Westminster
Ed Davey and me
Posted on February 3, 2012 by Jonathan Kent | No Comments
Jonathan Kent was a student environmental activist alongside the newly-appointed Energy Secretary, and argues his early green consciousness gives grounds for hope.
The end of opposition
Posted on January 15, 2012 by Matthew Butcher | 12 Comments
Yesterday the official opposition gave up. In a packed room at The Insititute for Education Ed Balls finally confirmed what many of us have been thinking for a while: The Labour Party aren’t the alternative. As the cuts continue to bite, the wages of workers remain stagnant and the economic outlook for the UK remains [...]
Defending Health and Safety
Posted on January 8, 2012 by Alyson Macdonald | 4 Comments
I have a confession to make: I’m a big fan of health and safety. I’m not just saying that just to be contrary, or because I like everything the Tories don’t and vice versa – I genuinely think that it’s a good thing. Workers’ Memorial Day exists because of the thousands of people who have [...]
Youth Unemployment: Government Policies Aren’t Working
Posted on October 13, 2011 by Alyson Macdonald | 3 Comments
Figures released by the ONS this week have revealed that unemployment is now the highest that it has been since the early 1990s. There are now 2.57 million people unemployed in the UK, and just short of 1 million – 38.5% of the total – of them are under the age of 25. The coalition [...]
Kill electoralism, not the NHS
Posted on October 13, 2011 by Alasdair Thompson | 4 Comments
So that’s it then. It’s all over (bar the committee and third reading). The lords didn’t save the NHS. Despite all the petitions, all the tweets and hashtags, despite adopting lords and blocking bridges the amendment from lords Owen an Hennessy that could have derailed the bill fell by 330-262 votes. The Health and Social [...]
A dog’s dinner?
Posted on June 12, 2011 by Elliot Folan | 9 Comments
In publishing his proposals for Lords Reform, our Deputy PM invited constructive criticism of the proposals. He didn’t get it. Rather, he got a chorus of abuse from both the Tories and Labour. Sadiq Khan, the shadow Justice Secretary, called it “a dog’s dinner, with nobody happy” – and that’s a nice summing up of [...]
Women’s Budget protest – pictures
Posted on March 23, 2011 by Gary Dunion | 2 Comments
20 women blockaded the main exits from Downing Street this morning, in an attempt to stop George Osborne delivering a Budget that would hammer women. The protestors were in place from 11.15 until 11.52, when the Chancellor’s car broke through the blockade. Protestor Sara Ayech said: “We are stopping George Osborne from delivering his bankers’ [...]
Budget 2011: Retro Shock Doctrine as Thatcher’s Enterprise Zones return
Posted on March 23, 2011 by Gary Dunion | 4 Comments
In a display of loyalty to the memory of Margaret Thatcher (don’t get excited; she’s still alive), George Osborne today announced that now the Tories are back in power, they’re bringing back Enterprise Zones. There will be 21 in total. Ten locations have been chosen by Osborne, so we will see EZs in Birmingham and [...]
Budget open thread
Posted on March 23, 2011 by Gary Dunion | 7 Comments
George Osborne gives his first regular-season Budget speech today at 12.30. You can watch on BBC2, BBC Parliament or online at BBC Democracy Live. We’ll have analysis for you once we have our hands on the Budget documents, and we’ll be tweeting throughout the speech @brightgrn. In the meantime, this open thread is for you [...]
The Case for Parliamentary Reform
Posted on February 3, 2011 by Alasdair Thompson | 1 Comment
Image courtesy of UK Parliament via flickr In all the debate around the AV bill we often forget that democratic reform is much wider than just electoral reform. A modern, democratic parliament needs to be not just representative but accountable and transparent as well. Today, as Caroline Lucas’ report “The Case for Parliamentary Reform” gets [...]
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