Was it simply a case of voters not liking these specific changes? Or does it point to a deeper alienation between the voters and Ireland’s political class?
Free votes should not allow ministers to evade responsibility for controversial issues
No fewer than 10,000 women who undertook DIY abortions in 2020 required hospital treatment for complications. A morally serious Parliament, in step with public opinion, should not assent to an amendment that treats abortion pills like sweets.
Voters can lean towards a lower limit and favour decriminalisation for the same reason they can favour higher spending and lower taxes. It is the duty of politicians to do better.
They bear all the hallmarks of irresponsible activism, intent on pushing the expansion of abortion at all costs regardless of the real-world impact.
In an ideal world, there would be informed consent, truly altruistic motives, acceptance of an imperfect child, and open communication. In reality, things are very – unacceptably – different.
Changes to the definition of the family could have serious consequences for tax, inheritance law, and other important areas. Yet the politicians are leaving the new definition up to the judges.
British Future has been able to project the demographics of the next parliament by putting together retirement patterns and current candidate selection data with the likely electoral map given different election results.
That is the mission of ARC, the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, which is holding its inaugural meeting in London. The public want a better, more productive and dignified economy, and a politics and a public culture which honours their values.
Despite several women – including Aphra Brandreth – recently being selected, on current polling, the spectre of a shrinking female presence on the Conservative benches still looms.
As of last month, only 16 per cent of those selected in Tory-held seats since June had been women – a drop on the current percentage within the parliamentary party.
The Party Chairman on the constitutional review, membership, the coming Conservative Conference, candidate selection and Carol Vorderman’s false accusations against him, which she was compelled to retract.
Pakistan has long been one of our largest aid recipients, and between 2015 and 2019 Pakistan was the largest single recipient of direct British government-to-government bilateral aid. Yet its courts uphold forced marriages arranged by kidnapping.
Where the consumer is king, those who can best package the darker corners of ourselves can do very well indeed.
It would make clear that the definition of the protected characteristic of sex (as in “sex discrimination” and “single-sex services”) relates to biology, and is not modified by a gender recognition certificate.