For those Tories who want to get rid of Bercow keep a low profile. Labour will finish the job.
- 22 Aug 2014
John Bercow has nearly reached the point of no return over the appointment of Carol Mills to succeed Sir Robert Rogers as Chief Clerk of the Commons. The Speaker is going to have to decide whether he wishes to remain in his job or be given the pearl handled revolver and bottle...
Recalling that preening posing Tower of Babel will only grandstand our weaknesses and uncertainties
- 21 Aug 2014
Will someone please explain to me why there is this bizarre clamour to recall Parliament? Yes, the Middle East is ablaze and all of us are still in shock that a home grown Brit thug has been party to a depraved act of barbarism. It is all the more chilling be because he is one...
ISIS are already here. Unless we destroy them everything we hold dear will be lost. Military action in the Middle East is inevitable.
- 17 Aug 2014
I have no doubt that in a few weeks time British boots will be back on Middle Eastern sand. To topple an a unpopular leader? To educate women? To restore democracy? No. To protect everything this country stands for. Tolerance, decency and respect for others. And democracy. Las...
Lord protect us the Nige and Bozza circus is coming to town
- 9 Aug 2014
I suppose that it is an elaborate celestial joke that the two politicians who are beloved of the masses because they are ‘normal’ human beings and not infected with the poison of Westminster are two of the most calculating and deeply cynical hucksters the the party system has ...
Baroness Warsi should be a warning to politicians who make appointments for all the wrong reasons
- 6 Aug 2014
I don’t want to be too unkind about poor old Baroness Warsi but her departure was like so much of her political career, a badly timed stunt. The real question that should occupy David Cameron for a nano second is not why she went but why she was ever appointed to high office i...
It's time for clarity on human rights. There is too much political testosterone causing subpoena envy
- 18 Jul 2014
The Conservative Party is going to get itself in a terrible mess over the Human Rights Act. As David Cameron will soon discover, changing the lawyer is not going to solve the problem. Now is the time for clarity without looking through the prism of party advantage. Firstly, a ...
The PM's que guapo moment.
- 16 Jul 2014
This was a very strange and totally unpredictable reshuffle. It is neither a disaster nor a triumph. Just a little odd. I was pondering yesterday whether the appointment of Hammond to the Foreign Office was an act of insanity, vandalism or just an elaborate and inexplicable jo...
Number 10 needs to get a grip on the Dickens dossier disappearance before this turns into a political scandal
- 5 Jul 2014
I have been wracking my brains to recall what we knew and what we suspected about Parliamentarians being involved in paedophilia during my time in the Commons as an MP and a journalist between 1983 and 2002. The terrible realisation is that the answer is precious little. Desp...
Juncker is a lame duck president before he has even swum onto the pond
- 28 Jun 2014
A few days ago John Major, with characteristic good sense, gave us a clue what would happen when Juncker ascends into Euro heaven. A sense of guilt would prevail that Britain had been hard done by and that amends need to be made. This prediction was borne out by Merkel’s comme...
Macmillan and Napoleon III were quite good news. Such strange Cummings and goings
- 16 Jun 2014
“My biggest mistake”, said Norman Tebbit about Margaret Thatcher, his voice aching with irony, “was leaving her to the care of her friends”. Cabinet ministers take note. The moment your SPAD goes on a frolic of their own in madcap briefings to ‘assist’ their charges by denounc...