Archive for the ‘British current affairs’ Category
House of Lords reform
June 29th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
House of Lords reform is unfinished business. The ‘mother of Parliaments’ cannot be the only legislature in the democratic world with a chamber which does not have any elected members. The Campaign for a Democratic Upper House is a group of Labour Parliamentarians and activists who support a second chamber at least half of which […]
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The new British Cabinet in numbers
June 28th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Size: Old Cabinet 23, new Cabinet: 22 Women: Old Cabinet 8, new Cabinet 5 Scots: Old Cabinet 5, new Cabinet 4 Ministers over 60: Old Cabinet 5, new Cabinet 1 Ministers under 40: Old Cabinet 2, new Cabinet 5 Average age: Old Cabinet 54, new Cabinet 49 Number that I have met: Old Cabinet 12, […]
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The new leadership of the Labour Party
June 24th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
In spite of periodic media froth, it has been evident for 13 years that Gordon Brown would succeed Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party. On the other hand, the election for Deputy Leader – the result of which was announced this afternoon – was always doubtful. I voted for Alan Johnson [campaign site […]
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Make It An Issue
June 23rd, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Some people whom I know and respect signed an advertisement this week to publicise a campaign called Make It An Issue. What’s it all about? “makeitanissue.org.uk is the campaign of The Power Inquiry. We believe that the the next phase of constitutional reform should be a more inclusive, democratic process that involves ordinary citizens. We […]
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The Department of Prime Minister
June 17th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
When Gordon Brown becomes Britain’s Prime Minister at the end of the month, he will be the 52nd person to occupy that role – the line stretches all the way from Sir Robert Walpole who served from 1721-1742. This weekend’s “Guardian” contains a wall chart picturing each of these Prime Ministers. Understandably there has been […]
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The death of the Cabinet
May 30th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
It is reported today that the former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler claims that, in the first eight months of the Blair Government, the Cabinet only took one actual decision. I can believe it. First, Tony Blair had found it necessary in Opposition to adopt a powerful system of control to restore credibility to a party […]
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Is Britain now a more equal society?
May 29th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Taking up the challenge made by Peter Mandelson in 1997 to judge the Labour Government in ten years time on their equalities record, centre-left pressure group Compass has launched a new report examining progress on a range of social policy areas. The report “Closer to equality? Assessing New Labour’s record on equality after ten years […]
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The price of freedom …
May 20th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
At the conclusion of a challenging article on the infringement on our freedoms under recent Governments, Shami Chakrabarti – Director of Liberty – writes: “One thing is certain, if we as an educated electorate give up as much in the next decade as we did in the last, our grandchildren will not forgive us for […]
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Why we need the Freedom of Information Act
May 18th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
Last autumn, the Government sent up a new Cabinet Committee called Misc 33 to examine the future of the Post Office network. It was chaired by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister. In the week in which the Government has confirmed the closure of 2,500 post offices, the following written exchange took place in the […]
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The leadership of the Labour Party
May 12th, 2007 by Roger Darlington
For 13 years, it has been completely clear that Gordon Brown was the best person to succeed Tony Blair as Leader of the Labour Party. All the rest has been political froth. Every leader has flaws but Brown’s talents are immense. Brown officially launched his campaign yesterday with an unfortunate gaff over use of the […]
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