By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Daily Mail this morning reports on the 118 Conservative MPs who have written to constituents indicating their opposition to gay marriage proposals. The Mail says "Their opposition has been expressed in letters and emails sent to constituents who have contacted them with their own concerns", and points out that […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. We know that 91 Tories voted against the Lords Reform Bill last night. That's the big, headline grabbing figure – the biggest rebellion in this Parliament.
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter In the Commons yesterday, a debate was held on whether to suspend Sunday trading restrictions for the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. The Bill passed through the House, with only extremely minor rebellion from the Tory benches. This was surprising because there was some consternation felt by […]
By Jonathan Isaby Yesterday MPs passed the following motion without the need for a division: "That this House regrets the unnecessarily high costs and inadequacies of the systems introduced by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA); calls on the IPSA to introduce a simpler scheme of office expenses and Members’ allowances that cuts significantly the […]
Reading East MP Rob Wilson secured a Westminster Hall debate for today, on the subject of Fibromyalgia. North Thanet MP Roger Gale was in the chair. Highlights from Mr Wilson's speech follow. It is clear that this is another area where the data that ministers gather is inadequate – a theme I wrote about recently. "I […]
The end of half-term brings with it a new edition of Hansard and written answers. Herewith some that grabbed my attention. The answer that leapt out at me was to Shadow Home Affairs Minister David Ruffley. Staggeringly, the Government doesn’t seem to know by how many police officers the country is short: "Mr. Ruffley: To […]
Roger Gale is Conservative MP for North Thanet. US President George W Bush has condemned critics of the US administration who advocate direct talks with Tehran, stating that such a policy was equivalent to the ‘appeasement’ of Adolf Hitler before the Second World War. ‘As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator […]
This island within an island has an island mentality – hence UKIP’s popularity. But is that popularity anything more than skin deep?