Is this the week we find out just how strong the coalition is? Back in May, it all looked so easy, relaxed and natural. Cameron and Clegg joking at the press conference in the Number Ten garden, negotiations concluded smoothly between the parties, ministers working together round the cabinet table and so on. This week, it was a lot harder, with Lib Dem MP’s voting for huge rises in tuition fees and Tory MP’s voting for the UK’s contribution to…
Suddenly the man who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury for 18 days, David Laws is back in the news again. Earlier in the week he gave evidence before a commons committee on the formation of the coalition and at the end of the month a book with his account of the negotiations will be published. But what are the chances of him becoming a minister again? Political Smarkets have a market up with options of “during 2010”; the first…
Which would his party prefer – help for students or poor children? A key reason, I believe, why there have been just two changes of government during the past 30 years is that whoever is in power has so much control over the news agenda. The ability, day in and day out, to make announcements that grab the headlines is awesome. Not only does it keep your people up-front apparently doing popular things but sophisticated scheduling of stories can often…
Amended First past the post ALL % AV voters FPTP voters WON’T VOTE Heard of it and have broad idea of how it works 65 78 78 35 Heard of it – not sure how it works 18 14 15 22 Never heard of FPTP 17 8 7 43 Alternative vote ALL % AV voters FPTP voters WON’T VOTE Heard of it and have broad idea of how it works 33 48 38 14 Heard of it– not sure of…
Where will the first by-election be held? The enterprising betting exchange, Political Smarkets, has just opened an ingenious market on which you can bet on both Phil Woolas and Mike Hancock. The betting proposition is simple – where will be next parliamentary by election be held? The options are Oldham East and Saddleworth, Portsmouth South, Fermanagh and South Tyrone and any other seat. Current prices make make “any other seat” the 55% favourite with Phil Woolas’s “Old & Sad” at…
BBC News What a busy morning for political news – the squeeze on high-earners pension contribution; the bonfire of the quangos, and now the news that high-profile former minister, Denis MacShane, has been suspended from the parliamentary Labour party after the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, agreed MacShane’s conduct should be reported to the Metropolitan Police. Denis, who I knew well at the BBC in the late 1970s, is by far the highest-profile MP to have been referred to the…
What’ll Osborne do about senior bus pass anomalies? There can be little doubt, surely, that those higher rate tax-payers of 60 and above who have senior bus passes are going to get clobbered next Wednesday in George Osborne’s cuts package. This was a universal benefit announced for all people of 60 and above in England during that hectic month of September 2007 when Gordon Brown was planning for an early election. It came into operation the following May and allows…
Hat-tip to the Guardian’s Richard Adams for spotting this one.