Monthly Archives: May 2010

Could UKIP supporters explain why it helped to prevent Eurosceptic Conservatives winning in 21 seats, so giving us a a more pro EU Parliament? More importantly, could they explain why their candidate came third in Buckingham, when there were no Conservative Lib Dem and Labour candidiates? What do they deduce from this about their tactics?

England gave the Conservatives a strong popular vote and a majority of the Parliamentary seats. It is time for us Conservatives to speak for England. For too long we have criticised but had to accept unbalanced devolution which allows Scottish MPs to determine English issues at Westminister, whilst only Scottish MSPs can determine Scottish issues [...]

1. Parliament should meet on Monday. Leaders need to hear directly from colleagues in the new Parliament as they negotiate. The new Parliament needs to have more teeth than the old, and to do that it needs to meet more often. 2. The Conservatives won a clear majority of all the seats in England. Given [...]

Yesterday when I gave some interviews to the BBC I was impressed by the change of aproach. I have always been ready to criticise them here, so let me on this occasion priase them. They were courteous and thoughtful in their overtures. During the interviews on and off air I could see them struggling to [...]

The essential issue is the budget.The outgoing Labour government refused to hold a full spending review, or to supply the detail of their spending plans for the post Election period. Any new incoming government has to get on with that task quickly. Mr Cameron is right to say to the Lib Dems that any agreement [...]

It is unusual for the leader of the second largest minority party in the Commons to speak for the country and to represent us in important national discussions. Yet that is what is happening this week-end concerning the current phase of the sovereign debt crisis. There are good practical reasons why it makes no sense. [...]

There are three features of the result that I find particularly worrying. The first is once again a largely Eurosceptic country has elected a Parliament with a federalist majority. UKIP played a minor part in again securing this unfortunate outcome by standing against Eurosceptic Conservatives , allowing federalists to point to their tiny vote and [...]

Mr Brown is within the rules to stay as Prime Minister, and to seek to form that “progressive coalition” that we have been debating on this site for a few days. The question which needs to be asked,however, is does he understand the mood of the country? It is within the rules to do as [...]

I would like to thank all those who voted for me to continue as Wokingham’s MP. The election campaign has given me renewed determination to work for all the people I represent, and has confirmed in my mind the local and national issues which most concern electors. It is great to know more than half [...]

The Greek cuts should be a warning to us. One of the reasons they are so strongly contested, is that they come with a sharp decline in living standards attached. One of the reasons they have to be so large is the failure of the Greek and the wider EU economies to grow at a [...]