General Election campaigning to resume today After the horrific attacks in Manchester on Monday evening, in which 22 people tragically lost their lives, Theresa May announced that General Election campaigning would be suspended. Campaigning will now resume, starting with local campaigning today followed by national campaigning tomorrow. Momentum have organised a series of campaigning sessions, including […]
Posts under ‘Constitution’
A letter to the Chief Constable
May 6th, 2016 by Andy Newman.6th May 2016 Mr Mike Veale Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police Possible Illegal Practice in Chippenham, contrary to the Representation of the People Act 1983. Dear Mr Veale I am addressing this personally to you, due to the sensitivity of the matter. As you are no doubt aware, in May 2016, the current MP for […]
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The Tories don’t have the political capital to reform the House of Lords
Oct 27th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.It takes a special kind of stupid to turn discontent over an ill-thought and mean-spirited policy into a crisis that rocks the foundations of the Mother of all Parliaments. Such is the blindness of George Osborne’s overrated “genius” that the Tories have plunged themselves into a serious political crisis. They have threatened all kind of […]
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Parliamentary reform should be major objective for next government
Mar 24th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Parliament is currently not fit for purpose. It isn’t just the corruption – the expenses scandal, the recent Rifkind-Straw venality, the link between life peerages and party donations reported yesterday. More insidious and even more damaging is the way that Parliament presently operates fundamentally undermines any serious degree of democratic accountability. Tribalism (my party right […]
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Reform of Parliament should be prime target for next government
Mar 6th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.People understandably are angry at what they see as a raucous and rowdy mob at PMQs and at the MPs’ expenses scandal recently rehearsed by the Rifkind-Straw scandal of access for cash, but these are the more visible aspects of Parliament’s activities. Sadly it is the much less visible dimension of how Parliament routinely works […]
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Tory jobs claims take a hammering
Jan 23rd, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The Tories’ biggest economic claims (there are only two of them) are that they generated a recovery (after 18 months it’s already fading) and that they created a million private sector jobs. The latter claim is now under fire from all sides. First, it has just been reported by the thinktank Centre for Cities that […]
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A Con-Lab coalition would be the nuclear option – mutually assured destruction
Jan 7th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.With the polls bouncing all over the place and only a few daft enough to make predictions about the general election, there’s a lot of coalition talk doing the rounds. The SNP and Greens – wisely – have ruled out any arrangement with the Conservatives. And Farage has ruled out a deal with Labour (thanks […]
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Tories buy election
Dec 17th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Democracy is a great system, except that those in power do their uttermost to subvert it, circumvent it, and twist it to their own ends, and quite often succeed. Take the current state of play between the parties in Britain. In March this year the Electoral Commission recommended there should be no increase in spending […]
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Recall of MPs bill is a farce
Jun 5th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Zac Goldsmith MP deserves credit for sponsoring a bill to introduce a mechanism for the recall of MPs and to ensure that it was effective. He won a vote in the Commons in support of the principle of his bill, but the government ignored it, as they have done in about 20 instances in this […]
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What is the difference between Tory and Labour policy on the deficit?
Jan 27th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Osborne has made clear he intends to enforce further enormous cuts in public expenditure (£25bn for starters in the next Parliament) in order to achieve a budget surplus by 2018-9. Previously Labour had been committed by Ed Balls to match Tory spending plans only to 2015-6. But now in his speech to the Fabians on […]
