Nadine Dorries submitted this piece to ConservativeHome a week ago, under embargo. G'day. Is it outrage back home? Do people understand why I am in a jungle, eating only three handfuls of rice a day with a few beans thrown in? That is of course, unless I get a live cockroach or a fish eye […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Until fairly recently, An MP was a citizen legislator, legislating and debating and representing while also working at his business, not a professional politician doing a job. But over the past 30 years or so, private finance has gradually been replaced by taxpayer funding, and the clash of interests […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter It's been revealed this morning that Tory MP Nadine Dorries will be one of the guests on ITV's I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here from Sunday night. For a reported fee of up to £40,000 she'll spend up to a month in a Australian jungle undertaking various […]
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the revelations surrounding Jimmy Savile and the culture of the 1970s. Yesterday morning, on Twitter, I read a joke 'the 1970s has just been arrested'. As a girl growing up in Liverpool, I often heard the saying, 'many a true word said in jest' . You have to have […]
This article was submitted yesterday. The 'yesterdays' in the article therefore refer to Wednesday. Despite being called every name under the sun and having my motives questioned at every turn, I have been consistently clear about the changes I would like to see to the UK abortion laws. I want a lower legal limit at […]
This coming Wednesday morning, in Westminster Hall, I shall be leading a debate to reduce the upper limit at which abortion takes place and will be making the case for those babies which are aborted for social reasons, ie, relationship breakdown, job change etc to be limited to twenty weeks. My proposal does not include […]
The headlines this weekend make depressing reading for millions of Conservative voters, activists and MPs alike. We may have reached a tipping point as it looks increasingly as though we have entered a situation similar to that of the worst of John Major’s catastrophic 'back to basics' days. As with most things in life, it’s […]
Yesterday we learned that the Department of Health is to launch an investigation as to why Jimmy Savile was put in charge of a task force overseeing Broadmoor Hospital. The BBC is to launch at least two internal investigations and the government may face civil claims, yet to be determined in number. Jimmy Savile was […]
So, within three days, three ministers declare their position on the taboo subject of abortion, including the Secretary of State for Health. Has that ever happened before, in any government? All three, Maria Miller, Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt, voted on an abortion amendment I brought forward to reduce the abortion limit in 2008, and […]
And we're off. This conference season marks the "just past the half way stage" of the electoral cycle and this is where it all becomes interesting once again. We will take the fight to Labour with our "Labour isn't learning" poster and Ed Milliband will bring it back to us in his conference speech. This […]
If you are someone who has spent many years enjoying conference, you could be forgiven for having stopped at home for the last few years – or at least, that’s where I thought you were. The conference emphasis has shifted from having been a special time for activists to become involved and have their voices […]
I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing, the first time I heard it suggested that Boris might one day be Prime Minister. It was in Bournemouth, on the second evening of conference in 2004. I was in the company of a shadow secretary of state and a senior member of CCHQ, […]
Following the reshuffle last week we experienced a rush of policy announcements, some of which were supply-side oriented and very welcome in the push for growth. I could ask the question, why has it taken two-and-a-half years? But I won’t. The most exciting and the most worrying of policies were the responsibility of the new […]