Hopi Sen

Congratulations to Jill Pay, the first female Serjeant-at-arms. I was thinking the other day that now the House of Lords has a trinty of women leaders in Lords Speaker Helene Hayman, Leader of the House Cathy Ashton, and Chief Whip Jan Royall that the Commons needed to catch up, and this is a welcome decision. I’m [...]

Tom Watson, newly esconsced in the Cabinet Office, is looking for suggestions about how to improve technology in government. Yes, yes. Random Tory blogger, very funny. No-one expected you to say _that_.  Are you quite done? Right. On with the serious stuff. This is actually a Government minister asking for ideas. We should be grown [...]

I didn’t weigh in on the Conway con as the story broke yesterday because, frankly, I don’t believe that any political party has a monopoly on foolishness when it comes to money, family members and employment. That says more about my view of human frailty that it does about political parties and politicians. If you put temptations in [...]

I enjoyed last weeks PMQs suggestions thread so much, I’m doing it again. Again, Post any one liners, witticisms, comebacks or serious points you think the PM should have in his back pocket for the weekly rolling around in the mud extravaganza.  My suggestions after the jump…

Lasy year, I had the pleasure of volunteering some spare time to help elect Phil Wilson as the new MP for Sedgefield. During that campaign I think it’s fair to say the campaign team began to have a grudging respect for the Tory candidate, Graham Robb. Graham didn’t have an easy job, as the voice of Conservativism in Sedgefield, [...]

“We asked Mr Campbell if he had any fetishes and he said: “I must have a thousand but, hand on my heart, I couldn’t tell which is the most important one. Probably the horses.” “ Sent by a friend, passed on without comment, other than spluttering, incoherent laughter. Nothing but sympathy for Mr Campbell, who is a [...]

I’m a big believer in always being hungry for power. Not me, of course, I’m far too laid back. I tend to hunger for lunch, not power, which is possibly why James Purnell, Douglas Alexander, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, lean and hungry the lot of them, are Cabinet ministers, and I am not. Still, for all [...]

…and a cabinet minister resigns. I’ve a lot of sympathy for Peter Hain. He’s been extremely badly served by his campaign team, and I’ve no doubt that he’s been dragged down by the errors of others (and a lack of attention to the details of his campaigns accounts). Still, life goes on, and the appointment [...]

So David Cameron attacked the Prime Minister as “strange” today. A bit of a departure, because he usually leave the personal stuff to the baby-faced assassin, George Osborne. The context was interesting too. Cameron was talking about his spending plans, and explaining that he’s not saying anything about his spending plans becasue otherwise he’d be [...]

It’s going to be a hectic session. Share prices, Crime, Northern Rock and the EU constitution being likely topis… Post your suggested one liners, zingers and nifty come backs here… I know from looking at the blog stats that this site gets regular visits from Number 10, so you never know the guy responsible for [...]