Monthly Archives: February 2012
More heat than light
The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, and the Minister for Constitutional Affairs, Mark Harper, appeared before the Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill last night. It was something of a marathon meeting – two-and-a-half hours, albeit interrupted … Continue reading
John Bercow on parliamentary reform
The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, last night gave a lecture at the University of Hull, on ‘Parliamentary Reform’. The lecture was organised as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the foundation of the Department of Politics and … Continue reading
Coalition cohesion
A parcel arrived today from Palgrave Macmillan. I thought it may be my copy of The Withering of the Welfare State, which is being launched tonight. In the event, it was a copy of Cameron and the Conservatives: The transition … Continue reading
A Conservative view of democracy
My article, ‘Speaking for the people: A Conservative narrative of democracy’ has been published online by Policy Studies. You can see details on the journal’s website (look under Online Contents and then Forthcoming Articles.) It will appear shortly in an … Continue reading
The withering of the welfare state
Another publication has come to fruition. Palgrave Macmillan have just published The Withering of the Welfare State, edited by my colleagues, Professors James Connelly and Jack Hayward. I have a chapter in it entitled, ‘Constitutional Change and the Tensions of Liberal … Continue reading
Making a mark
I try to ensure that posts on the blog are a mixture of reports on my academic and parliamentary activities and short notes on constitutional and political issues. The latter are designed to be of interest to students and others researching … Continue reading
No two weeks are the same
Each week tends to be hectic, but the demands tend to be different. Last week, it was notable for the press of meetings, not least on the Wednesday. We had the Deputy PM before the Constitution Committee (see the earlier … Continue reading
Historic connections
A number of the schools I visit are housed in modern, purpose built buildings. Last month, I spoke at Winifred Holtby School in Hull, a well-designed, new school in the heart of Bransholme which has given a boost to the local … Continue reading
Questioning the Deputy PM
As ladytizzy has noticed - see her comment on the previous post – the Deputy Prime Minister gave evidence yesterday to the Constitution Committee. It was his regular appearance in order to discuss constitutional change. You can see his appearance here. I came in … Continue reading
