Author:  Stuart Weir

An OurKingdom conversation: Michael Wills > John Jackson > Michael Wills > this post

I can quite understand why Michael Wills is upset about John Jackson's note on his struggle to move the democratic agenda forward with a government which is alternately hostile and indifferent and under a Prime Minister who blows hot and cold, hot and cold, on all the issues. My guess is that he is a genuine democrat who has been given a very uncomfortable and impossible brief.

However, the whole enterprise was flawed from the very beginning in the July 2007 governance paper where the spelling out of the problems was ducked in the proposals for dealing with them. I said as much in a meeting Michael Wills held with reformers in an attempt to get us on board and support the initiative. It is no good saying that progress is slow and incremental on constitutional reform in the UK - my god, we know that too well - when nearly all Labour's reforms since 1997 have been predicated on preserving the power of the executive more or less intact. All right, freedom of information has largely escaped the…

Dear Sirs, We regret that the House of Lords last week adopted amendment 120A to the Digital Economy Bill. This amendment not only significantly changes the injunctions procedure in the UK but will lead to an increase in Internet service providers blocking websites accused of illegally hosting copyrighted material without cases even reaching a judge. The [...]

Come on you guys - follow the media narrative? After doing my posting on the Populus marginals poll early yesterday I thought I’d try to make a quick buck by betting £257 on the “no overall majority” option in the Betfair overall majority market. The price I got, was 1.9/1 and my reading was that this [...]

Author:  Pam Giddy Summary:  Power2010's campaign to bring change to UK politics is stepping up a gear.

Power2010's campaign to bring change to UK politics is stepping up a gear.

With just a few weeks left until a general election is announced, it's time to call out those MPs who have consistently stood against reform of our democracy preferring the corrupt, top-down politics of the past.

If we want a reforming Parliament and a new politics out of the next election we need to ensure the people who want to represent us take seriously the need for change.

That means identifying who the main culprits are amongst sitting MPs.

You know the ones. The dinosaurs in Parliament who tell us reform isn't needed, whilst clinging to their perks and privileges; the MPs who never miss a chance to vote away our civil liberties, whilst telling us it's for our own good.

We want to hear about MPs from any party who have stood against reform and the spirit and ideas embodied in the five-point Power Pledge drawn up with the participation of tens thousands of people across the country.

Our aim is for a list of MPs from all major parties who…

Given what a shining New Statesman’s James Macintyre took to top freelance totty Rowenna Davis, it was only going to be a matter of time before she ended up writing for the struggling magazine. Last month she wrote a piece slamming parliamentarians use of unpaid interns suggesting that “MPs’ dependence on unpaid interns gives those from [...]

Harris poll for The Metro Mar 9 Feb 22 CONSERVATIVES 37% 39% LABOUR 29% 30% LIB DEMS 18% 22% LAB to CON swing from 2005 5.5% 6% And “others” soar in another online poll As the polling deluge continues there’s another survey out this evening from Harris Interactive for the Metro. The figures are above with the big move, surely, being a huge increase in the numbers saying that they will [...]

Tonight’s YouGov daily polling has topline figures of CON 36%(-3), LAB 32%(-2), LDEM 20%(+4). After a fortnight or so of leads within one percent of 6 points, we have something ever so slightly different. The lead hasn’t changed much, and is still very easily inside the margin of error of an unchanged six point lead, [...]

Geraldine Dreadful MP has written me a letter rightly taking me to task for my interview with Nick Griffin. Read it HERE.

1. Grumpy Optimist suggests a new secret weapon for David Cameron. 2. Laban Tall thinks Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a self-centred hysteric. 3. Real Street is annoyed at the bastardisation of the word ‘equality’. 4. John Ward cannot believe the degree of self-interest shown by the trade unions. 5. The Last Ditch discusses the political exploitation of the Jon Venables [...]

This is Ben Cohen’s take on Bob Marshall-Andrew’s article about Gaza. It is a cross-post from the Z-Word blog. A group of friends in London alerted me to this grubby little piece by a British Labour Party Member of Parliament, Bob Marshall-Andrews, concerning his recent visit to Gaza. Upon reading it, I was struck by [...]

This is a guest post from Amie This event at LSE last night was billed as a discussion of the Goldstone report, in which Panellists would also examine the state of the peace process. The ‘also’ part turned out to mean, by and large, ‘instead’. The make up of the panel was problematic from the [...]

This election night count story just won't go away.

There are still plenty of councils who still won't say when they plan to count the votes. For some it is because of the recent confusion over what the new law says. For some I suspect they wish to avoid political pressure from local councillors. Others await guidance from the Electoral Commission, but if my research is right, they may well have a long wait.

By my calculation, if all the councils who have saidthey want to count on Friday go ahead with these plans i think that David Cameron would have to get a majority of around 100 to get to 326 seats before breakfast.

The following appears on the Electoral Commission website and is contained within their briefing note on the Report Stage of the Bill. It is the Electoral Commission which will have to publish the guidence as to what "reasonable steps" are, not the Ministry of Justice. Unbelievably, they refuse to do this until the Bill gains Royal Assent (assuming this is during the wash up in the last hours of the old parliament (on 8-9 April), this gives Returning Officers only 17 working…

The Guardian have tried doing a hatchet job on right-wing kiddy trainers the Young Britons’ Foundation.  Apparently YBF acolytes visited a firing range while in the U.S. to shoot off some AK-47s, so this means Dave is going to repeal the handgun ban. Well that was the line pumped by one Mrs Bob Marshall-Andrews, the [...]

“Many workers – particularly in the public sector – are facing pay freezes, compulsory redundancies and even, in the case of Unite members at British Airways, the prospect of pay cuts.  We feel that the proposed deal for our Royal Mail members compares extremely well.” - a spokesman from the Communication Workers Union, after it was announced [...]

George Osborne has said that “a sustainable recovery must be led by private sector investment and export growth.” Today’s figures show how far away we are from the latter. These show that our non-oil goods deficit in the last three...

Nick Watt, who has forgotten more about Northern Ireland politics than I will ever know, has an intriguing tale in today’s Guardian. The gist is that the Americans are worried about the position the Conservatives have got into on Northern Ireland, so much so that the White House asked George Bush to call Dave and [...]

Free to kill
So let's get this straight.

At God knows what expense, Jamie Bulger's killer was given a new identity and freed into society after just seven years simply because our costly forces of law and order decided he was a reformed character and no longer a danger to us. Only it turns out he wasn't.

Ashleigh Hall's killer was a highly dangerous rapist with a long string of convictions for violent sex offences, who was freed to wander among us simply because our costly forces of law and order decided that putting him on the Sex Offenders Register would be enough to keep us safe. Only it turns out it wasn't.

For many years, our Prog Con "justice" establishment have been assuring us that the "blue rinse brigade" like Tyler are wrong and that violent crime has been falling. Only it turns out it hasn't.

This morning we learn that violent crime has been going through the roof. New research from the independent House of Commons Library (but not yet online for mere taxpayers to see) shows that violence against the person increased from 618,417 in 1998 to 887,942 last year - a…

There is a Populus poll of marginal seats in tomorrow’s Times, Peter Riddell’s commentary is here. The headline figures in the poll is CON 38%, LAB 38% and this has resulted in a flurry of excitement from twitterers, but what it means depends upon which seats were polled. Populus’s poll sampled Labour held Conservative targets [...]

Wanted: a shaft of sunlight
Once upon a time we all knew where the parties stood on tax. Labour stood for increases, and the Tories for cuts.

These days it's not so easy. Two years of sharing the proceeds blurred the old clearcut Tory tax brand beyond recognition. And now a full-on fiscal crisis has swept away all hope.

The dismal result is that voters no longer associate the Tories with tax cuts, or it seems any clearcut tax policies at all. Last week, ICM asked voters which party has the best policies on setting taxes, and on this vital touchstone issue found the Tories actually trailing Labour. For those of us who are desperate to see Labour out, it's nothing short of tragic.

It's especially tragic when we recall that in between the fog of sharing the proceeds and the cataclysmic onset of fiscal Armageddon, we briefly glimpsed a shaft of brilliant sunshine.

At the Tory Conference in 2007, George transformed the political landscape with a single tax pledge - to abolish Inheritance Tax on all estates of less than £1m. At the time, the Tories were facing electoral anihilation at the hands of the Big Clunking Fist, but…

A few days ago, I was putting the bins out whilst it was raining heavily and, weather being a Proustian madeleine, I remembered sitting in an A level politics class as a 16-year-old and the thrill of discovering that there...

I enjoyed Boris Johnson’s column in the Telegraph today. It refers to two recent books: David Willetts’, “The Pinch” and Matt Ridley’s “The Rational Optimist”. Willetts’ book is a somewhat pessimistic presentation of the baby boomer generation and their consumption. Ridley’s title speaks for itself – Boris himself comes down on the [...]

I have written this post for the Public Finance blog:

The Conservatives’ shadow schools secretary is finding himself in an increasing muddle as he starts to put flesh on his schools’ policy. One day Michael Gove is extolling the virtues of free schools, liberated from the shackles of Whitehall, with the touchy-feely charms of Goldie Hawn jostling alongside Swedish companies to deliver. Days later he is laying down the level of detailed knowledge that every youngster should have of their kings and queens, their classical poetry by heart and their algebra under the tutelage of the Tories’ Maths mistress Carol Vorderman.

Gove’s confusion on education policy, one of the few areas where the Tories have at least done some homework, seems to mirror his party’s wider confusion as it wobbles in the polls. This is exemplified in planning, where Gove has pledged to railroad through new local school plans in Whitehall regardless of local objections while his shadow cabinet colleague Theresa Villiers apparently wants every parish council to have its say on any high speed rail link.

Meanwhile, the funding problems that I outlined last month in Public Finance have been exacerbated by a

Are the Tories going to live to regret trying to cover Lord Ashcroft’s back by questioning the tax status of a number of high profile Labour donors? After last week’s news that Lord Ashcroft is a ‘non-dom’, the Tories were quick to accuse Labour of hypocrisy in accepting donations from their own allegedly non-domiciled supporters. Ashcroft’s own [...]

David Willetts and his new book The Pinch v Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist “Forget the prophets of doom – I’m proud to be a baby boomer” says Boris Johnson Oh the shame of being a baby boomer. What a bunch of shysters we seem to be. We are the most selfish, greedy, job-hogging, pension-grabbing bunch of egomaniacs [...]

I’m not sure Richard Whiteley would have stood for it. Contestant: “I’ll have one from the top and five from anywhere else, please Carol.” Carol: “Now you... This is a summary of another excellent Boriswatch.com post.Visit the site for the full post!

Let’s try again, shall we? Last week was mostly a write-off for the Tories. You will remember it started with Dave’s Brighton speech that was supposed to steady the blues after several weeks of wobbles. The idea was to move swiftly on to a week spent demolishing Labour’s economic record and in particular the dire [...]

All elections leave a lasting legacy, but if there was one election in modern times which has influenced more or less everything that has happened in British politics since then, it is surely 1983.

The catastrophic defeat suffered by Michael Foot’s Labour Party in that year began the process of self-examination and reform which eventually begat New Labour in the 1990s and shaped the politics of today.

In the wake of Mr Foot’s death aged 96 this week, the most intriguing tribute came from the lips of Tony Blair - “he was as far removed from the techniques of modern politics as it was possible to be.”

Only Mr Blair with his silken charm could have made this sound like a compliment. In truth, he dedicated moreorless the whole of his career to wiping out all trace of the Labour Party which Mr Foot represented.

Labour went into that 1983 election with so many weak spots it must have been hard for Margaret Thatcher’s Tories to decide which one to target.

The 700-page manifesto with its raft of left-wing policies – later dubbed the longest suicide note in history – was not the half of…

Although its been widely reported that the Electoral Commission has ruled that the £5.1 million in donations that the Conservative Party received from Bearwood Corporate Services were made legally and within the rules set out by PPERA, very little has been said about the detail of its findings beyond noting that the Conservative Party were [...]

It’s always an entertaining edition of Question Time when our Bozza is on the panel, and yesterday’s show was no exception. Not only was it (as ever) liberally sprinkled with lovely Boris... This is a summary of another excellent Boriswatch.com post.Visit the site for the full post!

There seems little to add to the reams of material that has appeared both in print and on the airwaves about the death of Michael Foot. He was undeniably a great parliamentary figure and his death moreorless severs the only remaining link with the days in which politicians were expected to command the House of Commons by the power of their oratory rather than command the news media by the succinctness of their soundbites. As Tony Blair said yesterday, he was as far removed as it is possible to be from the techniques of modern politics, and maybe that is no bad thing to have inscribed on your tombstone.

Nevertheless....I have to say I have been struck by the degree of sentimentality in some of the tributes, notably from Lord Kinnock, about Foot's contribution to the Labour Party in the period after the 1979 defeat. To listen to some of what has been said, anyone would think he saved the party during that grim period. The truth was he actually came close to destroying it.

In my view, Foot would have gone down as an immeasurably greater man had he not succumbed to the vain belief in 1980…

That the Electoral Commission - despite a disgraceful boycott of their requests to interview senior Tories - has ruled that Lord Ashcroft's Bearwood company is entitled to pour money into buying the election in marginal constituencies does not absolve the party from the questions that arise after William Hague's astonishing admission on BBC Radio last night.

Hague effectively admitted that Lord Ashcroft had misled him - to put it politely - about his tax status. As Lord Turnbull, the former Cabinet Secretary, has indicated, ignorance is no defence when Hague had given clear undertakings as a condition of Ashcroft's peerage. The Electoral Commission maintains - despite their boycott of its interviewers - that the Tories had in all probability done their 'due diligence' over the Bearwood donations. Yet since Lord Turnbull is quite clear that Hague had not done his 'due diligence' with respect to Ashcroft's supposed willingness to pay his taxes as a UK resident, it is hard to see on what basis the Electoral Commission has decided to give his party colleagues the benefit of the doubt.

The facts appear to be these. Lord Ashcroft led Hague to believe that he would pay…

There was an interesting comment piece in The Independent on Sunday by fellow Cornerstone member and member of the Defence Select Committee Adam Holloway on the subject of Afghanistan and “Operation Moshtarack”. Unfortunately he paints a rather bleak picture of the current state of affairs, but also offers a four step strategy on how we [...]

Last Monday after SEC’s town hall meeting I commented that the chairman, the BBC’s Stephen Sackur, had failed to be objective. I said: He referred to the Conservative team as “you lot”. He called the Glenkerrin Arcadia scheme an “insane idea” (compare this with the language of the planning inspector: “The evidence to the Inquiry [...]

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey today accused politicians of trying to bully Christianity out of public life. He complained of a ’strident and bullying campaign’ to marginalise Christianity in the name of political correctness. Lord Carey said: ‘We have reached the point where politicians are mocked for merely expressing their faith. ‘I cannot imagine any politician expressing [...]

So Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, wants to shut down the 6 Music and Asian Network radio stations. He couldn’t even give a consistent and coherent reason why. I have a fierce affection for 6 Music – its innovation, its constant ability to surprise and delight, the laughs it’s given me and the [...] Related posts:Mark Thompson defines impartiality Kitty Killer: Muslim solidarity… Well done BBC

Wow. I’ve just seen what Conservative education spokesman Michael Gove said about Lord Ashcroft: KW:  Joining me now is the shadow schools secretary Michael Gove. Michael Gove I want to read you something: “The party’s unhealthy reliance on Ashcroft puts its entire electoral strategy at risk. Move over Jim Davidson, there’s an even more high-profile comedian [...]

Watch Question Time this Thursday 4th March on BBC 1 at 10.35pm Question Time, the BBC’s premier political debate programme comes from Canary Wharf this week.  David Dimbleby will be joined in London by Boris Johnson, Liberal Democrat peer Shirley Williams, broadcaster Carol Vorderman, the novelist Will Self and the Transport Secretary Lord Adonis. Question Time will [...]

Gordon Brown was bang on the money today in his speech on crime and anti-social behaviour when he said… …you don’t tackle the fear of crime by cultivating it, by ramping up a public sense of panic, by abusing the figures and claiming our society is broken… Way to go Gordon. His intervention is a fresh breeze [...] Related posts:Take courage, Gordon Gordon Brown: pretty words and flowers, poetry and threats Gordon Brown: obscurity knocks

With the elections over and to save duplication of effort, Unity News is ceasing operations to allow the administrators to concentrate on the Norfolk Unity website, which will carry all the news that would have appeared here. Click the graphic to go to Norfolk Unity Update your links now!

Centre for Social Cohesion reveals BNP’s online fascist network Centre for Social Cohesion Press Release 13 July 2009 On the day before two leading British National Party (BNP) members take their seats in the European Parliament, a new Centre for Social Cohesion report reveals that members and supporters of the BNP and its online activists display significant [...]