On procedure and politics

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined

Contrasting approaches to maternal health

Earlier this year, as hosts of the G8, Canada’s Conservative government pledged to make maternal and child health in developing nations a G8 priority. However laudable the initiative, the government was heavily criticised for stating it would veto the use of any of its funds to provide women with access to safe abortions – even [...]

On by-elections and e-petitions

I didn’t think I’d be writing anything over the holiday period, but politics, like rust and money, never sleeps. Or takes statutory holidays. There are two items of note that I want to mention. The first relates back to this post I wrote about the upcoming by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth (or OldSad as [...]

Tempest in a teapot

As promised, the Telegraph has made public the opinions of three other Lib Dem ministers in the Coalition government, opinions the ministers thought they were making to constituents, when it turns out they were talking to reporters from the Telegraph working undercover posing as concerned constituents. There isn’t anything particularly earth-shattering revealed this time around. [...]

Loose lips – Part 1

Business Secretary Vince Cable finds himself at the centre of a media storm today because of comments he made in a conversation with undercover newspaper reporters posing as constituents. There are two separate issues I want to explore here, and will do so in two separate posts. The first is the issue of parliamentary privilege. [...]

Loose lips – Part 2

In this post, I looked at the issue of whether Vince Cable’s parliamentary privileges were breached. In that post, I agreed with Michael White’s assertion that there wasn’t much of a public interest justification for the sting operation conducted by the Telegraph. However, as we later learned, the Telegraph didn’t release everything its reporters learned [...]

By-election discontentment

For the past few weeks, there has been a very interesting discussion about the nature and future of the UK Conservative Party. It was spearheaded by ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie, starting with his first blog post which sought to define “Mainstream Conservatism“, which Montgomerie believes is what most Tory Party members want instead of the “Liberal [...]

Defined by coalition

What is it about the possibility or reality of a coalition government that makes some politicians in Westminister-style parliamentary systems say incredibly silly things? In today’s Observer, we find out that Labour leader Ed Miliband has banned his shadow cabinet from using the word coalition to describe the UK government. Why? Because calling the coalition [...]

So much for a mature debate

Yesterday, former Labour Home Secretary Bob Ainsworth admitted what most, including a good number of  law enforcement officials around the world, already know: the “war on drugs” has been a dismal failure. As Home Secretary under Tony Blair, Ainsworth oversaw the UK’s drugs enforcement policies. He admitted in an interview that as minister, it was [...]

The politics of music

There’s a been a bit of a kerfuffle in the UK recently over PM David Cameron’s right to like certain artists. Cameron, being youngish for a political leader (he’s a few years younger than yours truly, therefore is youngish), has stated that he quite likes The Smiths, that 1980s group which featured Morrissey on lead [...]

The comfort of perpetual opposition

I’ve been slowly (very slowly) reading Tony Blair’s memoir. I will admit that I found it very slow to get into, but once past that first chapter, it’s picked up somewhat. Yesterday, I read a section that I found quite interesting. Perhaps it was discussed in the media when Blair’s book first came out, so [...]

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