
Liam Fox: How MPs can better hold Ministers to account over their handling of the Coronavirus
We need more information, transparency and scrutiny. A committee on the model of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards is required.
We need more information, transparency and scrutiny. A committee on the model of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards is required.
We estimate that streamlining the quango state could mean nearly 34,000 people off the taxpayer payroll, and a saving of £3.25 billion a year.
It should not expect to resurrect ‘business as usual’. The key priority is scrutiny of Government action and managing the crisis.
The date at which lockdown should end is debatable. That MPs and peers should be debating it is not.
Plus: And a Coronavirus Social Justice Minister. Give thanks for Starmer. And: it’s time for a Virtual Parliament.
The Exiting the European Union Committee has been renamed. The Conservative MPs elected to it are staunch Brexiteers.
Ellwood to chair the Defence Committee. Tugendhat to chair Foreign Affairs. Hunt to chair Health and Social Care.
In a nice piece of constitutional give-and-take, a more loyal minister-class makes for a potentially more troublesome set of Tory Select Committee chairmen.
Those who wish to wear fur and those who do not will both benefit from clearer labelling of fur products, backed up with stronger enforcement.
The former Chairman of the Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee relates how they collaborated to win support for Britain’s Olympic bid.
Ability, popularity with colleagues and specialist knowledge seem to have mattered more in these elections than intake or ideology.
The Electoral Reform Society calculates that a tiny change in votes would have given May a bare majority last spring. But how much difference would this have made?
Plus: The decline of books. Morgan sees off the cult of Mogg. Why I won’t fly RyanAir. And: As I reach a significant birthday, I mull writing my autobiography…
They already elect their chairmen and there will be fewer trips abroad – at least when the Commons is sitting. That means more scrutiny of what Ministers are up to.
Brexit brings unique challenges and opportunities. And my background in campaigning on environmental issues equips me for the job.