Question: West Lothian? Answer: A Federal United Kingdom
[Note: This is the text of a submission to the McKay Commission on how the House of Commons might deal with legislation affecting only part of the UK, following devolution – i.e., the West...
Brian Barder's website and blog Brian Barder's website and ephems
How to stimulate demand — by The Economist
The Economist‘s Washington correspondent comments on … …Barack Obama’s proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts for one year on family income under $250,000. The plan would benefit all families, by the way, not...
Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs): stuck in a groove?
It seems that my celebration in a recent blog post of the abolition by parliament of the vicious system of Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs) was a little premature, although we have all...
Scotland, UK federation, and the House of Lords (with new update 6 August 2012)
We are currently confronted by the prospect of an Act of Parliament coming into force within a few weeks that will change the composition of the House of Lords, introducing a badly flawed electoral...
Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection (IPPs) are abolished, but there’s more to do
Yesterday, May Day 2012, was a very special day for a little noticed reason. On 1 May 2012 an Act of Parliament abolished the infamous system of IPPs (Indeterminate Sentences for Public Protection). This...
How and when not to reform the House of Lords
The government’s Bill to reform the House of Lords and the majority report on it by a parliamentary Joint Committee are as full of holes as a cheese grater, and they grate equally painfully. ...
You couldn’t make ’em up
Two gems from the weekend: “[The World Bank’s] most recent reforms of voting rights were remarkable only for their temerity.” The glimmer of a possibility of change at the World Bank, Peter Chowla, Guardian,...
London mayoral election: even if you like Ms Benita, vote 1. Ken to beat Boris (with two updates, 10 April)
The election for London mayor is a dismal affair. It seems inevitable that either Boris Johnson (Conservative incumbent) or Ken Livingstone (his Labour predecessor) will win, but neither is an attractive candidate, both carry...
Antisocial behaviour as Labour’s main priority? Blairism lives!
The Labour leadership has made a regrettable mistake in seeking to put the problem of antisocial behaviour at the top of the party’s list of priorities, however large it might and does loom in...
Cash for access: shocking, but all parties are funded by selling influence
There is solid justification for about 50% of the indignation aroused by the exposure of the attempt by the then Treasurer of the Conservative party to sell access to David Cameron (and, more seductively,...