This morning has seen a debate raging about MPs expenses, and the system imposed by IPSA, introduced after the 2010 scandal. MPs get a salary of £66,000 a year which is good but nowhere near what some of those people could be earning if they decided to go into the private sector instead. Being an MP [...]
Nick Clegg has asked Lib Dem Chief Whip Alistair Carmichal to convene a disciplinary meeting to consider the case of Mike Hancock MP. The Portsmouth South MP has had allegations of sexual misconduct made against him. Nick Clegg asks Carmichael to convene urgent disciplinary meeting to consider Mike Hancock — Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) May 29, [...]
Since the Woolwich attack many have been lining up to explain why the snoopers’ charter needs to be implemented. To do so would be a foreign policy disaster, as well as a domestic one. The UK frequently decries nations who limit internet access or spy on their citizen, and we are right to. Just look [...]
The Telegraph say Iain Duncan Smith would cut welfare by a further £3bn to prevent cuts to the forces and police, leaving Nick Clegg in an impossible position. There is no doubt many Lib Dem members are uncomfortable with many of the changes and cuts to welfare that there have already taken place, and would [...]
Of the various votes that were or were not cast around equal marriage, it was the abstentions of Lib Dem President Tim Farron, and Deputy Leader Simon Hughes, that got the most attention. Farron is widely considered a party leader in waiting, and is hugely popular with the party faithful, but his abstention on an [...]
Lib Dem MPs that voted against equal marriage: Alan Beith (Berwick-Upon-Tweed) Gordon Birtwhistle (Burnely) John Pugh (Southport) Sarah Teather (Brent Central) In total 47 Lib Dems MPs plus one Lib Dem teller (Sir Bob Russell,) were present yesterday, meaning nine of the party’s MPs were absent and so abstained. They were: Malcolm Bruce (Gordon) Tim [...]
Last night Nick Clegg participated in a question and answer session at the Institute of Directors, and once again found himself bogged down in a discussion over Britain’s future in the European Union. He was clearly frustrated with the ongoing debate, and said that his Conservative coalition partners had “moved the goalposts” on Europe, a [...]
You can always count on Lord Mandelson for a quote, and so it was this morning. The noble Lord referred to Nigel Farage’s rag-tag band as the “UK Isolation Party”, and accused Eurosceptic Conservative MPs like Joh Redwood of being “fellow travellers”, and the “provisional wing” of the Conservatives. It was a typically stirring Mandelson [...]
Tonight 114 Conservative MPs have backed a motion ‘regretting’ the lack of an in/out EU referendum bill in the Queen’s Speech, and voted against their own government’s agenda for the year ahead. Awkward.
Even in times of austerity it seems to be a boom time to be a public service consultant. The table below is made from data taken from the Cabinet Office spend data website, and shows that in the first three months of 2013 the department that houses David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Frances Maude spent [...]