Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.
7-9-12
Lords reform Minister Mark Harper says “very Conservative proposals” will strengthen Parliament
The Parliamentary Under Secretary for Constitutional and Political Reform (ie Nick Clegg’s Conservative deputy), Mark Harper, appeared on Sky News earlier to give the Government’s side of the Lords reform argument.
Strains in the Coalition?
The Lib Dems are sending warning noises. They are telling Conservatives that Conservative MPs have to vote for their House of Lords reform if we are to have their continued support for reducing the Commons to 600 seats as proposed and promised.
Nadine Dorries MP: November’s police commissioner elections will be a disaster – thanks to the Liberal Democrats
I need to begin with a confession: I am not a fan of elected mayors, or the recent decision by my own Government to introduce elected police commissioners.
Banks need root-and-branch reform, says Labour’s Ed Balls
Labour has demanded that top High Street banks should be forced to sell off hundreds of branches in a “root-and-branch” reform of the industry.
7-8-12
Government leaves a chap no time to think
Even to reflect on the working day of a political leader is to feel exhausted
The law cannot curb greedy bankers, but morals might
Perhaps capitalist enterprise cannot be properly conducted without religious principle
While politicians score points over Libor, politics itself loses
Public anger at the latest banking scandal will not be assuaged by party political conflict. Quite the opposite
Former East Hampshire MP Michael Mates selected as PCC candidate for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
Michael Mates, who was the Member of Parliament for East Hampshire (Petersfield 1974-83) from the October 1974 election until the last election has won the nomination to be the Conservative candidate for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
7-7-12
Vigilance and the memory of 7/7
There is a particularly poignant aspect to tomorrow’s anniversary of the 7/7 bombings of 2005, which killed 52 people and injured nearly 700.
Labour has to voice public anger, before it’s too late
As pillars of national life like banks and police crumble, our fury needs an outlet. It may well find one beyond conventional politics
Care costs to be capped for elderly
Pensioners who face selling their homes to pay for long-term care will be offered state protection for the first time under government plans to be outlined next week.
Richard Reeves’ parting gift to the Lib Dems
The deputy prime minister’s former director of strategy knows exactly what he’s doing when he warned of “consequences” if plans for an elected House of Lords are killed off by a Tory revolt
Britain gets the bankers, press and politicians it deserves
For all the malfunctions of the past few years, it’s assumed the structure of British society can’t possibly be refashioned
7-6-12
‘F-ing Bercow. Doesn’t he know I’m Right Honourable?’
What researchers witness on a daily basis – from MPs returning worn clothing to spying on politicians’ unusual google habits
Ed Balls: Bank inquiry must be outside partisan government
Banking is a profession that depends on trust. But trust in our banks has been badly undermined. And today Parliament must act to sort this out once and for all.
Michael Gove has not attacked school governors
School governors are very much part of the Big Society. They work unpaid. Often the same people help with school trips, fundraising, volunteer reading. In return they have to put up with a lot of jargon, dubious training sessions, and sometimes CRB checks – despite it being quite untrue that these are a statutory requirement.
This has been a calamitous week for George Osborne
As someone who wrote in late 2008, long before it was fashionable, that he should be moved from the economic portfolio so that he might do one job rather than two, I have form on George Osborne.
7-5-12
They graduate full of hope, then reality kicks in
Who would want to be leaving school or university this summer? When I finished my education five years ago, the default setting among escapees was optimism.
What can we learn from Milton Friedman in the current credit crunch?
7-4-12
To really understand America, you have to leave the cities and visit the spaces in between. It’s only there, away from the clutter and compromise of urban living, that you get a sense of the natural and supernatural forces that shape the American character.
Nick Clegg: I feel ‘lobotomised’ by Government
Nick Clegg has said he feels “lobotomised” by working in government, with the “frenetic” pace of politics leaving him with no time to think.
Only a change in culture can clean up these banks
Banking, like most spheres of life, has never been populated entirely by angels. More than a century before Gordon Gekko strode into Wall Street, declaring that “Greed is right, greed works”, Anthony Trollope had viciously satirised the world of finance in his novel The Way We Live Now.
7-3-12
The FTSE 100 edged up this morning as new data showed that the decline in UK manufacturing slowed in June.
From popular capitalism to unpopular banks
Evidence abounds that free enterprise societies are more prosperous and people in them enjoy more freedom than state planned economies. Capitalism should be popular. It brings us jobs, new technologies, great entertainment, good shops.
Across The Pond is edited daily by Steve Parkhurst. Steve is a political consultant, a writer at his blog as well as a Senior Editor here at US Daily Review. Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveParkhurst
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