UK & WORLD BLOG

EU hopes Thai vote result will 'reunite' and 'reinvigorate' the country on world stage

2011-07-06T22:10:00.005+01:00

Thailand has voted and it looks set to appoint its first-ever female Prime Minister. Reacting to the results of Sunday’s poll, the European Union’s Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton has welcomed Thailand's “orderly” election and expressed her hope it would unite the country which has suffered many years of political turmoil.

In a statement released on Monday, Baroness Ashton said: “I wish to congratulate the Thai people on the orderly way in which the elections on 3rd July have been carried out.”

“The EU hopes that the outcome of these elections will provide a solid basis for all political interests to unite in addressing the major political and social issues facing Thailand in the medium term.

“This, in turn, will help advance Thailand's relations with the European Union and will reinvigorate Thailand's key role in ASEAN and on the world stage,” she said.

The Pheu Thai party, still largely dominated by Thailand's exiled former-leader Thaksin Shinawatra, stormed to victory in elections on Sunday with Thaksin’s younger sister Yingluck at its head. The election and its aftermath is a major test of Thailand's ability to emerge from a long political crisis triggered by Thaksin's 2006 overthrow, which last year saw the country's worst civil violence in decades.

As divided Thailand heads to the polls on Sunday, UN's Ban Ki-moon calls for 'peaceful, fair and credible' elections

2011-07-02T15:08:00.007+01:00

Thailand heads to the polling booths tomorrow (Sunday 3rd) in the country’s first national elections since December 2007, and ahead of the vote the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for the elections to “be conducted peacefully and in a fair, credible and transparent manner”.

In a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson on Wednesday, it also expressed his hope that the aftermath will be free from violence “so as to contribute to reconciliation and the consolidation of democratic norms in the country”.

“He [Ban] urges all parties to refrain from violence before, during and after the elections and to accept and respect the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box,” it reads.

The incumbent Democrat Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will face off against his main rival Pheu Thai Party’s Yingluck Shinawatra, whose older brother, the former PM Thaksin, was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

While the country’s opinion polls are notoriously unreliable, they have consistently shown the opposition Pheu Thai party ahead by as many as 15 percentage points.

Following the admission by the exiled Thaksin in May that Yingluck may not be his chosen leader after the election, many (myself included) are worried tomorrow’s election will see his re-election by proxy and the return of further violence to a country tarnished by deep political divisions which last year exploded into bloodshed. Thousands of red-shirted anti-government protesters took over central Bangkok from March through to May, prompting a brutal crackdown by the army in which 91 people died and almost 2,000 were injured, causing further tremendous damage to the country’s image and tourism industry on which its economy depends so heavily.

'It's time to reform the UN Security Council' says General Assembly chief Joseph Deiss

2011-06-11T16:51:00.003+01:00

In an exclusive interview today with EurActiv, Joseph Deiss, the President of the UN General Assembly, has warned that if the United Nations is to retain its credibility, countries must stop talking and start hard negotiations on reforming the Security Council (UNSC) to reflect new political realities.

"The reform of the UN Security Council has been a topic for about two decades already, without any significant progress," he said, "we now have to start negotiations" and according to him any solution should be 'simple, efficient, flexible, rally the broadest possible support and respect the core values of the UN: democracy, accountability and subsidiarity'. [Click here to read the full interview]

The UNSC is currently composed of 15 members and Europe is represented by France and the United Kingdom (two of the five veto-wielding permanent members) as well as non-permanent members Poland and Germany, who take over the presidency on 1st July.

In the interview, Mr Deiss described the European Union as "a very special animal" in today's world, and said "to some extent, it goes beyond the Westphalian view of sovereign states and establishes a supranational authority." Last month the EU gained a 'largely symbolic' upgrade to its status at the UN’s General Assembly and two weeks later MEPs again voted in favour of pushing for an EU seat on the hallowed Security Council.

A remarkable admission: Thaksin admits he might not choose sister Yingluck as PM if they win election

2011-05-25T17:45:00.001+01:00

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (right), who following a military coup has lived in exile since 2006 and is still subject to an arrest warrant, has revealed his sister, Yingluck (left) who is the newly-installed party leader, may not become the next PM even if the Pheu Thai Party wins the election.

In the exclusive interview with Matichon from which extracts were subsequently republished by the Nation, Thaksin said he feared that Yingluck would be "attacked and destroyed by the Democrat if she became the government leader", and that he was considering several other figures to become PM if the Pheu Thai Party wins the elections (as expected) on July 3rd.

This is a remarkable admission since it fails to allay fears over the true motive behind Yingluck's nomination as head of the Pheu Thai Party, which is already campaigning under the slogan "Thaksin thinks, Puea Thai does"...

Politically inexperienced sister of exiled Thaksin to lead Pheu Thai party in election

2011-05-16T22:29:00.006+01:00

In a move that is no-doubt going to further inflame the deep political tensions in Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra, the younger sister of the controversial former PM Thaksin, has been elected to head the Pheu Thai party list to contest PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in the upcoming general election.

Thaksin, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and now lives in exile abroad to avoid a two-year jail term on charges of corruption and abuse of power, has remained the driving force behind the Pheu Thai party. Active on Twitter, his role in the party remains highly influential, a point proven by the fact that in many parts of Thailand, the Pheu Thai party is already campaigning with the slogan, “Thaksin thinks, Puea Thai does”. Thaksin has even declared that Yingluck his is not his nominee but his "clone".

So who is Mrs Yingluck? Well, she is 43 years of age, holds a master’s degree in political science from Kentucky State University (USA), and once sat on the board of the English football club Manchester City until Thaksin sold it in 2008. If her party wins a majority in the election on July 3rd, Yingluck would become Thailand's first female prime minister.

But, she has no direct political experience and was elected Pheu Thai leader by a caucus of MPs by default as she was the only candidate running.

Remarkably, she addressed her lack of political experience in her acceptance speech and was keen to emphasise her lack of independence and underline her close ties to Thaksin who still commands popularity in the poorer northern regions of the country. “Five years after the coup there are a lot of people still missing my brother and his policies,” the FT reports her as saying. “I feel my family is indebted to the people and that’s a key factor in my decision.

“I am ready to fight according to the rules and I ask for the opportunity to prove myself. I ask for your trust as you used to trust my brother.”

However, for opponents her appointment, instead of many veteran politicians, has also made it clear what the party stands for: “It’s a party for Thaksin’s interests. There is nothing that can make it more obvious” Kraisak Choonhavan, a member of the Democrat Party has said.

MEPs vote to press on for coveted EU seat in the hallowed UN Security Council

2011-05-12T21:45:00.000+01:00

Less than two weeks after the EU gained a 'largely symbolic' upgrade to its status at the UN General Assembly, MEPs have voted in favour of pushing for an EU seat on the hallowed UN Security Council (UNSC), shown left.

Continue reading...

Next round of fiercely-contested Thai elections 'likely to be held on July 3rd'

2011-05-07T21:59:00.002+01:00

Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, left, has revealed he is seeking a Royal Decree to dissolve the country’s House of Representatives, a move that will set the ball rolling for another fiercely-contested set of general elections that are expected to take place on July 3rd.

"I will return [to Bangkok] and make a statement on Monday to explain details about the dissolution," he told the press, before leaving Government House yesterday afternoon to catch a flight to Jakarta, where he will attend an ASEAN summit.

According to the country’s constitution, elections should be held 45 to 60 days after the House is officially dissolved. June 26th is likely to be too early so many believe the elections will instead be held on Sunday 3rd July.

In the last general election, Mr Vejjajiva’s Democrat party received 30.30% of the constituency vote returning 132, and a further 39.63% of the nation-wide proportional vote returning an additional 33 seats, totalling 165 of a possible 480 elected seats in the House.

UK delivers resounding 'No' to once-in-lifetime opportunity for electoral reform

2011-05-07T00:31:00.003+01:00

The voters of Britain have delivered a resounding ‘No’ in the country’s first national referendum since 1975 rejecting political reform and retaining the First Past the Post (FPTP) electoral system.

The final result puts the Yes vote at just 32.1% and the No vote at a substantial 67.9%, with a turnout of 41% - which despite being higher than expected, is still too low reflecting the overwhelming public disinterest and political apathy.

It is a very disappointing result and I believe the UK has thrown away its once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reform our country’s unfair electoral system with the British public succumbing to despicable scaremongering from the ‘No’ campaign that does not bode well for any future referenda that we should get.

Persistence prevails as EU gains 'largely symbolic' upgrade to its status at the UN

2011-05-04T11:02:00.000+01:00

After succeeding to allay the fears of smaller states that their influence would be eroded, the European Union has finally succeeded in its long bid to obtain a greater status at the UN – even if it’s only largely symbolic.

Continue reading...

Entering into a coalition looks like political disaster for Lib Dems in the South West

2011-03-28T10:51:00.005+01:00

The South West has normally been a traditional heartland for the Liberal Democrats; but now with local elections just around the corner, the latest poll on voting intentions in the region is especially troubling reading as it looks like the Lib Dems will be all but be wiped out in the region.

The poll conducted by Marketing Means sees support for the Lib Dems plummet 17% to just 18%, with the gains going to Labour (up 14% to 29%) and the Greens (who rise 5% to be on 6% of the vote) – the same percentage as UKIP. Way out ahead are the Conservatives on 38%, who drop just 4% in popularity despite recently announcing massive cuts nationwide in public spending. (NB: It should be noted that the sample of the poll is relatively small (492 identified voting intentions) and therefore should be treated with some caution. But, it does seem in line with national polls)

For a considerable time, and far longer than I’ve been able to vote, past elections in the South West, both national and local, have largely been a battle between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats since Labour have very little support in the region outside of the build-up urban centres of Bristol, Plymouth, Exeter and Swindon. In Cornwall, a true former Lib Dem heartland, headlines were made in the May 2010 general election as the county returned Conservative MPs for the first time in a decade.

Yet, if these figures were reflected in a general election soon, the Conservatives would stand to benefit almost as much as Labour, and the Liberal Democrats would lose some big name MPs. Reinterpreting these voting intentions into possible vote swings, Allthatsleft have speculated that Duncan Hames (Chippenham), Nick Harvey (Devon North), Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay), David Heath (Somerton & Frome), Tessa Munt (Wells), Adrian Sanders (Torbay) and even Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane) could lose their seats to the Conservatives! (And this doesn’t even take into account the boundary changes that will no doubt be made to the further detriment of the Lib Dems and Labour around the country, and relies on the referendum vote on AV being rejected).

However, despite the glum forecast for the Liberals in the South West, one seat does looks safe and it is hardly surprising it is that of Yeovil - Paddy Ashdown's old seat and current home of David Laws MP – which should these results be realised would become the last Lib Dem heartland in the region. A sobering thought.

Cameron receives policy endorsement from a perhaps unwelcome source

2011-02-09T23:38:00.005Z

A recent speech in which David Cameron said 'state multiculturalism' has failed in the UK and left young Muslims vulnerable to radicalisation, has received praise this week from one Europe's newest party leaders and one whose endorsement might not be well received in Westminster.

Marine Le Pen, the newly-chosen leader of the French extreme-right National Front party, has said in an interview with the Financial Times that "it is exactly this type of statement that has barred us from public life for 30 years [...] I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him."

Ms Le Pen goes on to claim it is "indisputable"that the British PM is more closely aligning himself with the views of the headline-grabbing party founded by her controversial father Jean-Marie. "Moreover," she said, "he will do something about it, unlike Nicolas Sarkozy who talks a lot without taking political decisions."

According to the FT, Mr Cameron's team are not returning the compliments - oh quelle surprise...

David Miliband signs for Sunderland Football Club

2011-02-06T17:39:00.003Z

The Arsenal-supporting former foreign secretary David Miliband has this week joined the board of Premier League football club Sunderland.

Mr Miliband, the MP for neighbouring South Shields, takes up the position of non-executive vice chairman of the club and will attend board meetings (approximately six a year), help shape the club's strategy, and promote its international and community efforts, the club’s website has confirmed.

As reported in a previous entry, the club’s Chairman Niall Quinn said he approached Mr Miliband after his Labour leadership defeat last September and believes his knowledge and expertise could help Sunderland grow on the world stage.

In a statement on the club’s official website, Mr Miliband said: "Sunderland is a football club with enormous ambition and tremendous history [and] I was naturally delighted when the chairman approached me to get involved in a club that already undertakes community work in my constituency of South Shields.

"As non-executive vice chairman I hope to support the club's ambitions in both the community, through the Academy and its Foundation, and on the international playing field, where Sunderland now belongs."

However, his mood was dampened somewhat as his new side conceded twice late on to lose 3-2 away at Stoke City on Saturday. Posting on his personal Twitter account @DMiliband, he said “Gutted to see BBC goalflashes as Stoke score twice in last 5 mins... #safc”.

The return of 'the Chiltern Hundreds' as Gerry Adams finally resigns as an MP

2011-01-26T23:41:00.003Z

When Gerry Adams, pictured left, announced back in December that he was stepping down as an MP and run as a candidate in the upcoming Irish general election, nothing more was really said since he never set foot in Westminster due to his party’s policy of refusing to take their seats in the House. But thanks to a rather bizarre constitutional oddity it was revealed this week that he was still a Member of Parliament.

As I wrote about in a previous post (see here), in order to step down as an MP, Mr Adams had to have applied to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for an office of profit under the Crown, which if granted would have made him ineligible to sit in the Commons as stated in the 1701 Act of Settlement.

The Chancellor would either appoint him the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead – two ceremonial positions that exist to allow this to happen.

But the situation has flared up in light of this afternoon’s Prime Minister's Questions in which the PM David Cameron announced that Mr Adams was to be appointed as Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. It soon emerged that Mr Adams hasn't actually applied for the office; his party Sinn Fein have said the only thing that Adams has done is write to the Speaker telling him of his intention to resign his seat.

It appears because of the ceremonial nature of this procedure, his simple letter of resignation to the Speaker was automatically interpreted as an application for one of the two sinecures.

Consequently this afternoon the Treasury confirmed the appointment, which in light of Mr Adams hostility to serves a paid position for the Crown is unfortunate since he will officially hold the title of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead until another two MPs resign, which could be a while…

The Front National has a new leader – but it’s still a controversial Le Pen

2011-01-19T22:24:00.002Z

France's far right party - the National Front – have voted for their new leader, and unsurprisingly they have opted for Marine Le Pen to succeed her aging father at the helm.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, now 82 years of age, decided it was time to step down from leading the party he founded and will be best remembered for causing a considerable political shock wave back in 2002 when he came second in the first round of presidential elections before eventually losing to the then incumbent President Jacques Chirac.

He will remain as an MEP and sit alongside his daughter Marine who joined him there in Brussels in 2004.

The ‘FN’, with its anti-immigration agenda, has been shunned by France's main parties and Mr Le Pen has been the subject of widespread criticism on many occasions for his remarks, such as is in 1987 when he caused outrage when he dubbed Nazi death camps a mere "detail of history".

But Ms Le Pen, who won more than two-thirds of the postal vote, has said she wants to break with its xenophobic, anti-Islam image and is confident the FN can become part of mainstream politics.

Her appearance and life-story do make her more media-friendly and credible, even if her similarly tough anti-immigrant stance remains highly controversial. Indeed, only last month she proved herself equally capable of making headlines when she compared Muslims praying in the streets outside overcrowded mosques in France to the Nazi occupation.

Today at a press conference in Strasbourg, the new FN leader confirmed that the party under her leadership will continue to value and work to build on the formal alliance with the British National Party – a statement met with glee by Nick Griffin…

East Devon MP Hugo Swire appointed to the Privy Council to advise the Queen

2011-01-16T20:59:00.007Z

Hugo Swire, the Conservative Member of Parliament for my home constituency of East Devon has become the latest politician to be appointed to the Privy Council.

Constituted by a select group of senior government politicians and currently presided by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the Privy Council goes back to the earliest days of the Monarchy, when it comprised those appointed by the King or Queen to advice on matters of state.

Under the UK’s constitutional monarchy, the day to day work of the Council is done by government ministers who are thus Privy Counsellors, and these include all Cabinet Ministers and a small number of select junior Ministers, such as Mr Swire who is currently the Minister responsible for Northern Ireland in the Conservative-led coalition government.

The Privy Council commonly meets once a month, and is conducted in the presence of her Majesty the Queen with just a small number of the 550+ Privy Councillors invited each time. In addition, those lucky enough to gain membership to the Privy Council also get the right to be called "Right Honourable" – not a bad reward really for serving your constituency for ten years…

Sunderland set to sign a new 'left winger': David Miliband

2011-01-13T22:49:00.000Z

After being defeated by his brother in his bid to become leader of the Labour Party and then stepping down from front-bench politics, David Miliband has been looking around for a new job and it would appear this new career will be within another competitive arena away from the House of Commons as it emerged this week he is in discussions with Sunderland Football Club.

The Premier League club revealed on Wednesday that it was in talks with Mr Miliband, who is an Arsenal supporter, over a non-executive post thought to be that of vice-chairman.

"We're always challenging ourselves to find new ways to grow and develop the club and to make it stronger," the club's chairman Niall Quinn said in a statement. "We have had talks with David Miliband about a non-executive role at the club but have nothing further to report at the moment."

But the move is not as farfetched as it could have first appeared as Mr Miliband, a former Foreign Secretary, has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001 and the constituency is less than 10 miles north of where Sunderland play their home matches at the Stadium of Light.

It is understood the post “would focus on international and community work” and would be subject to clearance by a parliamentary committee.

Mr Miliband would not be the first politician to take up a prominent role in football – the former Home and Defence secretary John Reid is now chairman of Celtic Football Club across the border in Scotland, while former Tory Party chairman Lord Mawhinney became chairman of the Football League.

But the award for best comment in reaction to a news story goes to Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, who when asked about this in a press conference responded: “I did ask for a left-winger. If it comes off, then fantastic”.

It's official: Biometric ID cards have been scrapped!

2010-12-22T11:09:00.003Z

Great news! Biometric ID cards have officially been scrapped after the Identity Documents Bill received Royal Assent.

As a result, all issued ID cards will now be cancelled within one month and the National Identity Register, the database which contains information of card holders, will be destroyed within two months.

The Liberal Democrats have consistently campaigned against ID cards and since entering into a coalition government with the Conservatives have managed to ditch the scheme introduced by the previous Labour Government. But while we can all now celebrate their overdue demise, they have unfortunately already cost the taxpayer almost £300 million...

BNP leader Nick Griffin will not contest January by-election

2010-12-21T13:53:00.003Z

It had seemed likely that the leader of the British National Party and MEP for the North West, Nick Griffin, would stand as his party's candidate in the upcoming January by-election in the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency, as I had previously reported. However, today he has announced he is not standing, local candidate Derek Adams, who unsuccessfully ran for the party leadership earlier this year receiving just four votes, will be instead.

Mr Griffin has cited the snow as his reason for not contesting this election, claiming to have experienced problems in getting to the area to campaign. However, perhaps the real reason lies in the reality his party is likely to poll even less than the UK Independence Party candidate, fellow North West MEP Paul Nuttall.

Mr Griffin suffered nationwide embarrassment when he last stood for Westminster in the London seat of Barking and was comprehensively defeated, and arguably this defeat would sit even worse.

Is the BNP attempting to hide its ugly past behind a pretty new party logo?

2010-12-16T09:54:00.003Z

On the first official day of the party’s annual conference in the East Midlands earlier this week, the British National Party leader Nick Griffin unveiled the party’s new official logo - a Union flag emblazoned heart with the party’s name. “This logo will illustrate exactly what this party is about,” he proclaimed.

The new logo forms part of a broader rebranding for the controversial far-right party as it will also drop the use of the BNP acronym in its official literature. Unsurprisingly, all the delegates interviewed about the new logo by various media outlets were unanimous in their support for it.

However, besides bearing a remarkable similarity to the current brush-effect Conservative Party logo, the phrase "lipstick on a pig" comes to mind...

Commons votes to increase tuition fees: cue the disgruntled backlash

2010-12-10T01:10:00.000Z

Shortly before 6pm the result leaked out: the vote to increase the cap on university tuition fee was passed with 323 ayes to 302 noes; a majority of 21.

As for the Liberal Democrat MPs: 28 (including Nick Clegg) voted with the Government, 21 rebelled and voted against, and eight abstained. (A full breakdown of how each Lib Dem MP voted can be found here).

And so the backlash will begin, but let's remember that the battle is far from over: MPs have voted on the overall matter of approving a motion allowing universities to increase tuition fees to up to £9,000 from September 2012. Arguably they wanted to get this passed now because universities will soon send out their brochures to court students for the 2012 academic year.

What's more, the House of Lords has yet to have its say. The Commons vote was only about the level of fees and not the thresholds at which they are to pay it back, the interest rate charged or the assistance given to poorer students. Legislation on that will come in the New Year and is sure to face rebellions in both Houses.

And this will not happen until next year - so plenty more action to come in 2011...

'I'm no economist' admits ex-Chancellor Gordon Brown in new book on causes of the financial crisis

2010-12-08T11:07:00.008Z

It was hardly the most eagerly anticipated political book launch of 2010 but Tuesday saw the arrival into bookshops of Gordon Brown’s latest book entitled ‘Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the first crisis of Globalisation’ (already reduced to half the RRP at Amazon.co.uk).

Considering he served his country as the Chancellor of the Exchequer for a decade and was the Prime Minister when it all hit the pan, one would be forgiven for expecting it contain extensive economical insight. However, as spotted by two eagle-eyed columnists at the Telegraph, the book contains two extraordinary admissions:

Firstly, Mr Brown says that the financial crisis was all down to banker greed. He writes:

“We can now detail in the most precise terms the cost of excessive remuneration at the expense of adequate capitalisation. We now know that, if British bankers had paid themselves 10% less per year between 2000 and 2007, they would have had more capital, some £50bn more, to help them to withstand the crisis. The extent of the undercapitalisation of our banks was £50bn, and was exactly the sum put up by the taxpayers for the emergency stabilisation of our banking system.”

OK, perhaps it wasn’t quite so unexpected for him to place all the blame solely on the bankers, but it does raise the question of why did he not intervene earlier, stiffen up regulation on the banks and impose levies on bankers’ bonuses much earlier?

But most extraordinary is the passage highlighted by David Hughes in which Mr Brown, who was the Chancellor for 10 years and Shadow Chancellor for a while before that, admits that he 'is no economist'.

The remarkable ‘disclaimer’ comes in the opening pages of the book and reads: “I am neither a finance expert nor a trained economist but fear of making technical mistakes (of which, I am sure, this book is full) should not silence us altogether when the task before us is so urgent.”

While it’s quite refreshing to see such an admission, I cannot help feeling it devalues the rest of the content within the book since he made his name on the world stage as our country’s Chancellor for so long.

Fast forward to today and can we now say the UK’s economy in better hands now with Tory posh-boy George Osborne? Only time will tell, but he too left university with a degree in Modern History (not economics) and as revealed last week hardly got a vote of confidence from the head of the Bank of England Mervyn King.

In a secret US cable released by Wikileaks, the Mr King said they [David Cameron and George Osborne] “had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics, and how they might affect Tory electability” and described Mr Osborne as “lightweight and inexperienced, in part due to his high-pitched vocal delivery”.

Lords ruling means AV Referendum could be put back until the autumn

2010-12-07T13:41:00.002Z

Peers in the House of Lords have achieved a little victory over the Government adopting an amendment that could see the proposed referendum on whether to adopt the AV voting system postponed until the autumn.

Under the coalition's plans, the public will decide on 5 May 2011 whether to adopt the alternative vote (AV) system in General Elections, or stick to the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, but an amendment proposed by Labour peer Lord Rooker to allow the referendum to take place on any day before October 31st 2011 was adopted by a very slim majority of just four votes on Monday.

Speaking as the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill passes before them, Lord Rooker argued that the referendum could still be held on 5th May but his plan gave the government a "lifeboat" in case it was not possible to arrange it in time.

In response, the leader of the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, rose to affirm that the Government was committed to the May date as it would save money by being on the same day as local elections in large parts of the UK. “We decided on 5th May because it is the best date. It is when 84 per cent of the population will already be going to the polls […] it will save us a great deal of money-something like £30 million-if we go ahead on the day that we have decided,” he said.

But concerns had been voiced that holding such an important referendum at the same time as council elections may ‘confuse’ voters and delaying the vote could indeed allow both the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ campaigns more time to get their respective messages across.

Considering the importance at stake, it should be held on a separate day despite the added expense, but ultimately it will be the Government who has the final say.

Is the scene already set for a Sarko vs Ségo presidential election re-run in 2012?

2010-12-01T13:11:00.009Z

The scene looks set for a re-run in the next French Presidential elections as defeated candidate in 2007 Ségolène Royal has announced she would seek the Socialist ticket, long before the deadline for nominations.

The current President Nicolas Sarkozy, elected with 53.06% of the vote in the second round of the election, has hardly enjoyed his time in office and has consistently had to endure dismal popularity ratings amongst his public. He has not said publicly that he would run for re-election in 2012, yet he is widely expected to do so.

In light of these poor ratings (still hovering around the 35% mark - their lowest levels since he took office), the Socialists and the parties on the left of the political spectrum have the opportunity to make gains and with the right candidate could end the conservative UMP party’s hold on the presidency since 1995.

In her announcement, Ms Royal said her compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the current head of the IMF, would make an ideal Prime Minister, but many (myself included) believe instead he would be the strongest challenger to Mr Sarkozy in the elections scheduled for 2012.

A TNS Sofres poll published a week earlier showed Mr Strauss-Kahn crushing Mr Sarkozy if the two faced off in the second round of a presidential contest, taking 62 per cent of the count.

But as yet Mr Strauss-Kahn has refused so far to reveal his intentions, although in an interview to the German news magazine Stern early this month revealed: “I will tell you what I tell everyone. I am going to see my term as IMF managing director through to the end. And the term ends in 2012”.

In order to select its official candidate, the Socialist party is holding a pre-selection “primary” contest next autumn. All candidates for the nomination have to declare their intentions by June 2011.

The Twickenham Twinkle-toes? Vince Cable set to fulfil career ambition and appear on Strictly Come Dancing

2010-11-19T00:13:00.005Z

It’s taken many many years but Liberal Democrat Vince Cable is finally going to fulfil a lifetime ambition; no, not become a cabinet member, but become one of the contestants on BBC1’s hit show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.

A long-time ballroom dancing fan, Mr Cable, now the Business Secretary in the coalition government, first revealed he wanted to appear on the show three years ago when he was the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Upon the news leaking out tonight, Mr Cable said: "I am delighted to be taking part in this year's ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ Christmas special. Strictly has always been a secret, or not so secret, passion of mine.

"I hope that by taking part in the show I can inspire others to get up and do something they have always wanted to have a go at."

In appearing on the show, he will become the most high-profile government figure to appear on a TV reality or talent show. But he is certainly not the first:

Former Tory MP Ann Widdecombe is currently embarrassing herself (to phrase it lightly) on the current series of the dance show, former Labour MP George Galloway appeared on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’, and former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik is becoming sort of something of reality-TV veteran since he is currently out in the jungle on ITV1's ‘I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!’ and has previously appeared on ‘Come Dine with Me’ and ‘All Star Mr & Mrs’.

But this tale has another particularly nice twist in the tail: Mr Cable was introduced to dancing as a means of keeping fit by his late wife Olympia.

Nick Clegg defeats PM Cameron to Spectator 'Politician of the Year' prize

2010-11-18T23:20:00.003Z

The Spectator political magazine held its yearly Parliamentarian of the Year Awards ceremony this week and it threw up a couple of interesting results – principal of which was the Liberal Democrat leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg beating off the Conservative PM David Cameron to 'Politician of the Year'. Ouch.

The title of 'Newcomer of the Year' unsurprisingly went to Caroline Lucas, who at the General Election swapped Brussels for Westminister to become the UK’s first Green MP.

Margaret Thatcher was crowned the 'Statesman of the era', while the Labour party left with two of the main awards: 'Parliamentarian of the Year' (Ed Balls) and 'Campaigner of the Year' (Ed Miliband).

The award for 'Double act of the Year' went to the Treasury double-act of Chancellor George Osborne and Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander, but it wasn’t all gloom for Cameron after being beaten to second place by his 'partner' – he won the
'Speech of the Year' prize for his "big comprehensive offer to the Lib Dems" and the apology for Bloody Sunday.

View the list of the rest of the winners.

Nick Clegg lends support for saving Sheffield Wednesday from administration

2010-11-13T00:05:00.006Z

Is reality beginning to hit home for Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg? Has he begun to realise that when he next returns to Sheffield in an election campaign he is going to be serious trouble?

Since he is breaking his key pledge during the last election campaign that he will vote against any rise in the cap on tuition fees, he is sure to be unpopular amongst the city’s voters – a large majority of which are students since the South Yorkshire city is home to not one, but two universities.

So it seems he is trying to get back some support by offering his support to prevent local football club Sheffield Wednesday falling into administration (but don't expect any form of loan).

Mr Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency used to cover Bramall Lane, home of archrivals Sheffield United, until border changes saw the area taken over by Sheffield Central, so you could argue his allegiances are with the red half of Sheffield. But in an article published in the Daily Mail, Mr Clegg has spoken out in support of Wednesday, whose home of Hillsborough is in the neighbouring constituency.

Wednesday are currently in dire straits and about £30m in debt, and are dependent on an eleventh-hour takeover to avoid administration and the automatic deduction of 10 points that would present them with a fight against relegation to League Two. If that was not bad enough, the club must find £600,000 to survive a winding-up order from HM Revenue and Customs, who have also brought a second petition over £300,000 in unpaid VAT.

In the article, Mr Clegg said: “Wednesday is a fantastic club that means so much to so many people in Sheffield. I am in regular contact with Howard Wilkinson on this issue and I will continue to help where I can in my role as a Sheffield MP.”

“All Owls fans will be hoping that there’s a successful long-term solution to the club’s financial problems”, he said.

The Mail article also reports that the former Portsmouth and Leicester owner Milan Mandaric is plotting a potential takeover package. As a former season-ticket holder at Hillsborough, if this move keeps the club out of administration then this news is very welcome. But for Mr Clegg however this will be just the start as he looks to win back some local support.

Sarkozy wins through as retirement age in France rises to 62

2010-11-10T17:00:00.003Z

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is celebrating a significant victory today as his controversial plan to increase the age of retirement from 60 to 62 became law.

Numerous disruptive strikes and street protests were held in an attempt to halt the austerity measure but the law was published in the government's official journal today – meaning Mr Sarkozy has signed it and it has gone into effect.

The reform means the minimum retirement age is now 62 instead of 60. Those who want to claim full pension benefits must now wait until age 67 instead of 65.

The Unions had argued retirement at 60 was a cornerstone of France's social security system, but the government responded by saying the pension system would have been jeopardised without the change because French people are living longer.

But Mr Sarkozy proclaimed today that the French pension system had been "saved" commenting that "[I am] fully aware that this is a difficult reform, but I always considered that my duty, and the duty of the government, was to carry it out."

Nonetheless it remains a small, albeit significant, victory for Mr Sarkozy as his finds his approval rating hovering around the 35% mark - their lowest levels since he took office in 2007.

Which the French protested this move, across the Channel the retirement age in the UK is much higher, currently 65, although the coalition government has announced it will increase to 66 by 2020.

George Galloway under 'serious pressure' to stand for Scottish Parliament seat

2010-11-08T22:42:00.003Z

George Galloway, a former MP expelled from the Labour party in 2003 over his opposition to the party's actions on Iraq, has revealed he is considering a return to politics by standing for a seat in the Scottish Parliament.

In his weekly Daily Record newspaper column, Mr Galloway, an MP in London's Bethnal Green and Bow seat until last May's general election, wrote that he was under "serious pressure" to be a candidate in Glasgow in the next parliamentary elections pencilled in for May 2011.

He will presumably contest the seat under the banner of the Respect anti-war party that he founded upon his expulsion in 2003, and has experience of serving constituents in Scotland’s largest city as he was first the MP for Glasgow Hillhead for 10 years and then MP for Glasgow Kelvin for eight.

Musing in his newspaper column entitled “Holyrood could be calling me home”, Mr Galloway said he thought securing a regional seat was possible, writing "I'd need 5% of the total Glasgow vote to get elected - somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 votes. My friends don't think it's beyond me. Neither do I. What about you?"

He continues that the Scottish Parliament needs "heavier-weight members" if it is to develop as a real parliament "worthy of the name". As a very capable and outspoken orator with the “the gift of the Glasgow gab” and the public record he has, it would be hard to argue against the label that Mr Galloway has acquired of controversial.

Additionally, he all has the distinct advantage for a politician seeking election of the people actually knowing who he is – even if it is because of his ill-fated appearance on reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother in January 2006 in which he pretended to be a cat.

It is for these reasons that I believe if he decides to stand for a seat in Holyrood next May, he may well be relaunching his political career as an MSP.

Paradise island in mourning as PM loses battle with pancreatic cancer

2010-10-25T16:54:00.004+01:00

A tranquil, happy and beautiful island is this week mourning the loss of its Prime Minister David Thompson, who in January 2008 became the youngest ever elected prime minister of the Caribbean nation of Barbados, reportedly died on Saturday of pancreatic cancer at his private residence in St. Philip province, according to a government statement. He was just 48 years of age.

The London-born premier had been ill since March and in a radio address to the nation last month told his citizens that he was shuffling his cabinet to pass many of his responsibilities to other ministers. In an admirable act he said he chose the radio as the medium through which to deliver his speech rather than television was so islanders would focus on his message, not his appearance since he was undergoing chemotherapy.

Mr. Thompson’s deputy Freundel Stuart was later sworn in Saturday as the island’s new prime minister with the next elections scheduled for 2012. In his first address to the nation as Prime Minister, the 61-year-old pledged to continue in the steps of his late predecessor whose contribution to public life he said was “substantial and wise”.

A state funeral will be held on November 3rd, with a memorial service to be held in the capital's Kensington Oval stadium.

UN's Ban Ki-Moon to address MEPs as poverty takes center stage in Strasbourg

2010-10-18T15:04:00.000+01:00

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is due to address MEPs tomorrow during October’s plenary session and alongside the Parliament's President Jerzy Buzek will launch a blue-ribbon campaign to symbolise the fight against poverty.

Continue reading...

'It takes two to Quango, Minister' - another comedic flashback

2010-10-15T15:35:00.006+01:00

Quangos, or quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations to give their full name, were back in the news this week as Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude announced the coalition government was to abolish 192 of these quangos, merge another 118 and substantially reform a further 171.

The ‘Bonfire of the Quangos’ as dubbed by many in the media despite the fact on closer inspection only a sprinkling will actually be abolished, it has also been described as a “smokescreen that will cost money”.

Nonetheless I cannot help but again put on my sceptical hat as this new government again embarks on the traditional 'economy drive' that has become custom soon after the arrival into government of the former Opposition.

In this vein I am constantly reminded of the glorious comedic references that feature in the classic episode of the same name in the ‘Yes, Minister’ TV series, such as this classic conversation between the Minister (Hacker) and his Permanent Secretary (Sir Humphrey):

Jim Hacker: "It's very popular with the voters, Humphrey. It gives them a chance to help us find ways to stop wasting government money."

Sir Humphrey: "The public doesn't know anything about wasting government money. We are the experts."

But it’s not as if the new Prime Minister David Cameron is himself unaware of the ‘Yes, Minister ’comparisons, as Paul Waugh notes referring to his ‘Living Within our Means’ speech in Birmingham in May 2008 where the Conservative leader said: "the efficiency drive is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Ministers are summoned, officials instructed, the media prepared for sweeping savings in running the costs of government.” Whoops.

But yet another ‘Yes, Minister’ reference occurred to me last night following journalist Max Hastings’ comments on the latest edition of BBC’s Question Time. The audience were noticeably muted (or speechless/indifferent) in reaction to his comments that the posts at the top of these Quangos are filled by the government’s major supporters once it is elected.

Still wearing my sceptical hat, I have no doubt such practices occur, but it again draws references to ‘Yes, Minister’ in particular to Series 1 Episode 7 entitled ‘Jobs for the Boys’ in which a retiring bank director is recommended to the top post in a Quango in return for saving the minister’s blushes.

But is the Quango-culling likely to save much money? Probably not. As Mr Hacker soon learns in the ‘Economy Drive’ episode, more often than not the cuts are hard to implement and so don’t happen in quite the fashion they were imagined.

Banned by the Pope: why Carla Bruni was absent from husband's Vatican visit

2010-10-15T11:21:00.004+01:00

Fresh from his visit to the British shores, Pope Benedict XVI held an audience with French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this month at the Vatican.

Rumours are rife that Mr Sarkozy requested the meeting with the pontiff following the publication in France of numerous surveys that showed his approval rating amongst French Catholics has fallen from 61% down to 47% in the space of 12 months, with some of that decline due to the controversy over the Roma expulsions.

While Sarkozy was brought up as a Catholic, he is hardly a saint – he is after all twice-divorced. But his current wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was strangely and noticeably absent from the visit.

At the time the Elysée Palace made no comment on why the first lady stayed in Paris for the Vatican trip but now all has been revealed thanks to the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné who have revealed it was Benedict XVI himself who told Ms Bruni to stay away from the Vatican.

The reason according to Le Canard: the Pope was concerned that her presence would spark a rash of nude and scantily-clad photos from her modelling career being published in Italian newspapers.

While the Italian press’s love for this material is well-known, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy is a photographer’s dream when she accompanies her husband on official business and adds an often much-needed touch of glamour to proceedings à la Michelle Obama, and as the photo above shows did meet the Pope during his visit to France in late 2008.

But she has undeniably courted attention and nude and semi-naked pictures from her days as a model are regularly published in the media. Even at the BBC when a black and white print of her baring all and covering her intimacy with her hands was auctioned off at Christie's days after her first state visit to Britain in March 2008.

Cameron urges Scots to have "courage" and hold independence referendum

2010-10-04T23:17:00.006+01:00

British Prime Minister David Cameron today issued a challenge to the Scottish National Party to be brave and courageous and call an independence referendum.

Speaking at a Scots reception at his party's annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Cameron said he was ready to fight the referendum should the SNP "ever call one" but admitted that such a move didn't look likely at the moment.

"I will be on that campaign if they ever have the courage to call that referendum on the future of the United Kingdom but it doesn't look like they do right now does it,” he said.

The SNP had pledged to hold a referendum as part of their programme following the 2007 elections but confirmed last month the referendum was been put on hold because opposition parties made it very clear that they would to block the bill.

Mr Cameron also said he was committed to increasing the Conservative party's standing across the border. Scotland only returned one Conservative MP in May's election and the party failed to increase its overall vote share.

However, the party looks set to perform a major policy U-turn and go into the forthcoming Scottish election offering to form a coalition to get into government at Holyrood. This is quite a U-turn remembering that following the 2007 election, the Conservatives ruled out a deal with the SNP because they could not support Alex Salmond's plans for an independence referendum...

'Miliband of Brothers' - the satire now before the serious tomorrow

2010-09-24T15:52:00.002+01:00

It has been a long summer for the five candidates hoping to become the next leader of the ousted Labour Party, but tomorrow afternoon as their annual party conference opens in Manchester the result of the ballot will be known.

It is expected that the next leader of the opposition will be a Miliband – but the question of which one still remains. The favourite throughout has been the more experienced David, but as the long five-month contest closed it was younger brother Ed who became the favourite in the eyes of the many bookmakers.

Appropriately on the eve of the announcement, an hour-long docudrama is being broadcast tonight at 9pm on More4 cleverly entitled ‘Miliband of Brothers’.

But worry not, it won’t be too serious viewing for a Friday night - it is on More4 after all… It is billed as being more ‘satirical’ which is hardly a surprise since film’s writer David Quantick began his comedy career on the infamous Spitting Image.

The docudrama depicts David and Ed’s rise from their obscure Left-wing North London origins to their battle for the Labour leadership and will no doubt feature some typical family squabbles.

Ahead of the ballot result tomorrow afternoon, this is essential viewing – even if neither of the brothers themselves will watch.

EU to remain on sidelines at UN Assembly after 'surprise' refusal to grant it more rights

2010-09-19T14:20:00.002+01:00

As the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit kicks off in New York tomorrow, the European Union will resume its place on the bench on the sidelines as it emerges its attempt to win increased rights was ‘surprisingly’ defeated.

Continue reading...

Scots forced to wait on Independence Referendum

2010-09-08T13:19:00.003+01:00

Scots seeking independence from Great Britain will have to wait longer to make their voice heard as they will not get to vote in an independence referendum before next May’s Scottish Parliamentary elections it was confirmed this week.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) had pledged to hold a referendum as part of their programme following the 2007 elections when the Nationalists narrowly ousted the then-ruling Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition. It was thought their preferred date for the vote being November 30th – St Andrew’s Day.

But now it seems the referendum has been put on hold as the minority SNP government in Holyrood cannot pass the necessary bill because the opposition parties made it very clear that they wanted to block the referendum bill.

Instead, Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, has pledged to make independence a dominating feature of his campaign for a second term in office, stating the SNP would campaign on the issue at the Holyrood elections.

"I want Scotland to have the same responsibilities and opportunities as similar nations," he said. "Until we can use all the economic and financial levers available to every other government in the world, Scotland will always be at a competitive disadvantage."

"This government was elected with a popular mandate to put the question of Scotland's future to the vote in a referendum. It is time for the people of Scotland to have their say. Not everyone will agree with our vision for the future, we know that."

In response to this move, the opposition parties have naturally accused the Scottish government of "running scared" but the ball has already started rolling on the referendum since the draft Referendum Bill was published in February revealing details of the two questions it wants to see put to voters in a ballot.

The first question would ask if they backed increasing the Scottish Parliament's powers while the second would ask if they agreed Holyrood's powers should be extended to enable independence to be achieved.

But it not as simple as it sounds: firstly because the latest opinion polls put Scottish Labour 10 percentage points ahead of the SNP, suggesting the Nationalists could lose control at Holyrood next May after one term in office as a minority administration. Even if they managed to retain power, a 'Yes' vote would not trigger instant independence as the Scottish Parliament does not have the authority to declare Scotland an independent country – it would only mark the start of talks with the UK government.

To quell growing movements to independence, the government in Westminster has increasingly devolved powers to the Scottish Assembly over the course of recent years. Nowadays, matters such as education, health and prisons, which used to be dealt with by the Parliament at Westminster, are now decided on in Scotland.

Gordon Brown to devote himself to 'unpaid international development roles'

2010-09-05T15:50:00.003+01:00

Since the Labour Party was removed from power in May in a widespread election defeat, the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been a noticeably absent figure in the House of Commons and remained tight-lipped on his future plans; until now.

Mr Brown, who stepped down as PM after the general election but remains the MP for the remote Scottish constituency of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, announced this week his intention to devote his time in the field of international development ditching the usual post-power path of former world leaders of writing memoirs and obtaining high-money book deals and a busy calendar of lucrative speaking engagements.

In a move no-doubt trying dispel the negative press attention brought on by the many criticisms contained in Tony Blair's memoirs released on Wednesday, a statement confirmed he had accepted new appointments in a series of aid, education and development initiatives: as convenor of the Global Campaign for Education working with Queen Rania of Jordan, working on a new programme to bring the internet to Africa and joining the board of Tim Berners Lee's World Wide Web Foundation.

But the statement insisted that he will receive no payment for his new roles, saying “each of these positions are pro bono and Mr Brown will not accept any remuneration.”

“To facilitate their ongoing public policy work, the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown has been set up to employ a number of staff to work on the projects they are committed to,” it continued.

“Gordon and Sarah have always made clear they are determined to continue to make their contribution to public life and these latest initiatives are a sign of Gordon's priorities for the future.”

However, his immediately priority has been putting the finishing touches to his book on the global financial crisis due to be published on November 1st, which the publisher Simon & Schuster says will offer “insight into the events that led to the fiscal downward spiral and the reactions of world leaders as they took steps to avoid further disaster”.

Appropriately considering the widespread impact the financial crisis had on the British economy, all profits from the currently untitled book will be donated to charities associated with the Brown family.

UN set to ditch EU's observer status but falls short of granting it a vote

2010-08-21T14:58:00.001+01:00

With the United Nations General Assembly to resume for its 65th session on September 14th in New York, the EU is set to receive special status in the chamber which will allow the European Union a voice in debates while falling short of giving the 27-member bloc a vote.

Continue reading...

Propaganda in 140 characters as North Korea enters the Twittersphere

2010-08-17T12:52:00.002+01:00

Continuously condemned by organisations for being one of the countries in which citizens are least free and where the large majority of the population is not even aware that the Internet exists, North Korea has made its first steps in the world of social media opening up an official Twitter account.

Using the Twitter username @uriminzok – which in Korean translates to "our people" – North Korea has taken to the globally popular microblogging site as part of a new digital PR campaign.

The regime's first tweet, posted on August 12th, roughly translates as: "Website, 'our nation itself' is a Twitter account" and other tweets posted since link to past speeches praising the regime's "dear leader" Kim Jong-il, and also a denunciation of reports the country's military sank a South Korean navy ship.

The Twitter venture follows closely behind the launch of a YouTube account (uriminzokkiri) to which more than 75 videos have already been uploaded in four weeks.

However, Gilles Lordet, the chief editor at press freedom body Reporters Without Borders, was less enthusiastic about the country’s move move onto social media sites stating that it is the natural extension of government propaganda.

Quoted in the Guardian, he said "for people inside North Korea this makes no difference at all. I don't consider what they're going to say on their Twitter page as honest or objective, so it's not something we can welcome.”

"This is about the abroad image of the country. Now they're trying to work on the image of North Korea outside of the country because they have the possibility of the tools, that's what is new.”

Clegg outlines DFID’s vision for International Development

2010-07-28T12:19:00.007+01:00

Yesterday, on the final day of official business before the House of Commons rises for the summer recess, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, paid a visit to the Government’s development department and after meeting the Secretary of State outlined its vision for international development.

Mr Clegg, who will represent the UK at the UN MDG Summit in September, has seemingly made it a personal mission to champion the goals both in Government and internationally and outlined a new departmental reform plan to ensure the UK achieves all of its MDG commitments.

Most notably, the plan includes a pledge to put women at the "front and centre" of delivered aid with a new emphasis on girls’ education and family planning, but the plans also sets out two important deadlines:

The Government should publish its 'Malaria Evidence Paper and Business Plan' detailing how the Department will spend up to £500m per year on fighting malaria by December, and in March 2011 publish “specific DFID MDG objectives” to honour the UK's international commitments.

Furthermore, a review into the ‘effectiveness’ of Bilateral and Multilateral Aid should be completed by February 2011, in time for the first full budget of the coalition government although the departmental budget enjoys the unique status of being ‘ringfenced’.

The launch of an Independent Aid Watchdog, as previously announced by Andrew Mitchell, is pencilled in for June 2011, and DFID aim to begin publishing full information on all new DFID projects over £500 from January, according to the plan.

The DFID Structural Reform Plan identifies six key priorities, which read as follows:

International Commitments:
Honour the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid from 2013 and enshrine this commitment in law.
Value for Money:
Developing more results-based aid and cash on delivery contracts.
Wealth Creation:
Developing new projects on property rights, investment and microfinance.
Afghanistan, Pakistan, conflict and stabilisation:
Improve the join-up and performance of British development policy in conflict countries, with particular focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Role of Women:
New programmes to get more girls into primary and secondary education; to promote economic empowerment of women and pilot new approaches to eliminate violence against women.
Climate Change:
Help poor countries to take part in international climate change negotiations.

“We must stand firm by our commitments to help the poorest people in the world,” Mr Clegg said at the announcement. “Economic times are tough, and no-one is suffering more than those already living in poverty.”

“Our decision to ring fence the aid budget is not only morally right but in our national interest – having a knock-on effect on security, migration and trade. This government will be a champion for development. The UK can lead the world in its work to combat poverty.”

The 5th May 2011 AV Referendum Question

2010-07-22T18:04:00.005+01:00

The Government has today revealed the full exact wording of the Referendum question on the AV voting system it will pose British voters on 5th May 2011. It reads:

"Do you want the United Kingdom to adopt the 'alternative vote' system instead of the current 'first past the post' system for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons?"

And, as it will appear on ballot papers in Wales:

"Ydych chi am i'r Deyrnas Unedig ddilyn y system 'pleidlais amgen' yn lle'r system gyfredol 'y cyntaf i'r felin' ar gyfer ethol Aelodau Seneddol i Dŷ'r Cyffredin?"

And, the answer you should place your X next to (in both cases): "Yes".

Standard-class on trains 'just about bearable if one is in flip-flops and a T-shirt' - Lord Palmer

2010-07-22T08:24:00.002+01:00

I get the feeling that despite the age of austerity, many British MPs and Peers still do not even contemplate or consider travelling in "standard class" when required to take a train to fulfil their duties.

Cast your mind back a few months to February: do you remember Nicholas Winterton MP's rant on Radio 5 live in which he famously said of standard-class passengers that "they are a totally different type of people" before having to calm the storm and state "politicians are not better than ordinary people"?

Well this week, a member of the House of Lords, the UK Parliament's upper chamber, too made his voice heard as he spoke in a debate on the Lords' new expenses system.

Lord Palmer, a crossbench hereditary peer who lives in Scotland, said:

"A four-hour train journey in standard class, which is what I have to endure, is just about bearable if one is in flip-flops and a T-shirt, but not if you are trying to study parliamentary papers and dressed to attend your Lordships' House."

While I may not have completed such a journey myself in the wig and gown worn by the Lords, I have made such a journey by train in a suit and managed to read my papers - may I recommend the Noble Lordship look into the Quiet Coach on his next journey?

[Following this debate, the Peers approved changes to their expenses regime, introducing a flat-rate fee of £300 for each day spent attending the chamber and those working less than a full day will be able to claim £150 - but it will be left to their own judgment to decide whether to claim the lower rate. Members will also be entitled to claim travel expenses, including rail fares. The new regime replaces a day subsistence allowance of up to £86.50, an office costs allowance of up to £75, and, for Peers whose main home is outside London, an overnight allowance of up to £174.]

Clegg hopes to set date for referendum on AV voting system 'next week'

2010-07-01T13:18:00.005+01:00

Please try not to get too excited at the news, but the Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, has said he hopes to announce next week the date of a referendum on changing the electoral system to the ‘Alternative Vote’.

Under the system, better known and often referred to as simply ‘AV’, voters when entering the ballot booth would be asked to list candidates by order of preference.

When the votes are counted after polling closes, if no one scores 50% of the vote, the bottom-placed candidate is eliminated and the second choices listed on the ballots cast for that person are added to the totals obtained by the others.

The process is repeated until one candidate hits 50% of the votes cast, which will ensure that the overall most popular candidate is elected rather that an MP returned after only receiving a third (or less) of the vote.

Liberal Democrats demanded a date to be set for a referendum on the move to the AV system as a condition of creating a coalition that allowed the Conservatives to form a government.

"I'm hoping to make an announcement literally in a couple of days, next week," Lib Dem leader Mr Clegg said in answer to a question after making a speech in London today.

The Lib Dems hope a vote can be held as early as next May, but the referendum could indeed further expose strains in the coalition, with many of the coalition-partner Conservative Party have vocally expressed their opposition to changing from the first-past-the-post system.

Although AV falls short of the Liberal Democrat desire for a genuinely proportional voting system (Proportional Representation /PR), as I argued before on this blog the opportunity for a change – albeit halfway – should be welcomed.

Cameron to send his Deputy PM Clegg to UN Aid Summit

2010-06-28T17:07:00.002+01:00

The Liberal Democrat leader and deputy PM Nick Clegg will be the United Kingdom’s representative at the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September as details begin to emerge over the actual role of Mr Clegg within the new Conservative-Liberal coalition.

Mr Cameron, while in Toronto, Canada this weekend as the leaders of the world’s biggest economist powers met, stressed to journalists in attendance that his Mr Clegg would not be running the country at any point this summer and said because of modern communications he could remain in charge, even while on the beach.

“We don’t have to have this formal handover when we go on holiday,” he said. “I will have a decent break, but in this day and age of technology I don’t think it is necessary to have the carry on that the last government did.”

Under the previous Labour government, the deputy PM or another senior cabinet minister would be put in charge of running the country when the Prime Minister was on holiday – an arrangement that on the surface seemed to work well.

But Mr Cameron has seemingly decided to reassure the right-wingers in his own party who were (and still are) not favourable of the liberals in positions of power by promising it won’t happen. But, the refusal to hand over to the Lib Dem leader could risk upsetting the delicate balance of power between the two ruling parties – as if there wasn’t enough contentious issues (EU, VAT rise, Budget etc…).

In what looks an incredible move, it seems Mr Cameron and Clegg are drawing up plans for themselves and figures from the two parties to address each other’s party conferences this autumn.

Still unconfirmed and to be discussed further amongst the Cabinet soon, one option is for Mr Cameron to address the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool and Mr Clegg the Tories in Birmingham. But a more likely, at present, scenario is for the other Cabinet ministers to “change places” and speak at their coalition partner’s event.

In the meantime Mr Cameron wants Mr Clegg to play a key role on the international stage and has said his deputy will handle Britain’s relations with China while Mr Cameron builds closer links with India.

And so it will be Mr Clegg who will fly the British flag at important UN summit on aid to poor countries in New York in September, and although Mr Cameron insists this is not a ‘snub’ I cannot help thinking if such importance is placed on this summit, why is the country’s leader not attending.

Mind you, the summit is set to take place around the time that Mr Cameron’s wife, Samantha, is due to give birth to the couple’s fourth child - something that Mr Cameron alluded to when he answered a question today in the House by stand-in Labour Party leader Harriet Harman:

"I was intending to do so, but for reasons of paternal health-we have been talking about maternal health-I hope that I will be otherwise engaged in the UK, as we are having a baby. My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister will be at the summit and doing a very good job."

Union Jack back over Downing Street as England head home in disgrace

2010-06-28T12:18:00.002+01:00

As England's football team is set to head home in disgrace after being knocked out of the World Cup at the hands of Germany, it would appear the PM (currently in Canada where he attended the G8 and G20 meetings) has wasted no time in instructing the Flag of St George be lowered.

The Prime Minister's official spokesperson admitted that the Union Jack flag resumed its place above Downing Street "early this morning".

Disappointed too Mr Cameron?

SEE ALSO: Flag of St George to fly over Number 10 throughout World Cup, PM reveals

UK MEPs to gain free access to House of Lords after Commons withdrew passes

2010-06-24T16:10:00.003+01:00

British MEPs are to receive special passes that will only grant them access to the House of Lords and its facilities and not the House of Commons as had been the case for more than 20 years.

Since 1989, MEPs representing the UK had been granted automatic access to the Palace of Westminster, but this was revised last November when MPs in the House of Commons voted to withdraw their automatic right to a pass.

This was seen at the time as a move to deny BNP members Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons access to Commons facilities following their election to the European Parliament, and peers in the UK’s upper chamber had expressed their disproval at the move and objected to what they saw as a "messy, shoddy" proposal.

In a later motion in the upper House on MEPs' parliamentary passes, the Chairman of Committees, Lord Brabazon of Tara revealed the wheels were in motion on new passes which would grant the 72 MEPs access only to the Lords' areas.

In a written statement read to the House, he said it would have been "preferable" - for administrative and security reasons - if the Commons and Lords had "identical rules" for passes.

He said the Lord Speaker had written to the then chairman of the House of Commons Administration Committee, Frank Doran MP, to ask that that Commons’ Committee reconsiders its decision to withdraw the passes but revealed “Mr Doran reported [back] that the committee did not "feel it appropriate to revisit the issue".”

"Because of the decision taken by the House of Commons, it will be necessary to alter the appearance of UK MEPs' Parliamentary passes to make clear that they only grant access to the House of Lords' areas of the Parliamentary estate,” Lord Brabazon continued.

Also speaking in the debate, Labour Peer Lord Tomlinson said that MEPs had enjoyed the right to passes "for the last 29 years without, as far as I'm aware, having produced any problems" and alluded to the fact the issue could become "a very serious irritant between ourselves and the European Parliament".

At the time, the then Commons leader Harriet Harman said the decision had been made after a review of the rules relating to passes and concern about pressure on facilities. But Labour MP John Mann said it would stop the BNP "parading round here as if they're legitimate politicians".

When the passes are issued (to those who requested them), I wonder how long and how MPs would react if they spotted the two BNP MEPs and/or UKIP’s Nigel Farage entering or strolling with purpose towards the hallowed Palace of Westminster…

Dmitry Medvedev posts his first tweet (and is welcomed by Mr Obama)

2010-06-23T20:03:00.001+01:00

As I previously reported back in April, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signalled his intention to join his American counterpart Barack Obama on the social media platform of Twitter.

Well, this evening the Mr Medvedev 'posted' his first tweet on the site as he visited Twitter HQ in San Francisco and was later welcomed to the Twittersphere by Mr Obama who tweeted:

Mr Medvedev's messages will be provided in two languages via two different accounts. Tweets in English will be via @KremlinRussia_E and tweets in his native Russian language will be found at @KremlinRussia.

Mr Medvedev is currently making a visit to San Francisco and Silicon Valley in America in an attempt to attract private investment to his country, and so early followers of his twitterstream were even treated to a photo: "The view from my hotel window".

I'm sure this is just the first of many no doubt interesting comments from the Russian premier...

UK to stop aid payments to China and Russia (but not immediately)

2010-06-16T14:07:00.003+01:00

Great Britain is to stop giving development aid to China and Russia as part of a government plan to target financial help to the world's poorest nations, the newly installed Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell MP, has said today.

China, the world's third biggest and fastest growing economy, received just over £40 million a year from the UK in 2008-09, while Russia, which is a member of the elite G8 group of developed nations, also received £373,000 that year.

The figures have come to light through close inspection of the COINS database that was released two weeks ago by the incoming coalition government to promote transparency. The database contains details of 24 million transactions documenting where public money comes from, what it is spent on and whose pocket it ends up in.

However, the stopping of financial aid to these countries will not be immediate, it will be phased out "as soon as practical and responsible".

While very surprising that these two financial powers feature among the 90 countries that currently share the £2.9 billion a year dispensed by the UK in bilateral aid, Mr Mitchell also reaffirmed his stance that the UK taxpayer’s money should be spent where it did most good.

"For some countries, aid is a vital safety net that saves lives every day,” he said. “UK money should be spent helping the poorest people in the poorest countries, with every penny making a real difference by giving families the chance of a better future.”

“It is not justifiable to continue to give aid money to China and Russia. Other country programmes which are less effective will be closed or reduced and the savings will be redirected towards those countries where they can make the most difference.”

The coalition government has ring-fenced the Department for International Development from spending cuts and pledged to meet the legally binding target set by Labour of providing an aid budget of 0.7% GDP to fulfil its pledge vis-à-vis the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Joseph Deiss elected next president of UN General Assembly‎

2010-06-15T11:50:00.003+01:00

Joseph Deiss, a former leader of Switzerland who was instrumental in his country joining the United Nations eight years ago, has been elected by the body’s 192 Member States to serve as the next President of the General Assembly.

Mr Deiss, 64, pictured left, was unanimously elected on Friday morning by acclamation and will take office on September 14th succeeding the Libyan Ali Abdussalam Treki as the General Assembly’s 65th session begins.

Due to begin just six days later, Mr Deiss’ first major event as President will be the important Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit in September, where world leaders will be asked to accelerate progress to reach the anti-poverty goals by their target date of 2015.

As a former economics professor, President-elect Mr Deiss has already declared he would focus the Assembly’s agenda in 2010-11 on global economic governance while also identifying reform of the Security Council, tackling climate change and biodiversity as well as food security as priorities.

Mr Deiss served as Swiss foreign minister between 1999 and 2002, and in 2004 he served as president of the Swiss Confederation for a year.

Accepting the post “with great hope and solid conviction”, Mr Deiss told the Assembly that the world has entered an era of increasing interdependence.

“Everything is moving faster and coming closer. New global challenges have also emerged – climate change, economic and financial crises, terrorism and global crime, extremism of all kinds – in addition to the perennial problems of war and poverty.”

“They all require collective and urgent responses. More than ever before, we need to act together to be effective,” he said.

Despite hosting a United Nations office in the grand Palais des Nations to the north of Geneva city centre, Switzerland as a country did not actually sign on as a UN Member State until 2002 as it feared joining would tarnish its long-standing neutrality on the international stage.

Flag of St George to fly over Number 10 throughout World Cup, PM reveals

2010-06-09T12:39:00.011+01:00

The Prime Minister David Cameron has recently revealed during this week's session of Prime Minister's Questions that despite the apparent logistic and budgetary issues related to such a act (a jab at the past government's spending?), the English flag will be "flying proudly" over 10 Downing Street during the World Cup which kicks off this weekend in South Africa.

"At no additional cost to the taxpayer, the flag of St George will be flying above Downing Street throughout the World Cup" Mr Cameron said.

Mr Cameron, then called on all MPs from all sides of the house, whether they represent constituencies in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, to cheer on "Fabio Capello's men" before then crying "Come On England!".

New UK overseas aid watchdog will ensure 'value for money' vows Andrew Mitchell

2010-06-03T14:39:00.003+01:00

In his first main policy speech since taking office, Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, the new Secretary of State for International Development, announced plans to create a new independent watchdog to ensure British aid paid for by the taxpayer is good value for money and pledged greater transparency in the government’s aid spending.

Speaking at the Royal Society at the launch of Oxfam’s latest briefing paper entitled '21st Century Aid', Mr Mitchell was keen to stress how important it is the taxpayer is able to see exactly how and where overseas aid money is being spent and said he had taken the key steps towards creating an independent aid watchdog to ensure value for money.

‘One million new independent watchdogs’

But the undeniable buzzword of the speech was transparency – repeated no less than a dozen times. As part of this greater drive for greater government transparency he also announced a new UKaid Transparency Guarantee which he said will ensure that full and exhaustive information on his entire department’s spending on aid projects is published on the departmental website. “I hope this creates another one million new independent watchdogs,” he dryly remarked.

Later on in his speech, Mr Mitchell argued that not only is overseas aid morally right, it is “in Britain’s national interest” and taxpayers need to see more evidence their money is being spent well.

“We need a fundamental change of direction,” he said, “we need to focus on results and outcomes, not just inputs. Aid spending decisions should be made on the basis of evidence, not guesswork. That is why we have taken the first steps towards creating a new independent aid watchdog.”

“The UK Aid Transparency Guarantee will also help to create a million independent aid watchdogs – people around the world who can see where aid money is supposed to be going – and shout if it doesn’t get there,” he continued.

"We will never maintain public support among hard pressed taxpayers for this vital and large programme unless we can demonstrate independently that when we spend £1 on development we are actually getting 100 pence of value.”

Coalition 'united'

Commenting that the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government was ‘united’ in its plans towards aid and development, Mr Mitchell remarked that “development is good for our economy, our safety, our health, our future” and send out a firm pledge to the country: “to the British taxpayer I say this: our aim is to spend every penny of every pound of your money wisely and well. We want to squeeze every last ounce of value from it. We owe you that.”

“And I promise you as well that in future, when it comes to international development, we will want to see hard evidence of the impact your money makes. Not just dense and impenetrable budget lines but clear evidence of real effect,” he said.

The announcement of the new independent UK aid watchdog was welcomed by Barbara Stocking, Oxfam GB’s Chief Executive, who said this will improve the quality of British aid which has been something Oxfam has requested for years.

However, she also was cautious towards its conception warning that “the new watchdog must be truly independent of government if it is to achieve the best results for the British taxpayer and poor people alike.”

“We cannot argue with any of the principals [outlined in Mr Mitchell’s speech], but the devil is in the detail as to how these principals are handled,” she said.

The organisation’s report, for which today’s meeting was organised, argues that strengthening transparency and accountability will be important in further improving the quality of British aid but that this is no the end of the story but part of a much larger picture. The report concludes that ensuring aid is focused on poverty-prevention measures and not politically driven is vital to ensuring it makes the biggest possible difference to the lives of the world’s poorest.

But as Mr Mitchell revealed this afternoon, “aid is, quite simply, tremendous value for money” and he dubbed it “the best return on investment that you’ll find anywhere in government.”

While the new independent watchdog is a good idea and widely welcomed, Mr Mitchell will no doubt come under further criticism for setting up a new body at the same time as the new government has been criticising the number of existing quangos…

Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva survives parliamentary vote of no-confidence

2010-06-02T13:34:00.001+01:00

Thailand's under-pressure Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has today survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote demanded by the opposition after weeks of political protests during which 88 people died and both the country’s tourism and economy suffered.

The opposition Puea Thai Party, the latest in a series of political parties led or backed by ousted former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, claimed the government was at fault for the weeks of bloody violence in which nearly 1,800 were also wounded.

They had also accused the government of violating the human rights of thousands of anti-government protesters whose nine-week demonstration from mid-March descended into urban warfare and the worst political violence in modern Thai history.

But today Mr Vejjajiva won his vote of no-confidence by 246 votes in favour and 186 against, confounding skeptics who has expected him to be politically crippled by the weeks of violence and lose the vote leading to the collapse of the government.

"Abhisit has emerged reasonably strong from the debate, at least among the powerful middle classes," according to Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, head of the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), as quoted by Reuters news agency.

"Since he is the incumbent who has support of the coalition, he won't feel the need to go to the polls soon," he added.

But it was not just Mr Vejjajiva who survived the votes - his deputy PM and four other cabinet members won by narrower margins, in some cases winning barely half of the 475 parliamentary votes, the result of a rift between two small parties in the coalition who withheld support from some of the ministers.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said the result "may be problematic" but insisted it had not affected government stability.

The mostly poor rural and urban protesters, broadly allied with Mr Shinawatra, had demanded an early election, saying Mr Vejjajiva had no popular mandate after coming to power in a parliamentary vote at the head of a coalition assembled with help from the military.

Mr Vejjajiva however has maintained that he was voted into office by the same parliament that picked his Thaksin-allied predecessors.

How many nuclear warheads does the UK possess? Hague drops a bombshell and reveals all...

2010-05-26T19:16:00.002+01:00

It was safe to say that more than a few members sat in the House of Commons earlier today during the debate on the Queen's Speech were a bit shellshocked to hear the new Foreign Secretary William Hague reveal how many nuclear warheads the government owns.

After all, normally governments talk about this sensitive subject ambiguously, and if pressed only revealing how many operationally available nuclear warheads were present, but Mr Hague has gone one step further.

But does this diminish our countries ‘nuclear deterrent’ if indeed such a thing exists? No, according to Mr Hague who said this disclosure "poses no threat to the security of the UK. It helps set standards of transparency which all states should follow."

“We judge this will further assist in nurturing the climate of trust between nuclear and non-nuclear states.”

Mr Hague also announced that the UK's declaration policy, which maps out the condition in which it would be willing to launch a nuclear strike, was being re-examined.

As it stands, the policy states the purpose of the UK's nuclear capacity is to “deter attack and would only be used in extreme circumstances to defend Britain or its allies”.

However as Mr Hague continued to explain, “we've decided the time is right to look again at our policy, as the US has done, to ensure it is fully appropriate for the context of 2010 and beyond.”

"These concrete actions show how seriously we take our obligations to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation treaty while maintaining our deterrent."

The number, in case you were wondering, is 225...

Thailand issues warrant for exiled Thaksin Shinawatra on terrorism charges after latest Bangkok violence

2010-05-25T14:05:00.003+01:00

Here we go again? The Thai Criminal Court has today taken the unprecedented measure of issuing an international arrest warrant for the controversial former Prime Minister former now exiled leader Thaksin Shinawatra, on terrorism charges.

The warrant accuses Mr Shinawatra of masterminding the recent anti-government demonstrations that paralysed central Bangkok and left 88 people dead and almost 1,200 wounded.

Mr Shinawatra, who is living in exile to avoid a previously conferred two-year sentence for corruption, could even face the death penalty if he is found, extradited and convicted.

Now that the situation has ‘returned to normal’ in the streets of the Thai capital, this incredible decision could easily turn the clock back and ignite more violence.

Although the exact current location of Mr Shinawatra is unknown, he carries a Montenegrin passport, has spent much of his time in Dubai and has been using the social media site Twitter to rally support for his ‘Red Shirt’s’ protests back in Thailand.

The Thai Government must believe that this warrant on new charges will elicit greater cooperation from host governments. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the current Thai Prime Minister, told reporters today that it “will make our work with foreign countries easier”.

“We still have to monitor his movements and seek cooperation in line with existing agreements. As of now many countries are banning him, but not all,” he said.

As for Mr Shinawatra, he responded to the news of a warrant for his arrest issued, posting a message via his Twitter account @Thaksinlive.

This read: “I am accused of being a terrorist with false evidence. This is exactly like the 6 October [1976 crackdown] - the use of media attack against an [alleged plot] to overthrow the monarchy by the 'communist' with a new name 'terrorist,' trusting weapons at him.”

(Translation by @Thai_talk. Original tweeted message in Thai: ผมถูกใส่ความเป็นผู้ก่อการร้ายโดยใช้หลักฐานเท็จ เหมือน6ตุลา19ทุกประการใช้สื่อโจมตีหาล้มสถาบันเป็นcommunistแต่เรียกใหม่ เป็นterroristยัดอาวุธ @Thaksinlive - click here for enlarged screenshot).

Will the United Kingdom ever pay its due in Development Aid?

2010-05-25T13:07:00.007+01:00

HM the Queen has today formally opened the latest session of the UK Parliament for the 58th time in her reign, and outlined the new coalition’s agenda for the new term outlining the bills they intend to put through the Parliament.

But one phrase in the speech, more precisely one word in that phrase, stood out prominently for me and came when the Queen addressed her Government’s plans for development aid spending…

“My Government is committed to spend 0.7% of gross national income in development aid from 2013.”

The word that interests me the most is ‘from’ since the previous Labour administration under Tony Blair announced it would ensure development aid spending reached this UN target "by 2013", and has been repeated on many occasions by him, his predecessors and ministers from all sides of the house.

Indeed, the new Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has too reaffirmed his commitment to match the Labour policy of 0.7% of GNI by 2013, and the coalition government had announced before today’s Queen’s Speech that it would “ring-fence aid spending” from the anticipated heavy cuts in spending required to reduce the countries' overall budget deficit.

So how well is the UK doing?

Well first and foremost, the UK is not yet contributing the target 0.7% GNI, but officials have indicated that it is “on track” to meet these targets.

Back in January 2010, before the recent elections and announcement of cuts, the Department for International Development projected £9.1 billion of aid spending in the 2010-2011 financial year, which if indeed ring-fenced from these cuts and guaranteed, will translate to only 0.56% of the UK’s GNI.

However according to figures from the DfiD, development aid spending accounted for 0.52% of GNI in 2009, compared with 0.43% in 2008, which was the highest level of the ODA:GNI ratio since the United Nations target of 0.7% was set in 1970. Now while this indicates the UK is on track to reach the target, will it ever make it?

As a pre-election move to ensure the UK does fulfil its obligations in the future, the previous Labour Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander, presented a draft bill before Parliament in January 2010 that would legally bind the UK to reaching 0.7% by 2013 and maintaining it thereafter.

The International Development (Official Development Assistance Target) bill would, if passed onto the statute books, would make Britain the first G8 country to publish such legislation and commit it to spending 0.7% every year as stated in Section 1.1:

“It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the target for official development assistance to amount to 0.7% of gross national income (in this Act referred to as ‘the 0.7% target’) is met by the United Kingdom in the year 2013 and each subsequent calendar year.”

What perhaps is the most satisfying element of this draft bill is the measures it outlines in the case of the Government not allocating this 0.7% GNI to aid spending. The draft bill would require the Secretary of State to explain his or her reasons why it was unable to fulfil its pledge and what had been done to get back on track in the following year.

Appropriately labelled as ‘historic’ by Douglas Alexander, this bill would “ensure that Britain makes good on its promises to people living in extreme poverty across the world” and would mean it would reach the target two years ahead of the European Union’s collective commitment to reach it by 2015.

So what does this latest Queen’s Speech reveal about the UK’s commitment to development aid?

If HM the Queen’s statement on her new Government is to be believed then it is good news regarding the UK’s commitment to reaching the United Nations target. If interpreting it as meaning the draft bill by the former International Development secretary Douglas Alexander will be adopted, then this too should be welcomed.

But the real question mark remains whether the spending commitments outlined by the DfiD in January will indeed be ring-fenced or will be subject to the necessary cuts the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne needs to make to address the UK’s swelling budget deficit. To discover that we need to wait for the Emergency Budget due on June 22nd.

While under the last Labour government the figures have shown development aid budget increase threefold and then sought to be protected by the aforementioned bill, aid agencies are reportedly worried what will happen under a Conservative government recalling how the aid budget was slashed under the Thatcher and Major administrations.

A reason to be cheerful? Nick Griffin says he'll quit as BNP leader 'by 2013'

2010-05-24T16:25:00.004+01:00

Has Nick Griffin woken up to the importance and responsibility that comes with a seat in the European Parliament as part of the European Union? Perhaps for now that is too much to ask for, but maybe a little spot of celebration can be permitted today as Mr Griffin has revealed he ‘will step down as BNP leader by 2013’.

Mr Griffin fared terribly in the recent general election when he optimistically predicted his party would win a seat in the House of Commons and failed badly, and the party also confessed it had received a "bloody nose" in the local elections of the same nice when it lost all 12 of its seats on east London's Barking and Dagenham council.

Speaking at a meeting of the party's advisory council, Mr Griffin confirmed he would step down in 2013 to concentrate on his attempt to be re-elected to the European Parliament.

Mr Griffin said his decision was timed to allow the last "building blocks" of the BNP's administrative and political machine to be put in place.

"This is going to take at least 18 months to implement and after that I intend to hand the party over to someone who will be able to drive support up to where it can be a serious contender for power,” he said.

"By then I would have been leader of the BNP for 15 years and that is long enough. It will be time to make way for a younger person who does not have any baggage which can be used against the party."

Of the BNP's 2014 European election hopes, Mr Griffin said he was sure the party could retain its two seats and add "several more" to the tally.

"I then intend to help the other European nationalist parties to achieve the level of sophistication which the BNP has been able to build up, because a victory for any one of these parties is a victory to all of us."

So where does that leave the BNP? Well, the only really "serous contender" to take up the leadership is a certain Richard Barnbrook, who is hardly an improvement it must be said.

Amongst other things Mr Barnbrook has fabricated murder stories to increase fear of knife crime, demanded a ban on the Notting Hill Carnival and contradicted BNP policy on numerous occasions having been exposed as having an affair with an immigrant who he sent photos of his genitals to prior to their first actual meeting and directing and producing a ‘Marxist gay porn’ movie…

Tories appoint 'Euro-realist' Lidington to symbolic post of Europe Minister

2010-05-14T14:15:00.002+01:00

Click here to read...

The Coalition Cabinet - Who's Who

2010-05-14T11:52:00.000+01:00

Prime Minister - David Cameron (Conservative)
Deputy Prime Minister - Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat)
Chancellor of the Exchequer - George Osborne (Conservative)
Chief Secretary to the Treasury - David Laws (Liberal Democrat)
Foreign Secretary - William Hague (Conservative)

Education - Michael Gove (Conservative)
Work and Pensions - Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative)
Health - Andrew Lansley (Conservative)

Home Affairs & Women and Equality - Theresa May (Conservative)

Defence - Liam Fox (Conservative)

Business, Innovation and Skills - Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat)

Justice and Lord Chancellor - Kenneth Clarke (Conservative)

Energy and Climate Change - Chris Huhne (Liberal Democrat)
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Caroline Spelman (Conservative)
Transport - Philip Hammond (Conservative)
Culture, Media and Sport - Jeremy Hunt (Conservative)

Scotland - Danny Alexander (Liberal Democrat)

Northern Ireland - Owen Paterson (Conservative)
Wales - Cheryl Gillan (Conservative)

Europe - David Lidington (Conservative)

International Development - Andrew Mitchell (Conservative)

Communities and Local Government - Eric Pickles (Conservative)

Chief Whip - Patrick McLoughlin (Conservative)

Leader of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - Lord Strathclyde (Conservative)
Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal - Sir George Young (Conservative)

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Paymaster General - Francis Maude (Conservative)
Minister of State, Cabinet Office - Oliver Letwin (Conservative)
Minister of State (Universities and Science), Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills - David Willetts (Conservative)

Minister without portfolio - Baroness Warsi (Conservative)
Attorney General - Dominic Grieve (Conservative)

Baroness Warsi becomes first Muslim woman to serve in a UK Cabinet

2010-05-14T11:08:00.006+01:00

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi continued in the current vein of making history this week as she becomes the first Muslim woman to serve in a British Government Cabinet.

Previously the shadow minister for community cohesion when her Conservative Party were in opposition, she was evidently keen to make her mark as she posed on the steps of No. 10 yesterday in a bright pink and purple salwar kameez, a traditional Islamic garment - a sharp contrast to the dark suits sported by most of the other, predominantly male, Cabinet members.

Baroness Warsi takes her seat in cabinet currently as a minister without portfolio but also in her roles as chairman of the Conservative Party, a position she recently accepted to replace Eric Pickles who is now Communities Secretary. She has previously served as vice-chairman of Party from 2005 to 2007.

“To be born as the daughter of an immigrant mill worker in a mill town in Yorkshire, to have the privilege of serving in Cabinet at such an important time in Britain's history, I think it is terribly humbling,” she told reporters camped outside No. 10.

Somewhat predictably, the right-wing Daily Mail chose to sideline this ‘small’ matter of history-making as proof of how multi-cultural the country is, by instead focusing the intention on how she used the Downing Street railing to hang her coat on to pose for the photo.

Headlined “Hang on, you can't leave that there! Baroness Warsi uses No.10 railing as coat hook as she poses for photo”, the undertone was one of ‘hang on, how dare she do that!’ – then again this is the Daily Mail…

It's not all bad - a full list of Liberal Democrat policies adopted by Con-Lib coalition

2010-05-12T20:38:00.000+01:00

A lot of focus (and quite rightly so) has been placed in the media on the new coalition formed by the former-rivals-but-now-friends Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. While perceived by many that the Lib Dems have got a raw deal out of this, it is worth reflecting on the policies that they managed to negotiate into the agreed coalition agreement.

In addition to four cabinet seats, its leader Nick Clegg has been installed as Deputy Prime Minister and Vince Cable in finally in charge of monitoring banks and businesses.

The following list of Lib Dem policies as featured in the manifesto and circulated to members of the party this evening by Chief Executive Chris Fox, outlines all those adopted by the coalition in government:

Civil Liberties

Scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database.
Outlaw the finger-printing of children at school without parental permission.
Extend the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency.
Adopt the Scottish approach to stopping retention of innocent people’s DNA on the DNA database.
Defend trial by jury.
Restore rights to non-violent protest.
A review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech.
Safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation.
Further regulation of CCTV.
Ending of storage of internet and email records without good reason.
A new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.
End the detention of children for immigration purposes.

Fairer taxes and Economic Reform

A substantial increase in the personal allowance from April 2011 with a longer term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective
Reform of the banking system, ensuring a flow of lending to businesses and a Banking Levy. An independent commission on separating retail and investment banking.
Capital Gains Tax reform

Fair Politics

Fixed-term parliaments and a referendum on electoral reform for the House of Commons.
A power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP was found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing.
A wholly or mainly elected House of Lords on the basis of proportional representation.
Giving Parliament control of its own agenda so that all bills are properly debated.
Enacting the Calman Commission proposals and a referendum on further Welsh devolution.
A statutory register of lobbyists.
A limit on political donations and reform of party funding in order to remove big money from politics.
Radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups.

A fair and sustainable future

Establish a smart electricity grid and the roll-out of smart meters.
Establish feed-in tariff systems in electricity
A huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion.
The creation of a Green Investment Bank.
The provision of home energy improvement paid for by the savings from lower energy bills.
Retention of energy performance certificates when HIPs are scrapped.
Measures to encourage marine energy.
The establishment of an emissions performance standard that will prevent coal-fired power stations being built unless they are equipped with sufficient CCS to meet the emissions performance standard.
Establish a high-speed rail network.
Cancel the third runway at Heathrow and refuse additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.
Replace the Air Passenger Duty with a ‘per plane’ duty.
The provision of a floor price for carbon, as well as efforts to persuade the EU to move towards full auctioning of ETS permits.
Make the import or possession of illegal timber a criminal offence.
Promote green spaces and wildlife corridors in order to halt the loss of habitats and restore biodiversity.
Reduce central government carbon emissions by 10 per cent within 12 months.
Increase the target for energy from renewable sources.

A Fair Start for Children

Introduce a Pupil Premium to give all children a fair start.

Pensions

Restoration of the earnings link for the basic state pension from April 2011 with a “triple guarantee” that pensions are raised by the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%.
Phase out the default retirement age and end the rules requiring compulsory annuitisation at 75.
Implement the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman’s recommendation to make fair and transparent payments to Equitable Life policyholders.

So as you can see, it's not all bad for the Liberal Democrats - they've managed a few victories but unfortunately were not able to win the war over the policy fields of Electoral Reform, Immigration and the EU...

Cameron and Clegg welcome you to the new British era of Pinch-yourself 'New Politics'

2010-05-12T15:07:00.005+01:00

Less than two weeks ago in the final televised election debate, Conservative leader and now PM David Cameron was ripping into Liberal Democrat leader and now Deputy PM Nick Clegg on his policies towards Europe, Defence, Taxation and Immigration amongst others.

Today in the garden of 10 Downing Street they appeared side-by-side in praise of each other pledging to work together for five years in the "national interest". Hands up who saw this happening as little as six-weeks ago?

One particular highlight of the new double act came from a question by a Channel 5 reporter: Does the PM now regret saying that his favourite joke was "Nick Clegg"?

Mr Clegg appeared not to have heard this before, laughed then said "I'm off ... " to which Cameron joked back, in a rather dramatic style: "Come back." Cue much laughter (and astonishment) from the press in attendance. (Cameron then said he is prepared to eat humble pie and swallow some of his words and that he "cannot think of a better diet to give Britain good government.")

It was a truly breathtaking sight and even left the political commentators speechless, but welcome to an new era in British history - the pinch-yourself 'New politics'.

Deal or no deal? Lib Dems face difficult dilemma after inconclusive election results

2010-05-08T11:30:00.001+01:00

Despite a disappointing night for the Liberal Democrats in which they actually lost five seats when they were widely expected to increase their number, the Party now find itself as the 'kingmakers' in the post-election hiatus of a hung parliament.

The results as emerged on Friday gave the main opposition Conservative party the most seats with 306 constituencies, while the ruling Labour party trailed second with 258 and the Liberal Democrats took 57.

With no party boasting a governing majority, the United Kingdom has a hung parliament for the first time since 1974. Now the deal-making has to begin.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, made a clear overture to David Cameron, the leader of the Conservatives, early on Friday when he said that Cameron's party, having taken the most seats, had "the first right to seek government". And this was met with a response from Cameron, who said he was making a "big, open and comprehensive" offer to the Liberal Democrats to help form a majority government. Although not offering the Liberals much that they want.

For example, on the issue of the country's electoral system, the Conservative leader would merely promise an "all party committee of inquiry on political and electoral reform". Which is all talk and no action and certainly therefore not good enough to seal a deal.

Enter Gordon Brown, Britain's beaten but constitutionally still-prime minister, as he desperately tries to cling to power in the aftermath of the poll. However, Mr Brown has made it very clear that he was prepared to deliver immediate legislation for a referendum on electoral reform if Mr Clegg was prepared to keep him in Downing Street.

But then such a Lab-Lib alliance, already being dubbed a ‘coalition of the losers’, would see Clegg propping up a prime minister he described during the election as a "desperate politician" and whose party he declared had been "a stubborn block to reform and progress" for 13 years.

The ‘triple-lock’

But even if any coalition deal should come to the fore, Mr Clegg is then faced with what is known as his party's "triple-lock" policy to secure party support.

The mechanism, introduced by Paddy Ashdown, a former Lib Dem leader, means that Mr Clegg would need the agreement of his MPs, the party's executive and the membership before he could enter into government with either of the two larger parties.

The "triple-lock" rules state that any agreement that "could affect the party's independence of political action" requires the support of 75% of the parliamentary party, and 75% per cent of the party's federal executive (and failing that the support of two-thirds of the wider party, such as those like myself).

However, it should be noted that one way of getting around the "triple-lock" policy would be for the Lib Dems to agree to support either party on a bill-by-bill basis, rather than in any formal coalition.

So as the MP for Sheffield Hallam begins consultations this weekend with his party, he is currently faced with one offer that fails to provide the party with their most cherished ambition of electoral reform and proportional representation and another in which it props up a government whose policies it has consistently criticised.

So as you can see, it is a difficult dilemma facing Mr Clegg and Britain’s “third party” and as a result Mr Cameron's appeal for a quick agreement looks increasingly optimistic.

History made as Caroline Lucas becomes first UK Green MP

2010-05-07T10:15:00.003+01:00

History was made in the early hours of Friday morning as Caroline Lucas became the first Green Member of Parliament after winning the seat of Brighton Pavilion.

Ms Lucas, the leader of the Green party of England and Wales and a current MEP serving the South-East, said voters had made history by electing her to Parliament on a swing of 8.4%, amounting a majority of 1,252 ahead of Labour's Nancy Platts in second place.

"Thank you so much for putting the politics of hope above the politics of fear," she said in her acceptance speech. "I pledge that I will do my very best to do you proud. For once the word historic fits the bill."

The Green Party have been going from strength to strength in recent years and in this past election put up candidates in more constituencies in England and Wales than ever before, fielding more than 300 candidates.

But it was only one that managed to succeed, and Ms Lucas becomes the first Green MP in parliament as I had in fact earlier predicted. Although now only one voice among 650, she is unlikely to make as much impact in the House as her party’s breakthrough is historic.

In the European Parliament, Ms Lucas has always proposed an optimistic and inspiring vision of how dealing with the potential crisis caused by global warming, and although she is the party’s only MP, the Scottish branch of the party has two MSPs in the Parliament at Holyrood.

One of those MSPs, Patrick Harvie, told the BBC that the whole party will be “over the moon to see Caroline Lucas's triumph in Brighton".

"Westminster was always going to be the toughest nut to crack, and Caroline has made an extraordinary breakthrough,” he said.

UK General Election: Live Blog

2010-05-06T23:08:00.004+01:00

UPDATE: Morning all, the live blog closed at 7.30am but you can still read it below:

Election2010

Exit Poll rumour predicts Tory overall majority but here's why should we be wary

2010-05-06T21:48:00.002+01:00

At 10pm this evening, polling closes and the counting will begin. But almost instantly the pundits kick into action as we learn of the 'exit poll' - but exit polling is tricky at the best of times, especially in Britain, so we should be wary of it.

Although, the joint BBC/ITV exit poll in 2005 correctly predicted the 66 seat majority for Labour, don’t expect it to be as accurate tonight.

Early rumours suggest that the Conservative party have attracted 39% of the overall vote which would give them an overall majority - but here are some reasons to be wary:

1) The experts have to work around duff information since there is no data on voting at individual polling stations. The national census is nine years out of date and local election ward returns are a flawed guide to voting patterns for a general election.

2) Only one in six voters refuse to respond to an exit poll.

3) Up to one in five votes will be cast by post so are not reflected in the exit poll. Around 12 per cent voted this way last time, and the proportion is rising.

4) The traditional swingometer may be obsolete as even if they get the vote share correct, there’s a good chance the seat prediction will be flawed.

5) The exit polling sample barely covers Lib-Lab marginals. Because there is no data from on individual polling stations, the wonks calculate the change from the 2001 and 2005 exit polls. It covers around 120 polling stations. But there’s only data on three Lib-Lab marginals. That’s why the Lib Dem vote share prediction was too low in 2005. The problem will be even greater this year.

6) Boundary changes muck up what historic data is available as since 2001, many boundaries have been revised. Some polling stations in the sample have been split in half, so how do you calculate the change in voting? On top of that, people move, meaning many polling stations serving very different communities.

It’s a mad rush to manage the data and make a prediction It’s a Thursday. Most people vote after they’ve been to work. That gives the boffins very little time to make the calculations. They’re working to a 10pm deadline and data is still streaming through until 7pm.

So while the exit poll is the first indication of the potential result, it should certainly not be trusted as the actual result.

The Polls have officially opened - make sure you make your vote count!

2010-05-06T07:00:00.002+01:00

It is now 7am on Thursday 6th May 2010 - the polling stations around the country have officially opened on this one of the most important days in British history.

For today is the day when we Brits head to the polls to elect our new Government that will need to usher the country through the recovery from the global economic crisis.

Therefore prey caution when holding the pencil next to the Conservative candidate, and make your vote count. Use your vote and bring about some actual change.

The polls will close at 10pm this evening when the counting will then begin...

John Cleese's 1997 message still chimes with the biggest problem facing the Lib Dems

2010-05-05T15:54:00.005+01:00

Whilst idly browsing on YouTube I came across a video of Liberal Democrat supporting funnyman John Cleese, which was originally recorded and broadcast as a Party Election Broadcast (PEB) back in April 1997.

Although in the PEB Cleese talks about the policies of the then-leader Paddy Ashdown and policies which are no longer part of the manifesto his main message is still relevant – and it is a problem that this campaign has helped to solve.

As Cleese said then: “half of the population would vote Lib Dem if they thought they would win”. Half. The picture is still the same 13 years later: A YouGov poll showed that 49% of British voters would vote for the Lib Dems if they stood a chance of winning.

Realistically the Liberal Democrats will not win an overall majority in the next government, but as Cleese illustrates well in the 1997 clip 50% of the vote would easily win the Liberals the election. "It would give us the largest landslide this century. We should be so lucky," he said. Unfortunately yes.

So how can we convince people that the Liberal Democrats can win? While there is no easy answer to that (the fact that the situation is the same as when Labour first arrived in office) a strong increase in the national vote cum Friday night will certainly be a solid foundation on which to build on for future years.

To educate yourself on the latest Liberal Democrat policies: consult the manifesto.

"I Agree With Nick" Lib Dem Flashmob sees Trafalgar Square turned yellow

2010-05-03T17:53:00.010+01:00

Picture the scene - 3pm on a bright sunny Bank Holiday afternoon in Central London. Trafalgar Square is packed with locals and tourists alike enjoying the sun and the refreshment that the fountain water provides. On the South side a group of protesters chant to "Free Burma" while on the North side a group of people assemble wearing various items of yellow clothing, stickers and holding banners.

As the clock on St. Martin in the Fields struck 3pm a small countdown began. 10, 9, 8...

The Liberal Democrat supporters Flashmob had begun.

For just over five-minutes the hundreds that had gathered chanted "I Agree with Nick" in support of the party leader Nick Clegg and "We Want Change" as well as "We Want PR".

Onlookers were surprised with the impromptu gathering (as is usually normal with flashmobs), many even applauded, and some even joined in.

A successful flashmob I'd say...

Liberal Democrats set for most MPs since 1923 according to latest poll

2010-04-29T12:30:00.000+01:00

The Liberal Democrats are on course to sharply increase their number of MPs, largely at Labour's expense, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published this morning.

The unique ICM poll of voters in 42 seats within the grasp of Liberal Democrats suggests the party's vote is climbing more strongly in Labour-held marginal seats than in Conservative ones.

And remarkably shows that the Lib Dems could increase their number of MPs to at least 80, 17 more than the party won in 2005 and the largest at any election since 1923. A result that would surely be most welcomed in the yellow camp.

The poll was carried out on Tuesday night before the prime minister's criticism of a voter in Lib Dem-held Rochdale as "bigoted", which could have already further weakened Labour’s chances. Regardless, its results show that Labour and even the Conservatives may lose seats to the Lib Dems if voting patterns reflect the polls.

In the 42 polled Lib Dem target seats, the party came second in 2005 and could take on a swing of 6% or less. The poll shows Lib Dem support is now 39% (+4), compared to 35% (-1) for the Conservatives and 18% (-5) for Labour.

Eggs, Fists and Smoke Bombs thrown in Ukrainian Parliament

2010-04-28T12:39:00.002+01:00

When politics becomes overly passionate; fists, smoke bombs and eggs were thrown in the Ukrainian Parliament yesterday after it ratified an agreement to extend the Russian Black Sea Fleet's lease in a Ukrainian port until 2042.

The brawl came as a result of the bitter divisions within the country and its ministers over the Russian influence in this former Soviet republic under its new Moscow-friendly leadership.

The newly-ratified extended agreement between the countries' presidents won 236 votes in the 450-seat parliament, overturning the previous government's position that the Russians must leave when the current lease on their Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol expires in 2017.

Cue the eggs and the fisticuffs… (video below courtesy of Wall Street Journal)

Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and his political allies have said the overtures to Moscow, which sees Ukraine as part of its sphere of influence, are paying off and the the lease accord will give its economy billions of dollars in discounts on imported Russian gas.

"There is no alternative," Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said as parliament convened to vote on the fleet deal. "Ratification means a lower price for gas" and that will enable Ukraine's government to adopt a budget for this year. "And the budget means agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the possibility of getting investments."

Boxer with brain cell provides a unique election quirk via deed poll

2010-04-28T10:52:00.001+01:00

It is not only quirky, but clever. Voters going to the ballot boxes in the Essex constituency of South Basildon and East Thurrock on May 6th will see a line on their ballot papers enabling them to vote for "None Of The Above".

But this is not a new way of abstaining - it is actually the new name of the ex-boxer formerly known as Terry Marsh, pictured left, who has changed his name by deed poll to "None Of The Above X" to stand as a parliamentary candidate.

The former World Light Welterweight boxing Champion, now known as Mr X, said he made this unusual move to “legitimise the election in this constituency" and claimed he will not take the seat in Parliament if he wins at the ballot box.

Electoral law bans parties from using the name, but it does not ban individuals.

Local pundits believe the move could divert some crucial votes in the poll where boundary changes have now made it a close race for the seat with Labour seeking to protect a notional majority of 905 votes (2.14%) over the Conservatives.

An appetising alternative look at the three leaders - from Pizza Express

2010-04-27T15:03:00.008+01:00

In a very clever (and slightly appetite-watering) publicity stunt, the restaurant chain Pizza Express has produced a set of images of the three main political party leaders as they would appear as pizzas.

Gordon Brown:

"If Brown were a pizza he’d be made of: fiery chilli, tuna for cleverness, ground beef for trademark untidiness and spinach for strength..."

David Cameron:

"If Cameron were a pizza he’d be made of: lots of cheese (cheesy), Posh rocket, healthy broccoli and asparagus (environmental)..."

Nick Clegg:

"Clegg would be: keen as mustard, fresh as tomatoes, spicy Italian sausage showing his passion and peas…because he’s peace-loving..."

While these are very clever productions, neither of the pizzas look particularly appealing to order although if they help to increase public appetite for the election then they are good!

NOTE: if Orange is your mobile phone network provider then why not in addition to 2 for 1 on Wednesday treat a friend to 2 for 1 pizza? To benefit from the Orange Wednesday Pizza Express promotion click here to download the voucher.

Bonne appetite...

Revealed: The Nation's 'Fantasy Cabinet'

2010-04-26T16:33:00.004+01:00

If political party and election results were irrelevant, which politicians would have have in your “Fantasy Cabinet”? Gordon Brown still as PM? Perhaps move him back to the Treasury? William Hague as Home Secretary?

Well, some very interesting results have emerged from a nationwide poll that was conducted by the PoliticsHome website who asked voters across the country how they would cast the characters in a national unity government of all three main parties.

The results, amazingly, show an extraordinary consensus on some of the biggest jobs in government, and will add to the idea that a hung parliament is most desired by the electorate instead of a majority government.

As illustrated by the image at the top of the post, the nation's ‘Fantasy Cabinet’ has at its head the Conservative leader David Cameron as Prime Minister, with Liberal Democrat Vince Cable as Chancellor, his party leader Nick Clegg as Foreign Secretary, and Labour’s Alistair Darling as Home Secretary.

It is perhaps surprising to see that Gordon Brown was not selected to be part of cabinet but the little-known Hilary Benn did.

To produce these findings, PoliticsHome invited its readers to look at a full list of senior politicians from each of the main parties, and at first select nine politicians to fill the top nine jobs – with the requirement that each of their lists had to include at least two from each party.

Each respondent was then asked them to assign jobs to their chosen nine politicians.

The 778 responses were then weighted by party ID, age and gender to represent the UK at large - and any respondent trying to bypass the rules was excluded. (Read the full methodology here)

The ‘Fantasy Cabinet’ in full:

David Cameron (Conservative) - Prime Minister
Vince Cable (Liberal Democrat) – Chancellor of the Exchequer
Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat) - Foreign Secretary
Alistair Darling (Labour) - Home Secretary
William Hague (Conservative) - Defence Secretary
Chris Huhne (Liberal Democrat) - Justice Secretary
Kenneth Clarke (Conservative) - Business Secretary
Hilary Benn (Labour) - Children, Schools and Families
Alan Johnson (Labour) - Health Secretary

To choose your dream cabinet, click here.

Irony not lost as UKIP forced to replace Danish-born candidate

2010-04-23T16:05:00.001+01:00

The UK Independence Party, the right-wing party formerly fronted by the outspoken Nigel Farage, stands for British independence and withdrawal from the European Union, but it had egg on its face this week as it was forced to withdraw a parliamentary candidate who was not born in the UK thus ineligible to vote, let alone stand for election…

The party’s candidate for the south-western constituency of Weston-super-Mare, Steven Pearse-Danker (pictured left), has had to stand down at the eleventh hour as he is a Danish citizen.

Stating his evident disappointment, he said he was vetted by UKIP HQ and thought there'd be no problem as he's stood in local elections in the past.

"I am disappointed," he said. "I would have liked to have got elected and help the country where I've lived since my teenage years."

The guidance from the Electoral Commision, however, is quite clear on this issue:

While there is “no requirement for you to be a registered elector in the UK”, point 2.3 of its brochure: “Guidance for candidates and agents” states that in order to stand for election you must meet the required qualifications: "i.e. be at least 18 years old and be either:
• a British citizen
• a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, or
• a citizen of a Commonwealth country who does not require leave to enter or remain in the UK, or who has indefinite leave to remain in the UK."

Since Denmark is not a member country of the Commonwealth, he does not fulfil any of these three bullet-point requirements so is not eligible to stand for election.

Nonetheless, he maintains there's no double-irony in a Dane standing for UKIP saying “not if you understand UKIP's position. We stand for self-determination in UK and we also support this in all European countries.”

You have to wonder how it was that he was vetted by the party – did they perhaps consider Denmark to be part of the Commonwealth?

Paul Spencer will instead be the UKIP candidate for Weston-super-Mare on May 6th. (Hat-tip Paul Barltrop)

Capital Punishment, Deportation and the return of the Cane: some snippets from the BNP’s Election Manifesto

2010-04-23T13:48:00.006+01:00

The controversial British National Party have chosen today, St George's Day, to unveil their 2010 election manifesto, and as you would expect it contains a number of shocking yet unsurprisingly racially-discriminative proposals – only made worse by the regular ‘justification’ of them with the words “as many other European nations already do”.

What follows are some of the “unique and innovative policies” from the 94-page document: [Note: I would like to stress that all that is within quotation marks are quotes directly taken from the manifesto – I do not share these views. I hope many others agree with me.]

In its introduction, its leader Nick Griffin writes “The BNP is committed to putting the interests of the British people first” and comments on the manifesto’s title: ‘Democracy, Freedom, Culture and Identity’, notably that “the word ‘identity’ appears in the title because the BNP believes in genuine ethnic and cultural diversity and the right of all peoples to be free of colonisation and rule by others - including the indigenous people of these islands.”

At the end Griffin invites us to “review our policies and make your choice”. I’ve made my choice, here are some ‘highlights’ for you:

IMMIGRATION:

As you would expect, this subject has prime billing in the manifesto and contains no shortage of ‘controversial’ proposals. The manifesto commences with a statement that sets the tone for the whole document that reads “at current immigration and birth rates, indigenous British people are set to become a minority well within 50 years. This will result in the extinction of the British people, culture, heritage and identity.”

As for the proposals, the most shocking is that the party will “review all citizenship grants awarded since Labour entered government in 1997, based on that party’s admission that they orchestrated mass immigration to change forcibly Britain’s demographics and to gerrymander elections.” So even those legally granted citizenship since Tony Blair arrived in office could face the threat of deportation.

On that note, the BNP “will deport all foreigners convicted of crimes in Britain, regardless of their immigration status”, and while claiming to “recognises the right of legally settled and law-abiding minorities to remain in the UK and enjoy the full protection of the law” they stress that this is “on the understanding that the indigenous population of Britain has the right to remain the majority population of our nation.”

The BNP will repeal the Race Relations Act that makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against you on racial grounds, as well as other acts which it calls “far leftist social engineering projects, such as the Equalities and Human Rights Commission” that it claims are “aimed at enforcing multiculturalism.”

They even blame traffic congestion on immigrants claiming later in the document that the Party will “reduce traffic congestion by bringing the immigration invasion under control,” and “charge foreign trucks for the right to use Britain’s road network”.

RELIGION:

As affirmed by Griffin on Question Time on 22nd October 2009, the BNP “believes that the historical record shows that Islam is by its very nature incompatible with modern secular western democracy.”

It pledges to “ban the burka, ritual slaughter and the building of further mosques in Britain” and that “there should be absolutely no further immigration from any Muslim countries, as it presents one of the most deadly threats yet to the survival of our nation.”

EUROPE:

On Europe, the manifesto states that “the BNP loves Europe but hates the EU” and says the party will “demand an immediate withdrawal from the European Union, which is an organisation dedicated to usurping British sovereignty and to destroying our nationhood and national identity.”

By withdrawing from the EU, it says, the Party “will not permit British courts to be subservient to international bodies or courts which override the law of the British parliament.” Naturally, the BNP “will vigorously oppose the UK taxpayer being called upon to subsidise any pension underfunding crisis elsewhere in the EU.”

[Note: I’m pretty sure that is not the objective of the EU and I find it hard to believe that the EU is destroying our national identity. We have always been European, but we are more proudly British.]

WELFARE:

The BNP vows to halt the handout of benefits, housing, education and pensions to “foreigners who have not paid into the system”, and will repeal the 1998 Human Rights Act and withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which they claim “are exploited to abuse Britain’s hospitality by the world’s scroungers.”

The BNP will “place each local council under a legal duty to build a number of homes set to a percentage of the waiting list total each year.” Of course, “these would only be available to British citizens.”

The method employed in Switzerland also makes an appearance with the “[introduction of] a ‘local connection test’ for any applicant seeking social housing in terms of which they would need to demonstrate a positive and historical link to the area.”

THE MEDIA:

The BNP will no doubt aim to attack the journalists who publish material about the party should they ever get into power, and state in their manifesto that they “will enact legislation which will hold journalists and their media outlets criminally liable for knowingly publishing falsehoods.”

CRIME:

The BNP pledge to “remove political correctness from Police service in favour of real crime fighting” and unbelievably they will “reintroduce capital punishment for drug dealers, child murderers, multiple murderers, murderers of policemen on duty and terrorists”.

This from the man who denied the Holocaust happened?

EDUCATION:

The BNP “will offer free university education to deserving students who have completed their period of Community Service” (what do they mean by Community Service and how will they define deserving?) and “will bring back traditional syllabi and teaching methods to replace the current and obviously failed systems currently being used.” So is the cane set to return to the classrooms to punish students?

A few positives (!)

In the interest of fairness, I should highlight a few policies in there that perhaps amazingly, are actually rather attractive (but certainly nowhere near enough to sway my vote...)

For example, the BNP:

“will oppose the privatisation of natural monopolies such as Royal Mail.”
“will introduce legislation to ensure that a foreign acquisition of any significantly-sized British company is judged to be in the public and national interest before it can proceed.”
“demands an end to the destruction of Britain’s green belt” (although I disagree that it has been “caused primarily by housing demand fuelled through mass immigration”.)
“rejects ID cards as an undesirable manifestation of the surveillance society.”
“will introduce citizens’ initiative referenda to force government to adhere to the will of the voters on specific subjects.”

NATO grants Bosnia pre-membership status in move that will anger Russia

2010-04-23T11:40:00.005+01:00

NATO ministers last night agreed to grant a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Bosnia that could see it join the military alliance in the next few years, but have attached conditions to its development to progress its path to membership.

"MAP has been granted to Bosnia-Herzegovina today, but with clear conditions attached on implementation," spokesman James Appathurai told the press after talks among NATO foreign ministers in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Mr Appathurai said NATO would accept Bosnia's first annual reform plan under the program, only when defence property, such as bases, was registered as belonging to the state and for use of the defence ministry.

Later that night, the Alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote on his Facebook page that “NATO foreign ministers made an important decision to invite Bosnia and Herzegovina to join Membership Action Plan, but made clear that there are still important reform issues that need to be solved."

"All Balkan countries should have the prospect of integration into the Euro-Atlantic community," he added.

This latest move to enlarge the 28-member alliance is sure to hit a nerve in Moscow, where the military body was perceived an aggressor during the Yugoslav war.

Enlargement of NATO was considered a threat to national security in the new Russian military doctrine put forward in February by President Dmitri Medvedev, although this comment referred more to Ukraine and Georgia, who are Russia's immediate neighbours, than the Balkan countries whom Russia views as within its ‘sphere of influence’.

Both Ukraine and Georgia applied to be accepted for a Membership Action Plan in 2008, but NATO member states hesitated in granting it to them, presumably amid staunch opposition from Russia. (The MAP for these two countries now seems to have been postponed indefinitely, although they have been promised that they will join eventually…)

A Membership Action Plan is a multi-stage process of political dialogue and military reform to bring a country in line with NATO standards and to eventual membership, and the process can take several years.

Bosnia applied for the membership plan in October last year, but the alliance declined this in December on the grounds it still needed to carry out more reforms. But last night, it was noted that since December Bosnia had made "significant" progress on reform and NATO members had welcomed its decision to destroy surplus ammunition and arms and to contribute troops to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Bosnia agreed this month to send an infantry unit to join the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan - one of the conditions NATO placed on Bosnia's application. "They remain concerned, however, that the defence property issue is not yet resolved," Mr Appathurai said.

But Bosnia is still lagging behind its Balkan neighbours, all former republics of Yugoslavia, in progress toward EU and NATO membership. Croatia joined NATO along with Albania last year and Montenegro was granted a membership plan in December.

Do you 'Believe in Fairness'?

2010-04-23T10:47:00.001+01:00

Further proof that in the domain of audiovisual advertising, all three of the main parties have improved leaps and bounds.

The soundtrack on this one is also very nice, anyone know who it is by and what it is called? Answers on a postcard please...

Cameron attacked for links with 'nutters [and] homophobes' as Europe gets 10 minutes of campaign spotlight

2010-04-23T10:45:00.000+01:00

Click here to read...

Clegg's Cabinet - should fantasy suddenly become reality...

2010-04-21T13:17:00.004+01:00

A Liberal Democrat government – it couldn’t happen this time, could it?

Well no. Thanks to the unique nature of our electoral system this scenario cannot realistically happen, but none the less it doesn’t stop the nation’s darling leader of the moment Nick Clegg in jokingly speculating about who would be involved in his cabinet should he make it to Number 10…

Speaking to the Guardian, Mr Clegg revealed who he would call upon in some fantasy cabinet assemblage in addition to his current frontline team. His choices suggest scant tribal politicking, but a little revenge too…

“I'd like to put Charles Kennedy back on the frontline, I'd love to have Paddy [Ashdown] there – particularly on Afghanistan," he said.

When pushed to set his sights on other parties, he reportedly said: "I know what I'll do. Adonis keeps telling me he's a Lib Dem. Well, let's ask him. Vince; David Laws definitely; some of the pro-European Tories who have been marginalised. Bring back Patten maybe."

Readers note: Lord Adonis is the current transport secretary. Vince Cable, is (in case you hadn’t noticed) Nick Clegg’s right-hand man and go-to on the economy as the Lib Dem’s Treasury spokesman. David Laws is the Party’s schools spokesman, and Lord (Chris) Patten was the former Tory chairman who served as Governor of Hong Kong when it returned to Chinese control in July 1997 and later served as one of Britain's two members of the European Commission.

Although Clegg leader made it clear his selections were in jest, the choices suggest he won't resile from his affection for the pro-European Tories – yes there are some out there…

But Clegg, unlike Gordon Brown, would be unlikely to invite hoards of non-politicians into the government as he confessed "I'm a little bit sceptical about this idea that if you run a business then you should advise politicians."

All sounds very sensible, in particular with prominent roles for the impressive Lord Adonis and the stalwarts Charles Kennedy, Paddy Ashdown and Vince Cable.

Now all we need to make that happen is a very large overall voter swing towards the Liberal Democrats… Might be a tall order with just 15 days until election day.

UPDATE: Even if getting into Number 10 is unlikely, perhaps Mr Clegg could get a cabinet post in any new government?

Jim Pickard of the FT's Westminster Blog has speculated that Mr Clegg could be made Foreign Secretary after remarking that "in European coalitions the minority partner (still presuming the Lib Dems would be) is often given the job of foreign minister". He cites Germany, where Guido Westerwelle, leader of the Free Democratic Party, is currently foreign minister, a role previously held by Green leader Joschka Fischer.

For Pickard, the advantages are clear: "A Lib Dem foreign secretary would be far removed from contentious domestic affairs. By contrast, imagine having a Labour or Tory prime minister working alongside a Lib Dem chancellor"...

The coming of age of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats?

2010-04-14T22:56:00.001+01:00

Click here to read...

Proof that Prescott still packs a punch as he visits site of 2001 egg attack

2010-04-13T17:01:00.006+01:00

Sometimes you’ve got to hand it to John Prescott. Very active on Twitter (@johnprescott) and still very active on the campaign trail leading the charge for Go Fourth – to get Labour elected for a fourth successive times –it’s sometimes hard to believe that the former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Deputy PM is 72-years old at the end of next month.

But today his battle bus rolled into Rhyl where Mr Prescott again showed the character and humour that I’m sure all parties admire (some less publicly than others of course).

Nine year ago, on 16th May 2001, this quiet little town in Northern Wales was where Mr Prescott stole the headlines away from his party leader Tony Blair’s manifesto announcement when he punched a protester in the crowd who had hit the MP with an egg.

Today, he made a point of returning to the exact location, and posed with a boxing glove in this left hand and another sort of egg in his right hand – a creme egg.

Born just down the road in Prestatyn, Mr Prescott addressed a crowd of Labour Party members and locals outside the theatre and after being reminded of the exact location where he threw the punch, near the theatre wall, he said: “I thought it was around the corner. It’s come back to me now, they’d closed off this whole street. That was the wall I was pushed against. There were people standing on there.”

While he posed for pictures wearing a boxing glove and holding a chocolate egg, Mr Prescott added: “Where’s the Tories, bring ‘em on.”

But that wasn’t all: dubbed the ‘Prescott Express’, his bus pulled up at the scene to the sound of the theme tune from Rocky, and a loudspeaker proclaiming: “Make Way for Rocky”.

Before leaving there was time for one more comedy jab: “as I told Tony [Blair] at the time I was only doing what I'd been asked to do – connecting with the electorate." Literally.

Mr Prescott announced in 2007 that he would not seek re-election as so will not contest the seat or be an MP in the next government. His jovial character will be missed by all.

Joe, Jane, Jack, James, Jill and Doctor Who - Labour's manifesto videos

2010-04-12T14:23:00.006+01:00

If the Conservatives are winning the poster campaign war, then the incumbent Labour Party are certainly winning the video campaign war.

Today with the launch of the Labour Party's election 2010 manifesto (download a PDF copy here) comes the unveiling of two Labour videos to spread their election messages.

The first, shown just before Gordon Brown took to the stage to officially launch the 76-page document, it is an innovative, fun and straight-forward, straight-talking animated cartoon - which has spawned a few spin-offs by the Party, one for each chapter. The main one is shown below for your enjoyment.

The second, to begin appearing in advert breaks on a TV near you from this evening, is a rather more adult affair, and a masterful piece of work. Starring Sean Pertwee, a son of a former Doctor Who, and former Doctor Who himself David Tennant, 'the Road Ahead' as it is entitled is a great advert that carries a very simple message - is to stay on this improving road and not to take the Tory diversion.

The man walking along the road, symbolising Britain's economy, is faced with a choice at a junction: continue along in a straight line uphill (not-so hidden message: continuing the recovery will not easy) or turning off the road down a side-road that leads, unsurprisingly, downhill.

The man opts to continue straight on, accompanied with the voice-over by the former Doctor Who.

A great advert and a great message - now let's see what the Tory's can come up with...

'Never been close to an apple, just something people drink to get off their heads' - Cameron on White Lightning

2010-04-12T11:14:00.004+01:00

Tory leader David Cameron visited the Fuller's brewery in Brentford, London this morning where on top of sounding like an alcoholic, he was asked about the future Conservative government's plan on alcohol duty and his favourite alcoholic drink.

"I actually haven't yet found a drink I haven't liked," was his reply to that last question before admitting that his reply did make him sound like an alcoholic and that he did "prefer a bitter over a lager". Just as well as the Fuller brewery specialises in London Pride bitter...

Mr Cameron then, when asked about a future Tory government's plans for alcohol duty, came across even more as an alcoholic when he said that drinks such as "White Lightning cider, available to buy in supermarkets for £3.99 for 3 litres" should be the ones heavily taxed.

He further commented that White Lightning cider "has never been close to an apple, it's just something people drink to get off their heads", drawing a few amused grins from the workers positioned around him as he made his speech.

Grins that were wiped off when he admitted he had only had a little of the London Pride pint that had been poured for him since "if I had any more I fear the rest of the day would be a wipe-out".

For an 'alcoholic', Cameron seems to think he'd get drunk rather easily...

Just how powerful is your vote where you live? Here's how to find out...

2010-04-09T22:22:00.000+01:00

While the biggest problem at the moment may be just getting people to the polling stations, there is another problem and this comes courtesy of the wonderful way our political system is structured, how the constituencies are defined and how big the majority of the incumbent’s vote was in the last election, and means that the votes are far from equal across the country.

It is clear that all of the political parties are tackling the seats which are considered “marginal” because the voting in the last election was close and they sense a greater chance of winning the seat so focus their attention on that. Did you know that more than 50% of the electorate voted against Labour in the last election yet we had another Labour government…

It is for that reason that the more “marginal” a seat is, the more powerful the vote of each member of the electorate in that constituency.

So how powerful is your vote?

Well, the New Economics Foundation (NEF) have put together a site to tell you exactly how much your vote is "worth" under the current “first past the post” system. Simply enter postcode into the box, click ‘Search’ and then it gives you the answer.

My constituency of Devon East, as I expected, does not score particularly well. I do not have one vote, but instead the equivalent of 0.122 votes, see left.

It is regarded as a very safe Conservative seat thus requiring a relatively large swing in the voting to unseat the current MP Hugo Swire (this is case despite 53% of the voters in my area did not vote Conservative).

The same website informs me that the average UK voter has 2.08 times more voting power than voters in Devon East.

But compared to other constituencies, that vote is quite ‘powerful’. Take the Merseyside seat of Knowsley. This is the ‘safest’ seat in the land and so the vote is the least powerful: one vote there is the equivalent of 0.002 votes.

On the other hand, the powerful vote can be found in Wales, in the newly-enlarged constituency of Arfon – the name is derived from the north Wales towns of Bangor and Caernarfon and "Arfon" is a historical name for the area and means "facing Anglesey".

In this most ‘marginal’ of all ‘marginal constituencies’ one person there does not really have one vote, they have the equivalent of 1.308 votes - 5.17x greater than the UK average.

So how does your constituency score? Visit www.voterpower.org.uk to find out.

Facebook called in to urge young Brits to get their vote for the election

2010-04-09T13:56:00.004+01:00

Latest research suggests that some 56% of 18 to 24 year olds – many of whom are students – are currently not on the electoral roll and so will not be able to vote in the General Election next month. So what can be done to get more young people to vote?

Well one initiative is set to be rolled out tomorrow that involves the Electoral Commission teaming up with the social media giant Facebook.

From tomorrow morning, every Facebook user who logs on to his or her homepage on the UK version of the website will be asked if they are on the electoral roll.

If they are not, they will be redirected to a registration page which will be simple enough to gather the required information from the elector (address etc.) before producing a completed form ready to print and send off to the local Election Office.

The Electoral Commission has traditionally used newspapers, magazines, radio and television to drive up the numbers of people on the electoral roll, but has had to reassess its strategy since social networking sites such as Facebook did not have such a place in our daily lives back at the time of the last election in 2005.

Richard Allan, Facebook's director of policy, said that the sites 23 million British users were drawn from every age group and ethnic background and that as a result “[we] are uniquely placed to reach unregistered voters and to ensure no one who wants to vote, and is entitled to do so, misses out on the chance to have their say.”

Students are entitled to register either at their term address or their home address.

People who have moved home, even if they remained within the same constituency, have to re-register.

Unregistered voters have until April 20th to add their names to the electoral roll, which at only 11 working-days from the Election Day itself is the closest it’s ever been.

An estimated 37% of registered people aged 18 to 24 voted at the 2005 election and 39% at the 2001 election.

Any initiative therefore should be welcomed with open arms, let’s hope that it does result in more youngsters signing up to vote. Question is, with political apathy and misunderstanding at a high level – will they know what the electoral roll actually is…!

Russia's Medvedev to follow Obama's lead... by joining the Twittersphere

2010-04-07T21:44:00.000+01:00

Dmitry Medvedev, the incumbent Russian President, could soon be set to follow in his American adversary Barack Obama’s footsteps if reports emerging from Russia this evening are true that he intends to launch his own account on the social media website, Twitter.

The newsru.com website carries the story that staff of the Russian president’s office have sent an official request to the team behind Twitter urging them to delete existing accounts opened under the name of Dmitry Medvedev, in order for them to launch an official one later in the year.

Once such account, ru_medvedev, began posting on March 29th, the day of the tragic bomb attacks on the Moscow subway, and claimed to be the first official reaction from the President to the attacks, and subsequently the quotes were picked up by the local media. However, the administration of President denies any connection with this account and says it was created by an individual acting on his own initiative.

While not revealing any futher details, newsru.com quotes a Kremlin spokesperson confirming that later this summer the president plans to create an official account in the Global micro blogging service. "So that everything works well, we need someone to handle [the blog]. We are currently working on this project.”

The Russian president portrays himself as a young and technologically savvy leader – so perhaps it is a surprise he has yet to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. After all, he has a Live Journal blog as well as an account on YouTube…

Dates for your Diary: the three upcoming UK election Leader Debates

2010-04-06T21:58:00.016+01:00

It’s official: here are the confirmed details of where and when you can watch the three planned televised debates between the three main political party leaders ahead of the election on May 6th.

Each session will last 90 minutes and members of the studio audience will be able to put questions to Mr Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg directly while viewers can submit their own questions in advance online or by email.

The broadcasters each drew lots to determine the order of the debates and the allocation of themes and so:

Debate 1:
Thursday April 15th, 20.30 - 22.00
ITV1 (all regions)
Host: Alastair Stewart.
Theme: Domestic affairs.

Debate 2:
Thursday April 22nd, 20.00 - 21.30
Sky News (available on Freeview)
Host: Adam Boulton.
Theme: International affairs.

Debate 3:
Thursday April 29th
BBC1
Host: David Dimbleby
Theme: Economic affairs.

Televised debates have been a feature of US presidential elections since 1960, but have been blocked in Britain by the failure to reach agreement between the parties. Thanks to overwhelming public response to a campaign launched by Sky News and other media outlets, all three leaders agreed to participate.

These events will be crucial for each leader to get their message across to the voting public – provided that the debates are scheduled in peak viewing time and well publicised.

Should make captivating viewing.

Harriet Harman to begin the Parliamentary ‘washing-up’

2010-04-06T17:42:00.004+01:00

So, at last the day has arrived, Gordon Brown has asked the Queen to dissolve Parliament which has set the ball rolling towards the confirmed election date of May 6th.

As the party leaders head off around the country canvassing voters, behind the scenes in Westminster backroom staff are eagerly preparing themselves for the another of the British Parliamentary peculiarities, the infrequent and arcane ritual of the parliamentary "wash-up".

The leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, left, will shortly propose an emergency business motion to MPs designed to rush through as many of the outstanding bills into statute in the two days before Parliament is officially dissolved.

While legislation may now be "carried forward" from one parliamentary session to the next, it cannot be carried forward between parliaments. All bills not passed on the date when the House rises for the last time this year will be lost.

Since some of the legislation is non-controversial, and some financial legislation is essential to keep the country running, this is not an altogether brilliant outcome. Therefore, Parliament has evolved a mechanism for getting round this.

The wash-up, as it is known, is due this time around to take place on Wednesday (7th) and Thursday (8th), even if technically Parliament is still sitting until Monday (12th).

In today’s Guardian, political correspondent Martin Bell says it should instead be known as “stitch-up” since as it invokes the time-honoured tradition of the Party Whips going into a huddle and carrying out horse-trading over any legislation that has not yet made it all the way through both Houses of Parliament.

The ‘wash-up’, he says, “is a secretive process, the modern equivalent of the smoke-filled room. Those taking part are the parties' whips and business managers, plus officials from various government departments. Those excluded are the rank and file of MPs, together with independents and crossbenchers in the Lords. The wash-up is a stitch-up devised by and for the main political parties.”

So how does the wash-up work? Well, according to the House of Commons Library, it is "not a procedural matter for the House" – which doesn’t help us a great deal to understand it.

But what is clear is that the Opposition spokespeople essentially become veto players, going through what is left of all the existing legislation on a line-by-line basis, striking out anything that they dislike.

Each bill has to gain the approval of both sides of the House and so any compromises struck will speed up its entry into the statute book. Should one MP raise an objection and there is inadequate time to hold a debate on that objection, the chance is lost and the bill will fall.

At the current time, there are a number of bills all in a variety of stages along the path to become law. Many are in committee stages of the Lords, while others require the Commons to look at amendments proposed by the Lords. Some need only agreement on remaining sections, others for the entirety of the bill.

One notable bill of particular interest to be resolved is the Digital Economy Bill, which with its controversial measures aimed at stamping down on internet piracy and file-sharing, is a controversial topic on the internet forums. Many opposing the bill argue that it will remove the right to a fair trial, stamp out public WIFI, and effectively wreck Britain's ambitions to be a world web leader.

But parliamentary observers, like myself, are particularly interested in the progress of the Wright committee recommendations about parliamentary reforms, which would give MPs far greater power to set the parliamentary agenda and choose who sits on select committees. Many of these reforms have already been agreed, but others remain. What about the proposal to hold a referendum on the alternative vote system – a system that allows the voters to list the candidates in order of preference, and reflects their choices much more fairly than first past the post.

The greatest problem with this process is that it is far from democratic. Not even the elected representatives of the people get much of a say.

As Bell writes “It [wash-up] will be the enabler of some bills and the executioner of others. These are measures which will affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Yet we will have no idea why one was nodded through and another was blocked; which party made which compromises and why; and whether the public interest was served or simply traded away.”

The Lib Dem Battle Bus soon to accompany a Lib Dem Battle Train?

2010-04-05T14:07:00.006+01:00

The Liberal Democrats have this morning revealed their battle bus for the upcoming election - and as you might expect it is big and yellow, carries their election slogan of "Change that works for you - Building a fairer Britain" and a large photo of the leader Nick Clegg.

It also, unsurprisingly, features a giant picture of Vince Cable, the 'sage of the credit crunch' who was adjudged to have faired better in last week's Chancellors televised debate.

This announcement has come on the same day that the Lib Dems have set out plans to reopen thousands of miles of railway tracks and stations through the creation of a Rail Expansion Fund that would be funded by cutting capital spending on roads by £3bn.

The party claim this would lead to the biggest expansion of the rail network since the Victorian era (something that is desperately needed) and have outlined a few proposals that could be fast-tracked such as the electrification of lines from Manchester to Liverpool, Leeds and Preston; from Birmingham to Bristol and between Leeds and York, as well as new lines linking Southport with Preston and the Midlands main line with the Birmingham-Derby route, and track reopened between Tavistock and Plymouth and Exeter and Okehampton.

Watch out for the yellow election bus on a street near you and with this latest announcement in mind, how long will it be before we see a Lib Dem Battle Train on the campaign trail too?

Wanted: Prime Minister - A belated April Fool job listing

2010-04-04T23:33:00.000+01:00

Is it an April Fool that slipped through the net or the work of a comic genius? Either way, this is pure and simply a superbly amusing and well-done job listing to stumble across when browsing the hundreds of entries on the Guardian Jobs website:

Posted on April 1st, the position to be filled is located at 10 Downing Street, SW1A, London, is a full-time and very competitive posting that will allow the applicant to be "at the very forefront of decision making in the UK, making new laws, setting taxes and attending debates all whilst keeping good relations with other parliamentary members."

Applicants are sought from those who "are highly organised, energetic and motivated Ministers with a distinct ability to remain unflappable even in the most demanding situations i.e. a Jeremy Paxman interview."

In addition, "you must also be an upstanding citizen with an exemplary educational background from a Red Brick University and a personality of national acceptance."

"It is not essential that you possess previous PM experience as on the job training is offered," the advert boasts, however "ultimately, we are looking for a parliamentary heavyweight capable of communicating at all levels with a unique ability to put positive spin on even the most dire scenarios, therefore experience of being economical with the truth is an absolute must."

The successful applicant would be "joining a relaxed and enjoyable working environment" and then, the nitty-gritty of the perks: "great working conditions, an excellent office location, extensive benefits (8 Bed House, Personal expenses, Free Transport, 2nd home + Furnishings.) and excellent remuneration."

If that wasn't already humorous enough, the advert explicitly notes that "previous applicants need not apply". Wonderful stuff.

The listing, while taken in complete good humour, has since been removed from the site - but you can view the complete listing by downloading this PDF (2.68MB).

Will Brown make history by calling the General Election in the Commons?

2010-04-01T22:56:00.008+01:00

I think the clever chaps at the Financial Times Westminster blog have hit the nail right on the head after a recent post addressed the possibility of Gordon Brown making history and announcing the date of the next General Election in the House of Commons chamber.

The author, Alex Barker, cites the new book by Rallings and Thrasher containing more than 250 pages of British electoral facts (yes it is exciting as it sounds) to reveal that no Prime Minister has announced an election in the chamber for 75 years.

This feature is somewhat peculiar since the Commons used to be the favoured place to make these announcements, but as the author says, the last Prime Minister to call an election from the dispatch box was Stanley Baldwin back in 1935.

“Most post-war prime ministers fired the starting gun with a press announcement or broadcast and the fashion since the 1990s has been a statement from Downing Street,” it reads, “the exception was Blair’s memorable 2001 announcement to a school, replete with halo and stained glass window.”

If the Election date is to the be the much-rumoured 6th May, then the announcement will have to be made very soon in order to have Parliament “dissolved” and the machinery for running an election to be initiated.

The table below made available by the House of Commons Library is an invaluable guide to the technicalities for election dates and clearly shows how you need 17 full working days between calling an election and polling day itself.

As you can see from the table (click here to enlarge image), Mr Brown can technically call a 6th May election as late as Monday 12th April - but he would surely want at least a few extra days of Parliamentary proceedings when he can pass the final stages of bills.

And so with that in mind and given what a bad year the institution has had scared by scandal after scandal, where better for Brown to add another achievement to his ‘legacy’ by making history and becoming the first PM in 75 years to announce the election in the House?

Keep an eye out for the agenda on Tuesday when “normal service” resumes after Easter…

Why does Tony Blair have his own Election 2010 campaign website?

2010-03-31T14:55:00.000+01:00

Well it was clear the former Prime Minister Tony Blair would have some role to play in the Labour campaign for the upcoming election after making a speech in his home constituency of Sedgefield on Tuesday, but why does he now have his own election campaign website?

Unless I, as well as all the mainstream local, national and international media have missed something, Mr Blair is not seeking re-election this year... so his website - tonyblair4labour.org - which was actually produced by Blue State Digital, the same developers that made the hugely-successful website for a certain Barack Obama - seems a little odd.

As you would expect the site contains news, videos and social media interactivity tools... but still, why does it exist? Any ideas...?

Has the French Elysée copied the US White House with its new website?

2010-03-29T19:22:00.007+01:00

At midnight on Sunday, the new website of the French Presidency - www.elysee.fr - went live, but does it not look remarkably similar to the website of the Obama administration on the official White House website at www.whitehouse.gov?

The world-recognised logos are at the top of the page in the centre sitting upon identical horizontal blue menu bars and interactive image and text sections that scroll through a cycle of the latest uploaded pages.

But the similarities do not stop there; both sites are arranged identically across three columns, are set upon a white background with a faint image of a building, have full shareability via the social networks and have comprehensive site-maps at the foot of each homepage.

According to Le Figaro, the French site's webmaster admitted the site costed €100,000 to make - which to me seems a lot for a copy-paste job. But perhaps this is just another bold statement that France, and President Nicolas Sarkozy in particular, wants to be more like Barack Obama and have as much success...

BBC's Democracy Live has won a web prize - but did you know it existed?

2010-03-26T17:46:00.003Z

The new Democracy Live site from the BBC scooped a prestigious prize last night at the MediaGuardian Innovation Awards, but how many actually know it exists and what it is?

The site, which contains recorded videos playable on the website, covers political debates from around the UK and the European Parliament, won in the Use of Web Platforms category after receiving praise for presenting material "consistently and attractively" and for being a "powerful and innovative" tool.

But did you know it existed?

You could be forgiven if you answered ‘no’ because it made its quiet arrival at the beginning of last November and has hardly been publicised around the BBC News homepage. But apparently this was part of the strategy as the BBC announced the news via social media sites such as Twitter because “such is the power of social media that people were quick to find us and start tweeting about the site.”

Anyway, for those who didn’t know about the site previously – it is the work of utter genius and brings together live and on-demand video coverage of proceedings as well as content in the form of biographies and guides to each institution and to who makes the decisions in the UK's systems of government.

But the real magic lies in the site's search function which allows you to search for certain words amongst political speeches!

By its very nature, politics is lengthy. Could you imagine having to watch an entire debate – which can go on for as long as five or six hours – just to find a specific reference to a project or policy? You probably could but you'd need to be a battle-hardened political observer or someone with a very keen interest in the subject to do so...

But the search feature makes it possible to search for a specific word or words spoken in the proceedings and it will produce immediate links to the points in the video in which it/they were spoken. Clever.

What I like even more is the "follow your representative" feature, which allows you (once you have located your local MP or MEP or any other come to that) to “follow” their activity in proceedings via a generated list with again direct links to their involvement in a particular debate.

The sum of these innovations is an excellent tool, and not just for political bloggers such as myself! If you haven’t already locate your local MP and MEP yourself at bbc.co.uk/democracylive.

Democracy Live has made politics truly 'live' and easy to follow – so it should come as no surprise it is already winning awards. (Shame the same cannot be said about the European Parliament’s TV station EuroParl TV…)

After three months the Iraq Inquiry has cost British taxpayers... £2million

2010-03-25T22:57:00.009Z

How much should a public inquiry into a war that has already cost the British taxpayers millions of pounds?

Now while there is no textbook answer to that question, the figures have been released today of the Iraq Inquiry, which are estimated to cost more than £2 million.

What makes that estimate figure incredible is that it has only been running for three months in which through its public hearings the panel has taken evidence from senior military commanders, top civil servants and Government ministers past and present.

According to the figures published on the Inquiry website, the spending on expenses for staff, the allowances for the panel of experts and the costs of running the hearings in public will total an estimated £2,237,700 at the end of March. This works out at roughly £26,600 per day (including the weekends).

The largest cost was accumulated by paying the inquiry's secretariat (£795,000), followed by the costs of hiring and running the public hearings at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre right on the doorstep of Westminster Abbey in London SW1 (£588,700) and then the wage remuneration for the five-strong inquiry panel and their advisers (£333,400).

A whopping £197,400 was spent on IT and communications, including the inquiry's (pitiful) website – although this cost did include the webstreaming capabilities and the on sight transcription (which believe me is useful when you’re in the room attending the hearing!).

Set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown last June, the inquiry is tasked at looking into the eight-year period between the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq until the withdrawal of British combat troops in 2009, and has already heard evidence from Mr Brown himself as well as former PM Tony Blair.

Now while they did not pay for Mr Blair to appear, this does give me the opportunity to show the wonderful cartoon created at the time and published in the Times and allude also to the revelation last week that the Metropolitan Police ran up a bill of £273,000 to provide security for Mr Blair’s appearance on 29 January past.

So again the question arises, how much should this inquiry cost?

Why should Europeans be interested in the French Sarkozy affair rumours?

2010-03-16T16:01:00.001Z

Whether it is fact or fiction, the rumours of extramarital romantic affairs relating to the French president first-born on Twitter has impassioned the European media, despite the notable absence of treatment in France. So are European news networks coming to the rescue of national censorship?

In France, only the Journal du Dimanche dared to reproduce the rumour which broke on Twitter a few weeks ago that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the supermodel wife of the French president, had flirted with the singer Benjamin Biolay on a joint stay in Thailand, and that Nicolas Sarkozy had himself sought comfort with his Secretary of State Chantal Jouanno.

Worse, the weekly paper owned by Arnaud Lagardère, the “brother” of the French president, was quick to self-censor and withdraw its own article posted earlier on its website… It was then that the European press who dug its claws in with articles appearing separately in the British Daily Telegraph, the Tribune de Genève and the Sun amongst others – the European press seemingly did not fear being sued, as the spokesperson for Mme Jouanno, below left pictured with Mr Sarkozy, threatened to do to journalists in France.

So are you telling me that rumours about the private life of the French president should not greatly interest the French people, who were clearly too occupied in voting in the regional elections since they didn’t speak of other Europeans?! Why should an Italian citizen, already swamped with the revelations of Silvio Berlusconi’s numerous verbal blunders and sexual liaisons, be interested in the unsupported allegations of the French president?

The conclusion we can draw from this is the paradox between the silence across the mainstream reference French media and the attention and attraction for the European media. Many people will dismiss this silence since it was a simple buzz, an un-supported celebrity story and in short, nothing serious. But for the Tribune de Genève, this silence is because of “the influence that the president exercises on the owners of press and media chains”.

A Swiss daily newspaper sees further “political consequences” – such as the absence of the French president from the Salon de l’Agriculture – which seemed a priori to be a rumour. They therefore undertook some serious journalistic research after reading just a simple rumour on Twitter – proof that when information creates a stir in one country, the European media can take over the reins. It’s a bit like that in all European construction right?

My translation of an article published on cafebabel.com.

Official: Brown beats Cameron – in the TV ratings war for now at least…

2010-03-15T17:06:00.004Z

Last night, David Cameron met Sir Trevor McDonald in the second ITV instalment of the party leaders seeking to appear human and more approachable to the voter and everyday TV viewer.

Back in February (the 14th to be precise) the Prime Minister Gordon Brown appeared before Piers Morgan’s ‘Life Stories’ which aired late on that Sunday evening and was viewed by 4.2 million people – roughly 22% of the audience share.

A month later, it was the turn of the Conservatives and leader Cameron who had opted for a “serious interviewer” and chose to give interviews with former gardener Alan Titchmarsh and ITV news legend Sir Trevor McDonald. And it showed in the audience share that the Guardian is reporting today – a miserly 1.7 million (10.8% share).

As with Mr Brown the month before, Cameron’s submitted fly-on-the-wall documentary was in direct competition on the other channels with Match of the Day 2 on BBC2 and a repeat of Great British Railway Journeys on BBC1 – both of which outscored it.

MOTD2 was watched by 2.685 million viewers (14.1% share) while the Great British Railway Journeys – presented by the former Conservative MP Michael Portillo - attracted 2.1 million viewers (12.5%) – more than his party leader…

While his appearance was not seen by as many, it will unlikely do him as much harm as no-one was watching! It also says a lot about his appeal as even for me despite my interest in politics I chose to watch Portillo travel back in time on the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway…

(PS. should you be desperate to watch Cameron's documentary - it's here on ITV Player but only for another 29 days... Quickly now...)

PM Brown to appear at Iraq Inquiry: How to follow my updates from QEII

2010-03-04T11:08:00.011Z

Tomorrow afternoon, Friday 5th March, I shall be seated in the same room as Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he appears before the Chilcot Inquiry to explain his actions as the then Chancellor of the Exchequer during the Iraq War.

I expect he will be pressed on his level of funding for the troops on the frontline as well as the level of support Mr Brown gave the armed forces as they prepared for war. Sir Kevin Tebbit, the former Ministry of Defence permanent secretary, has already told the Chilcot Inquiry that Mr Brown had "guillotined" defence spending shortly after the 2003 invasion, so it should be an interesting confrontation.

As for Tony Blair’s appearance before the panel, a public ballot was held for the 60 seats available to the public in the chamber for each session of the day. Even though only 323 people applied for this session compared to the more than 3,000 that applied for a seat for Mr Blair's appearance, it will be chance to be a part of history.

I shall be there in the afternoon, and shall tweet live (and discreetly) and you can follow the tweets by clicking here.

Owzat!? Cricketer to swap wicket-running to run for Parliament

2010-02-22T11:50:00.003Z

Retired cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya is swapping for running between the wickets for running for Parliament after pledging he will run for a seat in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka scheduled for 8th April.

The country's top runscorer in one-day international cricket, and a former player at Somerset Cricket Club, has reportedly said he will stand in the southern district of Matara, where he was born.

"I know the area well," Mr Jayasuriya said, "this place needs development. I am going to help the people".

Now retired from Test cricket, the 40-year old all-rounder will stand for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of the reigning President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who he had helped win office.

"I have already campaigned for the president in the last elections. He requested me to contest this election. I thought long about this. Then I have decided to contest. It is a personal decision," he added.

If the voting in the presidential election is anything to go by, the chances of the left-hand batsman winning the election are very high, but Mr Jayasuriya has said he won't completely give up the sport pledging to continue playing one-day internationals and competing in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

"Since I am not playing Test Cricket, I will have enough time for the politics", he remarked.

If elected in April, Mr Jayasuriya will be following in the footsteps of another top Sri Lankan cricketer, Arjuna Ranatunga, who stood in the 2005 elections and went on to become a government minister as the Deputy Minister of Tourism. However, he has since fallen out of favour within the government and is now contesting April's election as an opposition candidate.

The self-proclaimed 'James Bond of British politics' (oh, and Tony Blair)

2010-01-27T19:21:00.006Z

It surely must be one of the early contenders for soundbite of the electoral campaign.

On Monday, in a press conference in which he announced that Britain had officially left the recession, Lord Peter Mandelson proclaimed himself 'the James Bond of British politics'.

And yet, while he is certainly no Roger Moore (or Sean Connery at that) he revealed he has a 'License to Kill' - the Tories in the general election - of course.

While his economic announcement was newsworthy, the Business Secretary's other announcement that afternoon that Tony Blair would be returning to support the campaign to re-elect Gordon Brown and New Labour, was nothing short of spectacular!

Who would have thought, given the bitter behind-the-scenes battle between the two when Tony Blair was occupying Number 10, that when Blair left office in 2007, he'd be back two-and-a-half years later supporting his internal rival?

But he's not the only one returning, oh no!

Lord Mandelson said Blair would not be the only well-known Labour face to play a major part in the election campaign.

Former Deputy PM, John Prescott, has long been active and very present in the social-media scene, Jack Straw is still a high-profile member of Parliament and the infamous former spin-doctor Alistair Campbell has written on his blog that he's coming back to lend a hand. David Blunkett is another who is rumoured to be making a return.

So what we, the British public, will have see unfold in front of our eyes will be a bitter contest between "New Old New Labour" vs. the Conservatives - perhaps a rivalry that contained as much hatred as 007 and his arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Then again the election is really gearing up to be a choice on the ballot paper between the lesser of two evils, and the Liberal Democrats. Nice.

So while I'm not convinced bringing Tony Blair back into the fray on the back of his appearance this Friday before the Chilcot Inquiry in which he will be very heavily scrutinised on his decision to go to war in Iraq, it will undeniably give Labour a lot of media exposure, albeit more likely negative.

Nonetheless, Tony Blair is reliving a bit of the James Bond himself - after all, 'You Only Live Twice'...