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Fair play to Michael Gove, though, for attending the event.
Michael Gove attends Graham Brady's Friends of Grammar Schools parliamentary reception
By Jonathan Isaby Last night saw a packed Friends of Grammar Schools reception at the House of Commons hosted by Graham Brady MP and also addressed by Education Secretary Michael Gove. Dozens of MPs, teachers and governors were in attendance, including Katharine Birbalsingh, the teacher who wa...
"Mr Gove said that many were criticising him for going too far and too fast in his reforms"
On criticisms of "too fast", for my part it is borne of concern that mistakes will have been made in the rushed legislation that could serve to undermine the case and discredit the future historical account of free schools/academies ... or are we convinced that the DfE actually *is* the most competent, efficient department?
Michael Gove attends Graham Brady's Friends of Grammar Schools parliamentary reception
By Jonathan Isaby Last night saw a packed Friends of Grammar Schools reception at the House of Commons hosted by Graham Brady MP and also addressed by Education Secretary Michael Gove. Dozens of MPs, teachers and governors were in attendance, including Katharine Birbalsingh, the teacher who wa...
Dizzy's right.
Generally speaking, though, this must be good news for Boris. Lots of history of Ken's last tenure at City Hall to remind people of, and then there's all those union sponsors of his.
(http://wp.me/p3Y3w-sW)
Ken Livingstone to be Labour candidate for London Mayor
Ken Livingstone has beaten off Oona King to win the nomination for Labour candidate for Mayor of London. His victory was decisive - gaining 68.8 per cent of the Electoral College votes so a victory of more than two to one. However, most London Labour MPs backed Oona King. In voting for the past ...
Good work Peter and no, I wouldn't worry about the far-left Greens either - their blind hatred of the car crowds out whatever passes for common sense in their world!
Give traffic lights the red signal
Cllr Peter Craske, Cabinet Member for Transport on Bexley Council, says reducing the number of traffic lights will be a key Boris achievement It is of course great news that Boris is running again and the reactions of The Guardian, etc, that he hasn’t achieved anything are as predictable as th...
The referendum is not likely to inspire most people as much as it does us political anoraks.
A good few of those who do take part (particularly, I suspect, where it's alongside the various local elections) will use it as another chance to express their opinion of the coalition (not unreasonably, given that AV will give rise to more of such arrangements). By next May, that opinion probably won't be too positive ... so at least something good will come out of our expected unpopularity!
The voters should reject this farce over electoral reform
THE principle of putting to the British people a voting system such as the Alternative Vote (AV) which violates the basic principle of the individual use of freedom to exercise choice at the ballot box, and not to have that vote reallocated in any other way, is indefensible and dangerous. I said...
I wonder if, over a full political cycle (i.e. fifteen or twenty years), the incidence of defecting councillors is significantly different from the numbers of MPs crossing the floor (proportionately, that is)?
It comes with the territory of party politics (and often has little to do with genuine changes of view or principles).
Mark Wallace: Defections by local councillors do not deserve national media coverage
Mark Wallace's latest column for ConHome... I’ve always been sceptical about the amount of publicity that sometimes gets accorded to Councillors who resign in protest at their Party’s national policies. Inevitably such decisions are often complicated by personal and local issues at their coun...
"because of all those jokers in charge of banks, the government is going to have to make some cuts".
Economics fail. The bankers didn't spend more then they were getting in revenue since 2001 - that was one G Brown ... who also messed up banking regulation.
Viral video launched to defend arts funding
C'mon Steve, now stop beating about the bush and tell us what you really think of the Lib Dems.
Liberal Democrats squeezed in two new opinion polls
Tomorrow's Sunday Times carries the following YouGov poll: * It also has these reactions to the Budget: * It is, of course, early days but another poll, ICM for The Sunday Telegraph, confirms the price that the Liberal Democrats appear to be paying for the tough Budget;
H&F have indeed done well so far, and I hope will continue to improve.
Who knows, Harry - maybe one day you'll be as good as Bromley ;-)
Hammersmith and Fulham Council unveils ABCCC mantra
Milton Friedman wrote a book entitled The Tyranny of the Status Quo. The Audit Commission has imposed on on local government The Tyranny of Sameness. The problem with all the box ticking wasn't just the cost of all the box tickers (although it was a staggering sum.) The problem was also that it ...
In the last few weeks two previously unsuccessful garden-grabbing / backland development planning apps have been revamped and resurrected in my ward.
Gosh, it's almost as if they know something's in the pipeline!
Councils to be empowered to reject garden grabbing
The Government is to introduce changes to the planning rules to offer safeguards against "garden grabbing." Gardens will be reclassified from their "brownfield land" category which means that councils will be able to reject planning applications to build on them. The problem has been the pressur...
Agreed. It's refreshing to have one not from the modern political careerist mould.
As one who voted for him in the selection, and accompanied him on a number of forays into my own ward, I have been impressed by his performance.
Bob Stewart, James Morris and Jeremy Lefroy make their maiden speeches
Yesterday was day two of the new Parliament and three more Conservative MPs delivered their maiden speeches. Bob Stewart, the new MP for Beckenham who has spent most of his life in the military, described being elected to the Commons as "the best thing that has ever happened to me." He spoke ...
I suspect there are just too many government appointments to be made.
Time to axe a few (or many!)
Why is it taking so long to finalise Government appointments?
I have been promising for some days that as soon as all the government ministers and whips are appointed, I will post an analysis of the pre-election Conservative front bench so you can see who has and hasn't attained office. But a full week after David Cameron started appointing his Cabinet an...
We should get an idea this weekend from a survey LibDem Voice is running. (They've got their special conference on Sunday as well.)
http://www.libdemvoice.org/the-lib-dem-conservative-coalition-government-agreement-new-ldv-members-survey-now-live-19489.html
Tory members approve of Coalition by more than three-to-one
Despite saying they preferred minority government last week, 69% of 2,143 Tory members surveyed yesterday agreed that "The Coalition is, overall, a good thing for the nation." 20% disagreed with 11% saying they didn't know. The vote was much closer when we asked "The Coalition is, overall, a go...
McGuinness has wasted little time stirring things up already...
"Tories warned over peace process"
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0513/breaking53.html
Thursday 13th May 2010
11pm ToryDiary: Ugly comments 10.45pm ToryDiary: Fuller list of junior appointments 7.15pm ToryDiary update: Latest ministerial appointments include David Lidington and Jeremy Browne to the Foreign Office, Theresa Villiers to Transport and Alan Duncan to DfID... 6.15pm ToryDiary update: Latest n...
Given that there is typically one Conservative and three or four antis on those programmes, it might balance things up a bit.
What do you think of the coalition?
We'll be running a special survey of ConHome readers tomorrow to get a first reaction to the LibCon pact. What questions should the survey ask? Tim Montgomerie
I fear our dear Melanchthon has lost it.
The deal - effectively with the right wing of the LibDems - reflects a steadily growing shift in our party: not away from 'the Right' so much as away from the authoritarian paternalistic Right.
Of course, I would have preferred and supply and confidence deal, but what's done is done. Let's make it work for the country and for what we believe in - at least until it all falls apart and we're back at the polls.
Modern Conservative = Liberal and Democrat?
Changing the voting system. Fixed term Parliaments. A vigorous opponent of religious freedom as Education secretary. Maybe I've been looking at this all wrong. I'd been assuming that I was a Conservative, and that the Conservative Party, though its platform had many elements I approved of, ha...
The next full council elections in London (which could affect Tony and me) will be in 2014. The question then is: will there still be a LibDem party then?
And what of the Mayoral elections in 2012?
We could well be in day two of the long slow death of the Lib Dems as we know them.
http://wp.me/p3Y3w-ji
(Apologies for this London-centric comment!)
Tony Devenish: We should not lose sight of the battle to win seats from the Lib Dems whenever the next general election takes place
Tony Devenish is a Westminster City Councillor and was one of the Conservative candidates for the South East region at last year's European election. With the election over and the coalition deal done, most of us have returned to our careers, families and friends after months - often years -...
Co-operation not coalition is surely the only arrangement the party would accept? That doesn't mean putting LibDems round the cabinet table.
Though I would rather he managed without it, Cameron could even conceivably concede a referendum on electoral reform but without a date - after all, it'll take a year to work out what the question will be, and that is an eternity in politics.
http://wp.me/p3Y3w-j2
Michael Gove says he would give up his Cabinet seat to a Lib Dem to make a deal happen
That was indeed what Michael Gove said at the end of his interview with Andrew Marr this morning. The shadow schools secretary repeatedly refused to prejudice the negotiations with the Lib Dems by prescribing what Tory red lines would be on issues, not least the voting system - although he re...
Brown keeps on with the line that tax cuts / non rises will "take £6bn out of the economy" - why isn't DC coming back at that? TAX takes money out of the economy!
Live blog of the Sky News leaders' debate
Jonathan Isaby, Paul Goodman and Tim Montgomerie will be live blogging the Sky News Leaders' Debate here at 8pm... 7.25pm David Cameron has just arrived at the venue in Bristol, accompanied by Samantha. Clegg is already there and Brown is yet to arrive. Tonight David Cameron will be stage lef...
Just something to bear in mind during today's budget coverage: the top rate of tax next year will not be 50% ... it'll be 76%!
Blogged: http://wp.me/p3Y3w-h1
Budget Day 2010
10pm ToryDiary: Tory lead down to 2% in YouGov/Sun poll 10pm WATCH: Behind-the-scenes with George Osborne as he analyses "Labour's last Budget" 7.30pm WATCH: This is a big f**king deal, says US VP Joe Biden, forgetting he's near a microphone Labour MPs cheer as Darling announces tax informatio...
Privatise it. State-owned broadcasters are the toys of one party states and banana republics. Despite Labours best efforts I don’t think we’re quite in that league (yet), but there is a small matter of a public deficit that needs dealing with.
(Blog plug: http://wp.me/p3Y3w-gC)
The Tories will force BBC to publish top stars' pay as part of bid to squeeze better value out of licence fee
"BBC presenters earning more than the Prime Minister will be “named and shamed” within weeks if David Cameron wins the general election," reports The Daily Telegraph. Jeremy Hunt, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, believes that only full transparency of top pay will force ...
No problem with the idea - as far as it goes.
The funny thing is, though, that we are always being told that the BBC licence fee is such great value for money already.
So much so that they are terrified of losing it and actually testing the theory with a proper discretionary subscription, like so many digital channels do.
The Tories will force BBC to publish top stars' pay as part of bid to squeeze better value out of licence fee
"BBC presenters earning more than the Prime Minister will be “named and shamed” within weeks if David Cameron wins the general election," reports The Daily Telegraph. Jeremy Hunt, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, believes that only full transparency of top pay will force ...
The trouble is that attacking Gordon Brown now is like bombing a ruined city - we've made our point, now it's time to move on.
Blogged: http://wp.me/p3Y3w-gs
Tory lead down to 2% in YouGov survey
The headline numbers should be treated with caution as this is just one poll but it does confirm what has been evident for a few days; the Tory lead has narrowed considerably. The Tories have had a good 24 hours and CCHQ will be hoping that the new clarity of the Tory message and David Cameron'...
Short money is to deal with the imbalance that you describe, I accept.
My issue is with the PDG, which is paid in addition to short money.
Arguably opposition parties have more resources for policy development - at least in terms of time and "spare brains" - than the government.
Conservatives raised more than twice as much money as Labour in the final quarter of 2009
That's the headline from today's publication of the latest donations by the Electoral Commission. Between October and December 2009, the Conservatives raised a total of £10,481,949 in cash and non-cash donations, against Labour's £4,962,886 and the Lib Dems' £1,055,717. I will try and post a lis...
I hadn't appreciated this before ... the Electoral Commission (i.e. the taxpayer) bungs £2m to political parties every year via the "Policy Development Grant".
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/party-finance/public_funding
"Short Money" I can understand - funding the essential functions of parliamentary opposition - but isn't the PDG just state funding of political parties to act as political parties? Shouldn't we be opposed to this sort of thing? (I suppose someone will tell me that the parliamentary party voted for it!)
Conservatives raised more than twice as much money as Labour in the final quarter of 2009
That's the headline from today's publication of the latest donations by the Electoral Commission. Between October and December 2009, the Conservatives raised a total of £10,481,949 in cash and non-cash donations, against Labour's £4,962,886 and the Lib Dems' £1,055,717. I will try and post a lis...
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