Author: |Posted: 3:04 pm on 03/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
Gordon Brown has pressed the button and changed British electioneering forever. In a statement on the Labour website he’s given the go-ahead for head-to-head debates between the party leaders to start before the campaign proper, to be in a series – maybe three, maybe more and to take place round the country. read more
Author: |Posted: 11:07 am on 23/06/09
Category: Snowblog
I had to go down to the Commons yesterday to interview David Miliband. The Foreign Secretary was stranded in his office, held up by the election of the Speaker.
I am blessed with a Commons pass – largely so that I can evade the bolt cutters of the Metropolitan police and park my bike on the free-for-all racks under Big Ben. read more
Author: |Posted: 3:58 pm on 22/06/09
Category: Snowblog
I am at the apparent end of a tussle with the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Or I think I am. Last month it was revealed that 51 individuals had effectively failed to pass muster as “competent” to hold key positions in Britain’s financial services industry.
Or to put it more politely, these individuals had “withdrawn” from the application process after being independently assessed by the FSA.
Author: |Posted: 12:38 pm on 18/06/09
Category: Snowblog
On one level he is the fall guy of the expenses scandal. But on another, some see Michael Martin as the agent of his own undoing.
Look no further than the absurd scenes enacted yesterday as he processed through the Palace of Westminster. Did anyone ever think of cutting that frock coat so that some flunky didn’t have to trail along behind carrying it?
Author: |Posted: 6:31 pm on 17/06/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
There is a growing feeling that the “Stop Bercow” campaign will win the day on Monday.
The sense is that John Bercow might very well top the ballot on the first round of the Speakership contest but then not pile on many votes.
Sir George Young and Margaret Beckett could be vying for second place. MPs of both Labour and Tory persuasion who don’t want John Bercow might then rally round someone no one had thought of as Speaker in a contest most thought was the Tories’ turn: Margaret Beckett. read more
Author: |Posted: 3:53 pm on 17/06/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
“I didn’t realise how much you liked me so I’ve decided I’m staying.” The Speaker’s words at the end of a nearly two hours of tributes.
But he was only joking. read more
Author: |Posted: 2:48 pm on 16/06/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
The Speaker election on Monday could be a very drawn out process.
It all depends how many potential candidates get enough nominations to become full candidates by Monday at 10.30am. read more
Author: |Posted: 3:51 pm on 15/06/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
Latest update from the Speaker hustings where potential candidates for the job are speaking. read more
Author: |Posted: 12:49 pm on 10/06/09
Category: Snowblog
Gordon Brown will signal today whether the political classes “get it” when it comes to combating the expenses scandal in parliament.
“Getting it” extends well beyond expenses to full-blown reform of our system of governance, as I have written here before.
Author: |Posted: 11:09 am on 27/05/09
Category: Snowblog
Boris Johnson’s brush with a near-death accident on his bike in London’s Limehouse district (see video below) throws into sharp relief the experience we cyclists endure every working day.
I am, like Boris, a jobbing cyclist. I use the machine every working day of my life – to, from, and at work. Several times a week something happens that perhaps a second or two later, or a metre or so closer, might have killed me.
