A strong shortlist is seeking to be the Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. It includes Roger Ainsley, a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy, Christopher Brannigan, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Scots Dragoon, Cllr Donna Jones, a magistrate and Portsmouth councillor, Cllr Melville Kendall of […]
One of the most commonly-repeated nostrums of the issue of whether / when there should be a referendum on Scottish independence is that the issue of whether Scotland should leave the Union is a matter for the Scots. But that's wrong, both in principle and in practice. At one level, it's the kind of thing I might say […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Earlier this week we published Tory members' views on party policy towards the European Union. In the same survey we also asked the respondents to predict the likeliest outcome of the next election and pessimism seems to have taken hold. A TOTAL OF 51% EXPECT LABOUR TO BE BACK IN […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Today's announcement that the doctors will strike for the first time in 40 years has, understandably, caused a brouhaha. The British Medical Association balloted doctors, and found 79% of GPs, 84% of hospital consultants and 92% of junior doctors who responded, voted in favour of a one-day strike on 21st June. […]
8pm WATCH: Alan Milburn: "The glass ceiling might have been scratched, but it certainly hasn't been broken" 4.30pm ToryDiary: Andrew Lansley is right to reform doctors' pensions 2.15pm WATCH: Vince Cable: Lib Dems were threatened with being "done over" in the News International press if I didn't make the "right" decision on Sky takeover 1.15pm MPsETC: Tory MPs […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Yesterday, Ken Clarke announced the watering down of some elements of the proposed Justice and Security Bill, which has caused some controversy due to the parts of the Bill which would allow courts to hear cases in secret. Gone is the ability for the Government to hold sensitive inquests, such as […]
Richard Ashworth is the leader of Britain's Conservative MEPs. The debate surrounding Europe's economic crisis has reminded me of Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty. In Through the Looking Glass he scornfully tells Alice: "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less." And so it is […]
We live in a time of financial crisis. Understandably, the focus is on how to get out of it, but we also need to ask how we got into it. A pretty good answer is too much debt. In fact, unsustainable borrowing provides a universal explanation for just about every aspect of our economic troubles […]
Cllr Chris Townsend, an Independent councillor Mole Valley District Council, has become leader of the Council in coalition with the Conservatives. As there are seven independents and 16 Conservatives this is an unusual way round. the Lib Dems, with 19 councillors, are mad as hornets. The Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser reports: Party leaders met for […]
Full details of the poll here.
In the dying days of the last government, Labour laid a series of policy landmines, primed to explode under its successor in Downing Street. All were designed to portray potential Conservative opposition to these policies as heartless and/or out of touch with modern life. Prime examples were the introduction of the 50p tax rate, the […]
John Howell OBE is the Member of Parliament for Henley. The recent IMF scorecard on the British economy, produced two years into this Coalition, prompted me to take a look at the comments the IMF made in 1976, two years into a Labour government. At that time, the then-Chancellor, Denis Healey, had to go cap in […]