Douglas Carswell A few years ago, we Conservatives were feeling our way towards a new open politics agenda. First we allowed every Londoner – regardless of any party affiliation – to have a say over who should be our candidate as mayor.  Boris won that first primary contest and went on to win the election that followed.  He has remained consistently more popular in London  [ Read More ]

In a dramatic 3-point turn last night, David Cameron confirmed that the Conservative Party will set a £1000 cap on the size of party donations by individuals.   In the wake of the devastating revelations by Peter Cruddas the Conservative Party has lurched through the Kübler-Ross model in record time. Attempting to draw a circle  [ Read More ]

Douglas Carswell Some thoughts on political donations: 1. No more taxpayer funded politics If political parties have got things wrong, then it is they that need to change. Recent headlines cannot be an excuse to get the taxpayer to pay for party politics. Parties might like to try to live within their means and raise  [ Read More ]

Douglas Carswell Les Ebdon has been appointed as the new university access tsar.  I wish him well and bear him no ill will. But whatever you think about Prof Ebdon’s suitability for this role, it is what this appointment tells us about the government’s attitude towards political reform, not universities, that I find so disappointing. Prof Ebdon  [ Read More ]

Lynne Featherstone Documents revealed last week show how Labour councillors propose to spend over one million pounds next year on creating a fund which has no agreed plan or purpose and has the name of the party’s election manifesto. Local Liberal Democrats have branded the £1.2 million ‘One Borough, One Future fund’ a Labour slush  [ Read More ]

Douglas Carswell What do UK contributions to Eurozone bailouts, the failure to deport Abu Qatada and wind farms each have in common? They are, explained my constituent, “the sort of things I voted Conservative to stop. Yet they just seem to happen anyway”. No one voted to allow industrial-size wind turbines to march across the countryside,  [ Read More ]

Frank Chalk Boris Johnson asked last week why we can’t manage to create an internet business like Facebook. He suggested that young people lacked the necessary single-minded ambition and also blamed our society’s reluctance to praise success. So why not? 1) He is correct in blaming lack of ambition in many young people. State education does not allow failure and teachers  [ Read More ]

Michael Smith Is Scotland about to separate from the rest of the United Kingdom and become an independent nation? This is the question circulating the political and economic press in Britain at present, following a challenge from British Prime Minister David Cameron telling Scotland to either put up or shut up. But what options face  [ Read More ]