political archive
Save general election night: MPs sign EDM
A quick follow up on the Save General Election Night campaign: there is now an Early Day Motion (EDM) which MPs can sign to support the campaign. It’s EDM number 2033 and already 126 MPs have signed it. You can lobby your own MP very quickly and easily via www.writetothem.com.
Tory councillors suspended: Tony Arbour and Bertha Joseph
In Richmond, it’s Conservative councillor and London Assembly member Tory Arbour who has been suspended for disclosing confidential information, whilst in Brent it is Conservative Mayor Bertha Joseph for misusing charitable donations by spending them on clothes for herself. Oops.
Engagement has to be a two-way process
A well put post on Town Hall Matters says, of engagement and the public sector: Satisfaction from participation comes from feeling that you have effected change on an issue about which you care. So perhaps what we need more than e-petitions, citizen juries and the like, is a shift in mindset in public institutions – [...]
Doomed to be disappointed?
Rowland Manthorpe reports Earlier this year, NatWest surveyed 9,000 young people about their salary expectations. The gloomy economic forecasts seem to have influenced the respondents, because their expected average earnings fell from last year’s estimate. Instead of saying they would be earning £70,000 by the time they were 35, they modestly anticipated £45,000. It is [...]
Guardian injunction: Lib Dems table urgent question
This pings in to my inbox from the Liberal Democrat press office: In light of the injunction against the Guardian featured on its front page today, the Lib Dems have this morning requested an Urgent Question and debate on the reporting of parliamentary proceedings. My understanding is the Speaker will decide after midday today if [...]
Why is the BBC denominating UK politics stories in dollars?
There’s a rather odd line in today’s BBC story about MPs and expenses. Talking about Gordon Brown’s repayment of expenses he had previously claimed, the BBC reports: In Mr Brown’s case the £12,415 ($19,614) is made up of £10,716 for cleaning claims above Sir Thomas’s £2,000 annual limit, £302 spent on gardening above the annual [...]
What does the future hold for British political blogging?
Mark Pack poses the question ... Predictions that the next general election will be the one in which the internet will make a huge impact have regularly come and gone. Post-Obama ready yourself for another such clutch of predictions, but underneath this punditry froth the internet has got on with quietly shifting the way politics works. It’s been more at the unglamorous organisational end (imagine trying to organise a campaign without email) than at the eye-catching systems-shattering dramatic end beloved of pundits, but it’s been a major change nonetheless.
Jon Sopel’s round-up of the best of the Sunday TV shows
The BBC’s Jon Sopel has produced another round-up of the best of the Sunday TV political shows (BBC and non-BBC). It includes Liam Fox on Brown’s eyesight, Alan Johnson on the role of government, Chris Grayling on leadership over expenses, Alistair Darling on Conservative plans and Lord Tebbit in conversation with Frank Gardner about terrorism.
You [...]
