By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter The 2010 intake is, by now, known for being one of the most active and resourceful for a number of generations. In choosing ten MPs who could be promoted from the 2010 intake, I have had to overlook a number of extremely good candidates who, in normal, non-Coalition times […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Yesterday evening a debate was held on regional pay. I blogged earlier this week on why I don't think the Government will introduce regional pay bargaining – and the Commons debate last night certainly didn't dispel my theory. After initial pro-regional pay contributions to the debate from Elizabeth Truss, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter My series profiling the backbench groups of Tory MPs has usually featured groups with general ideological goals. Groups representing the traditional right or Thatcherite wing of the Party cannot be said to focus on a single area of political life. Nor can newer groups like the Free Enterprise Group, or […]
by Paul Goodman This morning's reports of Andrew Lansley's Commons statement yesterday haven't missed that he was unsupported in the Chamber by the presence of senior Cabinet colleagues. (The Prime Minister was en route to Pakistan.) What some may have missed is the strong support given to the Health Secretary by Conservative backbenchers. Some it, […]
by Paul Goodman On Wednesday afternoon, I picked up unease in the Commons from Conservative backbenchers about the Government's University admission plans. Yesterday, this unhappiness was reflected during Business, Universities and Skills questions – "Mr Rob Wilson (Reading East) (Con): I have discussed on many occasions with the Minister for Universities and Science my view […]
By Jonathan Isaby Yesterday saw MPs debating the merits of the Big Society on a backbench motion moved by Dover's Tory MP, Charlie Elphicke, which stated its support for the Big Society, "seeking stronger communities where power is decentralised and social action is encouraged." "The big society has been "much discussed in the media", yet […]
Here is the latest in our series of Twenty Questions with members of the Class of 2010… Margot James was elected MP for Stourbridge with a majority of 5,164. 1. What is your earliest political memory? The assassination of JFK and the election of Harold Wilson as PM in 1964. 2. Complete the sentence: “I’m […]
The outgoing Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, Simon Hart, gained the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire at the election and of his rural constituency, he said that “it should not be thought that everything is rosy in our particular garden”: “We have the same economic and social problems as any other constituency, which is […]