By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Yesterday evening's vote makes no real difference to anything. The economy will continue to grow, David Cameron will recover his position, Britain's non-intervention in Syria will be a mere blip in the continuing special relationship with America, our world standing won't be affected, the Commons will continue to assert […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. By the waters of Leynarvatn, J.Alfred Prufrock – MP for Grummidge West, real ale enthusiast, Faroe Islands devotee, Wolves fan and cycle lane maniac – sat down and wept. Or would have done, were his expectations of life greater and his experience of Parliament less. The last streaks of […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter As the weeks go by, the speculation about a Ministerial reshuffle has shifted to the junior Ministers. In many respects this is encouraging. During the Labour Government, both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown shuffled people around too much. John Reid used to move about once a year – Transport Minister, […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. David Cameron is absolutely right to plan properly for post-2015 election negotiations, as the Daily Telegraph reports today, either with the Liberal Democrats or with other parties (such as the Democratic Unionists, were the numbers to add up). As the paper kindly acknowledges in an editorial, one of my […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Mike Weatherley, the MP for Hove, will be on Team Rock Radio today at noon presenting heavy metal for two hours. But that's enough free advertising. On a more sombre note, he has received a death threat on Twitter, according to today's Daily Mail. "He received the message "Kill […]
By Andrew Gimson Follow Andrew on Twitter “Conservative Members of Parliament constitute the most elusive and mendacious electorate imaginable.” So says Robin Harris in his excellent new biography of Margaret Thatcher, Not for Turning, when he turns to describing how her own MPs got rid of her. Harris observes that the Conservative Party’s “somewhat bizarre rules” for […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Cynics will say that now Edward Leigh has his knighthood in his pocket (so to speak), he will feel free to be as openly critical of the Government as he likes. But I think this would be to mis-read the significance of his sweeping dismissal on this site today […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. My mother's father and brother were both professional soldiers. My grandfather survived the First World War more or less unscathed, but my uncle was not so fortunate during the second: he lost the use of a leg, and the partial use of an arm, at Anzio. Then again, fortune […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. It was the visit to Eastleigh that changed my mind about the right of recall. The notices tacked up on front doors – sometimes sealing letter-boxs, to prevent material coming through them – read: "NO MORE ELECTION LEAFLETS, PLEASE, or NO LEAFLETS. I AM NOT VOTING, or variants on […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. As readers of the site (and much of the country) are well aware, David Cameron isn't universally popular among Conservative MPs. But amidst a competitive field I would have had no hesitation in nominating Patrick Mercer – until his resignation of the Tory Whip earlier today – as the […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. The need for politicians to reconnect with the electorate is beyond debate. Falling turnout, the collapse in party memberships, and widespread disillusionment with politics and its practitioners all demonstrate the scale of the problem. The initial reaction of the political class to this problem was to come up with the worst […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Here are three measures that, if implemented – Will help to quell the charge that the Party is being led by a "Chumocracy" unrepresentative of its MPs and members. Will stop David Cameron being ambushed by Conservative backbenchers on EU policy, as he was by John Baron's amendment to […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. No political party should alter a bedrock institution without the following conditions applying – especially if it is the Conservative Party. A sizeable campaign to change that institution should be in place: in other words, there should be real evidence of public pressure. The Party should then discuss and […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. This weekend of the “mad, swivel-eyed loons” row will swiftly be followed by Commons debate on the same-sex marriage bill. Will Conservative MPs accept Lord Feldman's denial, view the incident as yet another instance of media irresponsbility, and look more sympathetically on the measure – on which David Cameron […]