From our UK edition
Seems like the CoffeeHousers’ choice for the Speakership is thinking about taking on the job after all. Here’s the headline-grabbing snippet from Frank Field’s article in the Telegraph today: “The next Speaker will only be the most powerful in our history if he or she is elected on a programme that points to how we
From our UK edition
So the votes are in, and Frank Field is the CoffeeHousers’ choice to be the next Speaker of the House of Commons. He secured 36.5 percent of the vote in our poll – well ahead of Sir George Young, who finished in second with 13.7 percent. The worry is that David Cameron will have inadvertantly
From our UK edition
Theresa May – the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, and MP for Maidenhead – has kindly agreed to another Q&A session with Coffee House. Just post your questions for her in the comments section below. And on Sunday we’ll pick out the best five or so and put them to her. She’ll get back to
From our UK edition
Many, myself included, thought that Gordon Brown might use Michael Martin as a sacrificial lamb; a means of suggesting that the Government is doing “everything it can” on the expenses scandal, as well as to deflect attention away from their own misdemeanours. But signs are he’s playing a more devious game than that. Here’s the
From our UK edition
Stay tuned for live coverage of PMQs from 1200 onwards. A perfect opportunity for a round of Brown bingo, methinks. 1201: And we’re off. He kicks off by paying tribute to the Speaker, praising his 30 years of “public service”, and saying that Michael Martin has shown “unfailing kindness” to MPs on “both sides of the House”. Hm.
From our UK edition
This is brilliant. Yesterday, I wrote that someone should put together a “bingo card” of Brown’s stock phrases (updated in the wake of the expenses scandal) – and, this morning, CoffeeHouser Craig Harris emailed me to say he’d done just that. You can download his version by clicking here . Now our Dear Leader’s public
From our UK edition
Aside from all the talk about the Speaker in this morning’s papers, it’s worth reading Alistair Darling’s interview with with the Times. What do we learn? Nothing much – but the adamant defence he puts up for his Budget growth forecasts is quite striking in itself: “I am not going to change my forecasts,” he
From our UK edition
Right, let’s try again. Hopefully this will be a more substantive live blog than the one covering Michael Martin’s 33-second special earlier. Stay tuned from 1730 on. 1732: You can watch it live here. There’s still no Brown yet, so you’ll have to put up with Downing Street muzak for now. 1735: Right, here’s Brown
From our UK edition
A brief post to point out that Vince Cable and David Davis have ruled themselves out of the running for the Speaker’s job (while Sir Alan Beith has ruled himself in). Might influence your thinking for our poll on who should be the next Speaker.
From our UK edition
Just to flag us this excellent “heat map” of MPs’ expenses over at MSN. It imposes a constituency-by-constituency colour scheme on the whole UK, so you easily can see which MPs have been claiming the most. You can even click on a constituency to get a more detailed breakdown of the corresponding expense claims. Now,
From our UK edition
Get ready for a little bit of history, as Michael Martin becomes the first Speaker to be pushed out of office in 300 years. We’ll have live commentary of his “resignation” statement from 1430 onwards. Stay tuned. 1418: Sky News are reporting that Martin will announce he’s stepping down in June. 1434: Martin has begun
From our UK edition
So that disgraceful statement didn’t change anything after all: Michael Martin is set to resign. Or, rather, he’s been pushed. If this was entirely his decision, then I think he’d probably have mentioned it before the House yesterday. Either way, he’s going now – and few tears will be shed around Westminster or around the
From our UK edition
This anecdote in Rachel Sylvester’s column really does say a lot about our Dear Leader: “[Gordon Brown] makes gestures to different factions rather than leading from the front. A few weeks ago, he set up a weekly strategy meeting involving Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell and Philip Gould – the Blairites refused to go when they
From our UK edition
Here’s a Coffee House poll (after the jump) informed by some of your responses to my post earlier. We’ll keep it running until 1230 on Wednesday, before publishing the results. If you select ‘Other’, please do give details in the comments section. For the record, my vote goes to Frank Field. Online Surveys & Market Research
From our UK edition
Another thought about the Speaker’s performance: it was so utterly disastrous that David Cameron really does have to join the calls for him to go. So far, Tory frontbenchers have been relatively cautious when talking about Martin’s suitability for the role – their strongest comments came courtesy of William Hague – but it’s making less
From our UK edition
Well, that was embarrassing and disgraceful in equal measures. Michael Martin’s statement was stuffed with the rhetoric of “taking responsibility”, and there was much puff about “restoring trust”, but he remained evasive and aloof. His grand plan? Convening a meeting between the party leaders – something that they can, should and have already done themselves
From our UK edition
So, it’s been confirmed: Esther Rantzen is going to stand for Parliament as an independent. One thing she hasn’t said is what seat she’ll run for – although it’s expected to be Luton South, currently held by the disgraced Margaret Moran. Is Rantzen’s kind of intervention the first of many? I wouldn’t be surprised. After
From our UK edition
Flicking through this morning’s papers, it’s difficult not to be struck by the Sun’s frontpage call for for election: ‘In the name of God, go!’ It’s also difficult not to sympathise with it. Sure, not all MPs are fiddling their expenses. There are some, probably a majority, who are decent and hard-working. But, in this
From our UK edition
Watch him run! Gordon Brown is desperately trying to play catch-up with Cameron this morning, with an article on expenses in the News of the World. Is it disingenuous? You betcha. So I’ve done a little fisk: I will do all that’s needed to fix mess By PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN, 17/05/2009 I AM appalled
From our UK edition
So the race to go further, faster, harder on expenses continues, with news in the Guardian this morning that any Labour MP who has “made improper expenses claims” will be “automatically deselected” and prevented from standing in the next election. They also report that Brown has given his ministers until Monday to have their expenses
