Gavin’s Gaily Gigest

It appears bloggers (including myself) may have jumped the gun in stating that Part 6 of the Constitutional Renewal Bill grants the same powers to the executive as the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. From the Save Parliament blog:
The scary-looking provisions in the Constitutional Renewal Bill don’t let ministers make arbitary law, they just […]

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Remember the Save Parliament campaign? It successfully fought against provisions in the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (now an Act) that would have effectively abolished Parliament and allowed Ministers to rule by decree. The Government’s much heralded Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill contains a rather worrying, and remarkably similar, clause:
Part 6FINAL PROVISION
43 Power to make consequential […]

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Following on from yesterday’s musings from Andrew Rawnsley that Labour might support proportional representation in order to cling on to power, The Guardian is reporting
“A significant overhaul of electoral legislation to give voters a second vote, open polling stations at weekends and make it compulsory to participate is being proposed by the government to increase […]

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For the worst possible reason, is there a revival of interest in Proportional Representation amongst Labour MPs? From Andrew Rawnsley’s column in today’s Observer:
“Another indicator of rising anxiety is a revival of interest among Labour people in electoral reform for Westminster elections. I was talking to one of Tony Blair’s allies the other evening. This […]

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The BBC are reporting:
“Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is calling for the number of MPs in the House of Commons to be cut by 150. This would save taxpayers millions of pounds and cut political parties’ need to raise cash from big donors, he says.”

At first glance, this looks like a worrying way of bring […]

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Various bloggers, including Guido, Dizzy and Iain Dale*, have got their knickers in a twist over what the Government’s counsel said in a court case brought against the Government for breach of contract over a referendum on the EU Constitution. The barrister today told the court (as reported by blogger Trixy) that:

“manifesto pledges are not […]

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Apparently, amongst all the Hain-ery, the Government quietly let it be known they are against reforming the method by which we elect representatives to the House of Commons*.
I have to confess to not being 100% behind proportional representation as an alternative method of electing MPs, chiefly because under some forms the "constituency link" (all MPs […]

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Today’s PMQs, aside from a cutting remark by Vince Cable (well done that man), also featured yet another misleading statement from our Right Honourable Prime Minister:
The Prime Minister:… On pensions, this Government have brought in the winter allowance, and that is why millions of pensioners are getting the winter allowance this Christmas.

The Winter Fuel Payments […]

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At Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Gordon Brown made this rather astonishing claim:
“Crime is down by 30 per cent. under this Government. Burglary is down by 55 per cent.; violent crime is down by 31 per cent. and there are 4.5 million fewer victims of crime as a result of the changes. We have more […]

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From the BBC, “President” Musharraf has thrown his toys out of the pram and resorted to bully-boy tactics:
Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule and suspended the country’s constitution.
Troops have been deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations, while independent channels have gone off air.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who condemned the […]

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