Articles and columns
The 'A week in Politics' columns originally appeared in the Stevenage Herald, and are listed in reverse order – most recent first.
Growing pains
25 October 2005
The big news in Stevenage this week is undoubtedly the Deputy Prime Minister’s announcement that he is minded to approve plans to build approximately 3 600 homes on land to the west of the town. I know that not everyone will welcome this but I do.
Filthy habits
18 October 2005
Reformed smokers can be almost evangelical in their attempts to get others to give up the evil weed. So, be warned, I am one of that pesky breed. That is why I welcome the rumour that the Government may decide to extend its proposed ban on smoking in all workplaces other than non-food pubs and private clubs to cover these as well.
Start of term
11 October 2005
Well, after 11 weeks of recess Parliament is finally back. One of the first things I noticed was the reason for that long recess – the huge glass screen which now separates the Strangers Gallery from the Commons chamber.
Reality check
4 October 2005
Last week all eyes in the political world were on Brighton. This week the focus is Blackpool. But, thankfully, Labour’s part in the autumn Conference season is over and I am back in Stevenage – with a dreadful cold and no voice. This is every politician’s nightmare. The voice is, after all, the main tool of our trade...
The end of the pier show
27 September 2005
This week the government, the Westminster media circus, the parliamentary affairs sections of Britain’s major businesses, lobbyists and most of the diplomatic corps went to the seaside. They took with them fleets of satellite receiver vans, truckloads of display stands, forests’ worth of paper, mountains of T-shirts and long, long, lists of problems.
Constituency issues
20 September 2005
The longer I do this job the more I am struck by how like a GP’s it is. Both doctors and MP’s are expected to know a bit about everything and everyone. People turn to them in times of trouble and turn on them when things go wrong…
Summer's end
13 September 2005
This is my favourite time of the year. The weather is still good, the evenings are still long and the first touches of gold on the leaves make me think of winter walks and evenings around a roaring fire. Best of all I feel relaxed and energised after three and a half weeks of holiday. But, politically, September is a time for new beginnings...
A woman's place
19 July 2005
Everyone who spends any time at Westminster says the same thing. “It is just like a boys’ public school”. And it is, albeit, a nineteenth century one. This is in part because only 128 of Britain’s 645 MPs, or 19.8%, are women ....
Highs and lows
12 July 2005
The rollercoaster that has been British politics over the past week has left Westminster giddy and subdued. It is hard to celebrate the G8’s doubling of aid to Africa and London’s victory in the Olympics when so many of our fellow citizens have been killed, maimed or bereaved ...
Memories are made of this
6 July 2005
Sixty years ago the Second World War came to an end. Many of us can remember the celebrations that accompanied it. Some of us can remember the conflict itself (sadly, I cannot. I was only four when the war ended), and the BBC is helping preserve these memories. And Live 8 brought back other memories...
Flaming June
29 June 2005
June is a quintessentially English month. Bumble bees, roses, strawberries and tennis. Both my parents were born in June and both of them loved it. The gardens full of promise, the warm sun and, the long cool evenings. All of these things are precisely what makes June such a difficult month for the Westminster whips ...
Talking at the top
22 June 2005
There was a firmness in the Prime Minister’s step as he marched into the Commons on Monday afternoon to report on the highlights of his weekend with the French and German Presidents. As he outlined his defence of Britain’s £3 billion European Union Budget rebate MPs fell silent. For the first time in years something interesting was coming out of a Brussels bun fight.
Special measures
14 June 2005
Most people used to think that dyslexia was a figment of over-achieving middle class parent’s minds. A product of their inability to accept that their little darlings were just thick. At least that is what a teacher told me twenty five years ago when I went to see him about my daughter’s reading...
Down to work
7 June 2005
The longer I work in it, the more the House of Commons reminds me of a school. It has the same fusty smell – a combination of furniture polish and centuries of roast dinners. It also has the same sort of inhabitants – lots of rather loud boys. Right now, Westminster is in a beginning-of-term mood.
Queening it
24 May 2005
The first thing a new MP has to do is sign on. This, like everything else at Westminster, is rather different to the usual and can only be done once the Speaker has been elected. So, five days after the election, MPs, new and old, made their way to Westminster...
Back to the future
17 May 2005
Elections are rarely pleasant but this one was a stinker. Negative, niggly and, occasionally, plain nasty. I was really glad when the polls finally closed at 10 o’clock on May 5th.
The big choice
6 April 2005
So, finally, here it is. Another General Election. The fifth that I have fought as a candidate and the second as an MP. You would think that, by now, I would have got used to them. But I have not.
Brown's budget – a good one
22 March 2005
Last week’s budget was Mr Brown's ninth and, given the imminence of the general election, he could have been forgiven for indulging in a few flourishes. But he did not. Instead we got the steady, hard working and prudent Mr Brown we have come to know and respect.
The longest day
15 March 2005
Politics demands stamina. Last Thursday’s marathon Parliamentary sitting on the Prevention of Terrorism Bill certainly tested mine. Though I managed to snatch some sleep during the thirty-six hours or so that the Commons and the Lords played pass the parcel with the Bill, it was definitely not enough.
Background chatter
8 March 2005
The passage of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill through the House of Lords is the focus of everyone’s attention this week. On Monday, peers passed two amendments that make the Bill a far better, though still pretty unpalatable, piece of legislation.
Terrifying times
1 March 2005
Politics is about power. But it is also about the responsible use of that power. That is why I spent the weekend campaigning against the government’s Prevention of Terrorism Bill. It is also why I voted against it on Monday night.
I thought I’d left the pain of house arrest behind
This article appeared in the
Sunday Times
'Review' section on 27 February 2005.
Politics is a rough trade, which is why you have to have strong reasons for going into it. Mine were forged in apartheid South Africa. I only played a bit part in the struggle but it was enough to make me want to devote the rest of my life to freedom and justice.
Strong medicine
22 February 2005
It was half term last week at Westminster so the better half and I flew off to spend five days with our eldest in South Africa. It was refreshing to see how much has changed there, and to come back to the changes at home, such as the end of fox hunting...
Hard times
8 February 2005
In the early hours of last Wednesday morning a fire ripped through the upper floors of a block of flats in Stevenage. It cost one resident of Harrow Court and two young fire fighters, Michael Millar and Jeff Wornham, their lives. It wounded seven others and made eighty people temporarily homeless. Behind this stark description lies a bottomless well of grief and misery...
Time for change
1 February 2005
Sadly, last week’s “Miserable Monday” forebodings on the outcome of the sitting hours vote turned out to be correct. The dinosaurs won with a majority of sixty seven. This means that when the House of Commons reconvenes after the General Election we will be sitting late on Tuesdays as well as Mondays...
Counting the hours
25 January 2005
The most miserable Monday of the year found me in a cheerful frame of mind. I hummed tunelessly as I drove into Westminster through the snow. I like the cold. But that all changed with Wednesday’s vote on the sitting hours of the Commons. It seems a vocal minority would like to keep to the archaic hours of the Victorian era.
January talk
18 January 2005
It is hard to believe that we are still only halfway through January. Christmas seems like months ago and, despite those New Year Resolutions, we all seem to be working harder than ever. Westminster is no exception, and this may have something to do with the date of the next General Election.
Wave of sorrow
11 January 2005
The mood at Westminster was unusually sombre when MPs returned from their Christmas break on Monday. Even the usual new year greetings were subdued and perfunctory. Somehow it just does not seem right to wish people a Happy New Year when you know that so many thousands of others are going to have such a miserable one...
Also see ...
>> Current columns
>> Columns for 2004
>> Columns for 2003
>> Columns for 2002
>> Columns for 2001
>> Columns for 2000
>> Columns for 1999
