly in charge in a gale of synthetic rage. Cameron finds it hard to fake anger. He went from low rant to hyper rant in a yell of contrived indignation. The House laughed uproariously....
The War in Afghanistan: How to End It
Later today I am delivering the Compton Lecture at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), I will be talking about Afghanistan.The core of my argument is simple – only politics will end the War in Afghanistan. The immense effort of UK, ISAF and Afghan troops is vital, as is the development...
All politics is local
In one of the Commons committee rooms there is a huge portrait of Joseph Chamberlain, the Birmingham MP and father of the infamous Conservative Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. “Our Joe” as I am told he was affectionately known by his supporters, was also the Mayor of Birmingham at the height...
The Perils of Poverty Statistics
We often hear a lot about unreliable statistics. But the problem isn’t exclusive to domestic issues. This Aid Watch blog from New York University's Development Research Institute muses on the pitfalls of applying various indicators to measure poverty . Since the days of Rowntree, measuring poverty...
(Elected) House of Commons Supports Exeter Unitary Bid
The House of Commons voted decisively last night to support Exeter’s bid for self rule. A motion tabled by the Conservatives opposing Government plans to restore unitary government to Exeter and Norwich was defeated comfortably. Conservative MPs from rural Devon and Norfolk lined up to criticise...
Potholes are in Exeter, Cllrs are from Bideford
Potholes and the state of the roads is one of the main complaints I get on the doorstep. Another good reason for Exeter to run its own affairs. It’s ludicrous that councillors from Bideford and South Hams decide how much money to spend repairing Exeter’s roads and which roads to repair when. We...
Unitary bid in the House of Lords
As Exeter’s bid to have its self-rule restored reaches the final lap all eyes are on the House of Lords. A legal attempt by Devon and Norfolk county councils to thwart Exeter and Norwich’s aspirations was rightly put on the back burner by the High Court who said Parliament should take precedence. The...
Is Ashcroft a Working Peer?
Anyone out there with a working definition of a “working peer”? In a House of Lords briefing on the subject it merely says the term is used by the press to describe a peer appointed by a political party in the expectation that they would attend regularly. In a letter dated 2 March 2000, William Hague...
Sun on the economic horizon?
The narrowing of the polls, the better economic news and Tory turmoil over Lord Ashcroft and policy have all served to put a spring in people’s step. The bright crisp sunshine also helps. The acknowledgement by the British Chambers of Commerce that both unemployment and borrowing will be far less...
Kampfner’s got form
JOHN Kampfner’s decision to support the LibDems should come as no surprise to anyone. I recall a truly bizarre feature in the New Statesman in the few weeks running up to the 2005 election in which readers were invited to vote tactically against Labour MPs. That’s right – against! He...
