This is Ruth's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following Ruth's activity
Ruth
Recent Activity
Because we feel that if we publically join forces on one issue, people might expect us to join forces on other issues that we don't agree with.
Tim Montgomerie: Why doesn't the Right march?
> More photographs of the event Sometimes, of course, the Right does take to the streets. I think of the Countryside March at the start of the Blair years or Glenn Beck's recent event in Washington (organised by a questionable individual but attended largely by American patriots). I know many ...
Very well put Chris.
Chris Philp: There are compelling local and national reasons why we should vote No to AV
Chris Philp was the Conservative Candidate in Hampstead & Kilburn at the last election (losing by just 42 votes) and is the Conservative “No” Coordinator for London. At the last election, I lost Hampstead & Kilburn to Glenda Jackson by the agonising margin of 42 votes. This was made all the m...
I really wish that political communication wasn't reduced to soundbites. If you look at the figures, it is obvious that either salaries in the entire public sector need to go down or employees need to be laid off. The government should start getting into the technicalities of what they are doing so that we see that they don't have any other choice.
Lansley to nurses: "I am sorry if what I'm setting out to do has not communicated itself."
This, then, is an opportunity for the cabinet to show the country the meaning of 'loyalty'.
Why Andrew Lansley is getting a raw deal
by Paul Goodman The Health Secretary is the latest politician to be humiliated by the producer interest. Some of his predecessors have deserved it. Lansley doesn't, for three reasons: Downing Street signed up to his plans... The Conservative manifesto said that GPs would be given "the po...
Wow, you have totally convinced me.
Ed Hall: Raising the income tax threshold is an assault on democracy
Ed Hall is a businessman and Conservative activist in Kensington and Chelsea who occasionally blogs here. You can’t send a gift horse back to the pet shop. And if you paid nothing for your government or your public services what right do you have to complain? I don’t believe that the Lib...
I think outside 'work' (as opposed to outside 'earnings') is something that voters shouldn't want. I don't want my MP spending 15 hours a week doing something else. But I do want him/her to have a wide-ranging knowledge of life outside politics. If more people belonged to political parties there would be more scrutiny of these things at the selection stage.
Freeze pay, scrap IPSA
by Paul Goodman I wrote yesterday that MPs expenses are Cameron's Perfect Storm. I set out what's likely to happen during the next few weeks. Let me now turn to what should. It goes almost without saying that the question of what expenses MPs should be paid, if any, is secondary to the mor...
'MPs' essential objection to the watchdog is that it appears to presume they are criminals even before the first receipt is submitted.'
This sounds like the conflict is a relational one rather than a structural one, arising out of a group of, let's face it, mostly self-managed and self-important people suddenly being told what they can and can't do by junior administrators. It sounds like the whole thing was rushed.
Freeze pay, scrap IPSA
by Paul Goodman I wrote yesterday that MPs expenses are Cameron's Perfect Storm. I set out what's likely to happen during the next few weeks. Let me now turn to what should. It goes almost without saying that the question of what expenses MPs should be paid, if any, is secondary to the mor...
I would have a concern about matched funding - it seems to me that it would be open to abuse by the larger charities who have enough cash to redirect funds from one fund number to another in order to claim a higher amount. How would you control for this?
Nick Hurd MP: We don't want charities to become dependent upon the state
Nick Hurd MP is Minister for Civil Society. Tim Montgomerie kicked off the New Year with a call for a “revolution in how taxpayers money reaches voluntary organisations”. His concern is that too many charities have become dependent on income from the State and in that process have become bland...
Having checked the expenses of senior managers, I don't know what all the fuss is about. IPSA needs to be competent and MPs need to respect the rules.
MPs' expenses are Cameron's perfect storm
by Paul Goodman David Cameron wants to freeze MPs' pay. Expenses present MPs with a Catch-22. If they claim, they may well be pilloried in their local papers. If they don't, they'll be out of pocket. If recent Parliaments are anything to go by, MPs will be continuing to work less outsi...
Very interesting.
The John Bercow I knew
By Paul Goodman My heart isn't really in being unpleasant about John Bercow, although I confess that my tongue's been so from time to time. Perhaps I'm too lily-livered - or kind-hearted, or bone idle to knuckle down to the task. Or maybe there's too much competition. Or perhaps I hold back...
The Telegraph forgets that Cabinet Ministers are elected representatives of the people. If its recent handiwork is found not to be in the public interest then it has doubly insulted the electorate.
The Daily Telegraph has serious questions to answer about its sting operation against government ministers
By Jonathan Isaby So yesterday it was Vince Cable and today a further three Lib Dem government ministers appear to have fallen victim to a sting operation run by undercover Daily Telegraph reporters. Whilst I have not yet ascertained the full details of exactly how the Telegraph managed to ga...
Definitely. We don't need to let him into the country to prove that we have engaged with the issues.
Should Theresa May ban the Qur'an-burning pastor from entering Britain? On balance, yes.
Tim Montgomerie I know, I know, I know that I'm adding to the oxygen of publicity but why are we giving so much publicity to the dangerous fruitcake Terry Jones? Jones is the attention-seeking preacher from Florida who threatened to organise a public burning of the Qur'an. He's the worst possibl...
Glad to see the cabinet putting up a more robust defence on this issue. I would, however, have liked to see courses being designed more flexibly to introduce night classes and incentives for mature students to go back to study.
Nick Clegg: Tuition Fee rises are "the best possible decision"
The National Curriculum was brought in under the Tories, no?
Ben Jeffreys: Our education system should be designed to reflect the fact that one size does not fit all
Ben Jeffreys is a teacher and contested Cheadle at the general election. The driving up of tuition fees is not a cure. It is a symptom of the general failings over the last 60 years in educational provision. Throughout that time, Left-wing thinkers have controlled the arguments in education a...
I am in agreement with Ken Clarke's prison policy, but this is one person who really deserves to be locked up for the public's safety.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is taken into custody
Excellent article.
Nadine Dorries MP: The state must stop withholding vital information from women considering an abortion
Nadine Dorries is MP for Mid Bedfordshire and a member of the Health Select Committee. It is an unfortunate fact that the issue of abortion and women’s sexual health has been paralysed and abandoned on the wasteland between political ideology and religious dogma for a very long time. Pro-life...
This is good. Most teachers have probably contravened the rules at some point anyway so this will really take the pressure off.
Gove scraps "no touch rule" as part of crackdown on classroom discipline
By Tim Montgomerie ConservativeHome will be keeping a track of all the big policy announcements to emerge from this week's Tory Conference here. The most interesting so far comes from Michael Gove. The breakdown of discipline in schools is a problem for all social groups but breakdown tends to b...
Some object to the government being a nanny. I definitely object to the State being a lover!
Alistair Thompson: Labour’s moral recession is worse than the economic one
Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. Reading the papers last week, I c...
Haven't read all the comments in depth, but emphatically want to express the opinion that the Mail is rubbish and really shouldn't be the touchstone of public sentiment that it often is.
The Conservative Party's Daily Mail problem
Four daily newspapers matter most to Downing Street. The Sun because it remains Britain's best-selling newspaper and is the Murdoch empire's flagship. The Telegraph because it is still the newspaper read by the most committed Conservative supporters. The Guardian because it is the newspaper read...
TypePad HTML Email
Sorry, I actually intended to post this in
response to the other person in the conversation.
From: TypePad
"Unfair and unaffordable" public sector pensions are in the Government's sights
Both the Telegraph and the Mail today splash on the alarming rise in the cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions. Yesterday's report from the newly-created Office for Budget Responsibility concluded that the public sector pensions currently enjoyed by 2.2 million former civil servants...
TypePad HTML Email
This kind of ranting and reasoning doesn’t
deserve a response. I’m done trying to discuss it with you.
From: TypePad
"Unfair and unaffordable" public sector pensions are in the Government's sights
Both the Telegraph and the Mail today splash on the alarming rise in the cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions. Yesterday's report from the newly-created Office for Budget Responsibility concluded that the public sector pensions currently enjoyed by 2.2 million former civil servants...
It's amazing how you can tell the state of my mind from a couple of sentences. Let me be clear: in much the same way that I think doctors deserve a higher salary than retail workers because of the greater skill and risk it requires to do their work, I think that those who literally put their lives on the line for the country deserve a decent pay package and the peace of mind that comes with knowing that things are taken care of back home. I also think it would be politically disasterous to make a cut in soldiers' pensions at a time when they are actively engaged in conflict. While we're at it, we might want to increase nurses' pensions.
"Unfair and unaffordable" public sector pensions are in the Government's sights
Both the Telegraph and the Mail today splash on the alarming rise in the cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions. Yesterday's report from the newly-created Office for Budget Responsibility concluded that the public sector pensions currently enjoyed by 2.2 million former civil servants...
Absolutely. Of all people, those in the armed forces deserve to not have to worry about their pensions.
"Unfair and unaffordable" public sector pensions are in the Government's sights
Both the Telegraph and the Mail today splash on the alarming rise in the cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions. Yesterday's report from the newly-created Office for Budget Responsibility concluded that the public sector pensions currently enjoyed by 2.2 million former civil servants...
I really love the emphasis in this article on policy development. Our representatives are there to do what is best for us and that requires serious consideration of the issues and the research.
The Parliamentary Conservative Party of 2010 should reinvent itself as a centre for policy development and for modelling the best of political campaigning
David Cameron is leader of the Conservative Party but he is also leader of the Coalition government. His Head of Communications - Andy Coulson - now has a Liberal Democrat as his deputy. His Head of Strategy - Steve Hilton - also has a Liberal Democrat constantly at his side. When the Cabinet me...
Really couldn't agree more. The representation of religion in society over the last couple of decades has been so shallow that we as a public don't appreciate the 'implications' that seemingly fair but simplistic legislation has for people of faith.
Why a Christian should vote Conservative
Bess writes: Last week we asked if Jesus would be a natural Labour voter. This week, Kay Carter puts the case for the opposition. She argues that Christians in the UK are best represented by the Conservatives, the only party to offer a free and inclusive policy on funding for charities. Kay wr...
More...
Subscribe to Ruth’s Recent Activity