One of the current policy puzzles is why companies are sitting on large cash balances instead of investing them as the government hoped they would. Indeed, some in the government appear now to hope to apply moral pressure on companies to invest, as if they were letting the side down by not investing. Let us […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Forget austerity. Forget Leveson. Forget the NHS reforms. Forget the welfare and school reforms. The biggest landscape-changing political event of the parliament so far has been the formation of the Coalition. The first impact was immediate. Approximately two million left-leaning supporters of the Liberal Democrats walked into the arms of […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Today's PMQs was an unusual affair – it was much livelier towards the end than at the beginning. The Miliband-Cameron duel consisted of Miliband asking questions he knew Cameron would never engage with, and Cameron reading out lists of Government schemes. The first question came from Tory backbencher Karen Lumley, […]
Robert Halfon is Member of Parliament for Harlow. Follow Rob on Twitter. You can sign the petition at www.PetrolPromise.com. Regular readers will know that I have been banging on about petrol and diesel prices for some years now – and actually ConservativeHome was instrumental, in making the case through 2011 for lower fuel duty. The Government […]
5.15pm WATCH: "The muttering idiot sitting opposite me" – Cameron on Balls 4pm Chris Skidmore MP on Comment: How the Government should tackle health tourism 2.30pm ToryDiary: Mischief-making Nigel Farage opens door to joint Tory-UKIP candidates 2pm WATCH: David Cameron's PPS Desmond Swayne and Justice Minister Crispin Blunt record pro-gay marriage videos for Out4Marriage 1pm ToryDiary: Cameron livens […]
Conor Burns is MP for Bournemouth West and PPS to Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland Secretary An interesting debate may well be about to begin springing from a little-noticed Written Ministerial Statement about electoral administration put out shortly before last year’s summer recess. It was made by the excellent Mark Harper who it has been […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Adrian Beecroft wrote a report for the Government that aims to create a climate in which businesses are more willing to hire extra workers. His argument is a simple one. Employers will be less keen to hire if it is expensive and time-consuming to fire them if, in due course, […]
I'm delighted that Cllr David Burbage, the Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council, has decided to put his name forward to be the Conservative candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in the Thames Valley. The election takes place on November 15th. David served on the Thames Valley Police Authority in 2009/10. […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Yesterday the Tory list for the next European Parliamentary Elections in 2014 was opened. Please get in touch with the Conservative Party's Candidates Department if you think you'd make a good MEP. There should be a good number of vacancies… Since the last election two MEPs have left the Conservative […]
As Europe waits to see if the euro is about to unravel, and as the UK government struggles to agree on any radical action to energise its own fragile economy, there is an air of unreality in the political news cycle. In a contest for the most out-of-touch proposal, the Prime Minister's offer to give […]
The left accuses the Coalition of cutting ‘too far, too fast’. However, the Government's critics on the right say that there haven't actually been any cuts. The latter case was made last week in a report from Tullet Prebon – which notes that Government spending has not fallen and that public debt is still rising. So is this […]
Chris Skidmore is the Member of Parliament for Kingswood. Follow Chris on Twitter. How we should tackle the issue of "health tourism" is one which has recently been raised on ConservativeHome, while stories of foreign nationals, ineligible for free NHS care still obtaining operations and treatment appear frequently in newspapers and the media? The background […]