Archive for david cameron
The Honours Forfeiture Committee
During the week, David Cameron said that the Honours Forfeiture Committee would be looking into whether or not Sir Fred Goodwin should have his knighthood taken away. When I first heard this, I thought it sounded quite a sensible move. But it looks a bit less impressive when you take a look at who is on [...]
Nick Clegg unites with Lords in battle to alter benefit cuts
So reports tomorrow’s Observer: David Cameron has been lobbied by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, on the need to rewrite the government’s flagship benefit reform to help children suffering as a result. Clegg proposed a series of changes to the £500-a-week cap, including exempting current claimants, in an attempt to ameliorate some of the [...]
Fixed-term Parliaments: Why David Cameron won’t be calling a snap general election
There used to be an odd omission in the generally accepted electoral ethics of British politics. Let the Prime Minister unilaterally pick who can vote in an election? Absurd. Let the Prime Minister personally appoint all the returning officers? Never. Let the Prime Minister unilaterally relocate polling stations to suit his or her interests? Of [...]
Nick Clegg on why he was absent from the Euro statement
In case you missed it on last night’s news here is Nick Clegg explaining his view on the Euro summit and why he wasn’t in the Commons for David Cameron’s statement: And from the weekend, here are the highlights of Nick Clegg’s interview with Andrew Marr, followed by my own views. BONUS FEATURE: A huge [...]
The three stories that really matters – even to Britain
If the job of selecting the new stories to headline means selecting the stories catching the public attention (and trying not to get a headache thinking about the circular nature of it all), then the headline pickers of British political journalism have been getting it right. David Cameron and the non-vetoing veto is top of [...]
It’s the Euro’s fate, not Britain’s fate, which is the key post-summit question
Sat on a shelf a few metres away from me is a box containing the various military medals won by my relatives over previous generations. The medals criss-cross Europe, coming from different countries, over the three wars that had a German-French conflict at their centre. To British eyes that count of three wars may seem odd, but...
Europe: what Liberal Democrats have been saying today
Nick Clegg: "I have said for months that it would be best to avoid arcane debates about treaty change altogether and if we had to proceed down that road, it would be best to do so in a way that did not create divisions in Europe".
Commonwealth governments agree to end sexism in Royal succession rules
From the BBC comes the news: Sons and daughters of any future UK monarch will have equal right to the throne, after Commonwealth leaders agreed to change succession laws. The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries where the Queen is head of state unanimously approved the changes at a summit in Perth, Australia. It means [...]
David Cameron shows a touch of political genius
The more I read tabloid newspaper coverage about how David Cameron is betraying traditional Conservative concerns over Europe, the more I think he’s played a tactical blinder… because he’s got acres of press coverage saying he isn’t a traditional, old-style Tory. Which is just what he wants.
Where Lynne Featherstone leads, David Cameron follows – once again
We’ve covered before on Lib Dem Voice the campaign by Lynne Featherstone and others to end the built-in sexism in the rules of Royal succession, whereby men automatically come ahead of women in the line of succession (‘Royal primogeniture’), a cause which has overwhelming public support. One complication is that our monarch is also the [...]
