Westminster

  • Westminster Week: Chasing cars

    Monday

    Hamish Falconer MP (Lincoln/Labour) starts with a strong statement on the situation in Iran, but stipulates a position that is obvious considering a reluctance at present with pushing out any radical protest in the UK in any firm way.

    “The United Kingdom condemns in the strongest of terms the horrendous killing of Iranian protesters and the most brutal and bloody repression against public protest in Iran for at least thirteen years.”

    His position as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary (FCDO) requires him to make it obvious, but we wonder where he gets the request from. It’s certainly not Police Officers, who have asked for less statements – if any – for quieter streets out here.

    Wednesday

    It’s a back and forth for leader of the month as both party leaders seek to take the edge off the other. Admittedly it’s the Conservative benches that have less to offer than the Labour benches, and it’s now been obvious for some time.

  • Westminster Week: Civil unrest

    Wednesday

    The Prime Minister is on the defensive, saying “any attack on any member of my Cabinet is completely unacceptable” as Wes Streeting MP (Ilford North/Labour) is mooted as being a leader in waiting. The Leader of the Opposition, however, says it’s “toxic” inside Number 10. She says he’s “lost control” if the secretive briefing’s about it aren’t authorised by him at all. She says it’s a “civil war” climate among his office staff.

    Nigel Farage MP (Clacton/Reform UK) said the Prime Minister should close hotels used for the Dover Crossings sooner rather than later. The Prime Minister, saying “we will grip the mess we inherited and close every hotel,” claims half have now already been shut.

    *A change was made to correct a mistake.

  • Caught: Westminster antagonist

    In an exclusive for ConservativeNewsSite.com, a criminal suspected of targeting staff at Westminster, and in further reaches of the state, has now been spotted.

    She’s believed to have initially targeted particular individuals many years back, and has since falsely implicated others, to cover for her activity.

  • A Parliament of simple measures

    The appearance of Parliament is raised sometimes, but not always as a compliment to its interior or exterior. The issue seems to be its “old fashioned” look, as if wood and benches don’t appeal.

    If you look around, many Parliaments are the same. It’s a standard feel that makes it different, or separate, to the many other buildings which try too hard to stand out, and innovate a definition of itself.

    The lack of design behind a “plain is Jane” structure in Westminster represents our way of politics. It doesn’t suit a passing type or a fad in design tech, and it’s a functional space due to it.

  • Westminster Week: Navigating issues

    Tuesday

    If it isn’t smoking, it’s vaping. A bill designed to regulate the industry has reached its culmination in the House of Commons. It covers tobacco, but also liquid solutions inside devices that people can puff on to get a good feeling out.

    It’s a tetchy subject, as Mary Glindon MP (Labour/Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend) pointed out. She’s worried about “youth vaping” , a phenomenon a government finds hard to handle.

    Simon Hoare MP (North Dorset/Conservatives) believes it’s a “passport away from tobacco”, but it’s still a way off not doing it at all. In any case, if the country feels it can move on from smoking proper, maybe further progress is needed to bring an end altogether.

    Wednesday

    A debate about a budget and how people are feeling is a tetchy exchange between Labour and Conservatives. Furthermore, a second reading of the Finance Bill provided a further occasion to see MP’s lock horns, to find out who’s still on top.

    In the aftermath of a controversial set of announcements by the Chancellor, Nesil Caliskan MP (Barking/Labour) stood in her defence, to declare an era of “a responsible government, and a government that will take tight fiscal rules seriously”.

    It isn’t easy to say, considering the Tories always disagree. However, Kanishka Narayan MP (Vale of Glamorgan/Labour) also heralded a new Labour day, calling the budget “daffodil laden”.

  • Westminster Week: Basic issues

    Monday

    It’s all “go” for another week, and today – the day before Ukraine’s 1,000th engaged in a war against Russia – Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey MP (Rawmarsh and Conisbrough/Labour), got across the UK’s support for the Eastern European state. He also took questions from MP’s more doubtful of the government’s record on supporting our own armed forces. In particular, the cadets and veterans who bookend the very important role that the various military services play in our way of life here got a hearing, as to their ongoing welfare.

    Tuesday

    It’s a busy day in Whitehall – for those outside, I mean. A scene of thousands of agricultural farmers, labourers, and other interested parties having descended on the roads and streets to protest a new farm tax is one to see in person.

    Thursday

    The purpose of the House of Commons is to represent constituencies made up of places in the UK. It’s right, then, that a particular place is raised in a debate if it has a problem. The sorry tale of a gas explosion in Cleat Hill, as relayed today by Richard Fuller MP (North Bedfordshire/Conservatives), is an apt example of how it’s done. A full run down of events, an appropriate level of seriousness, and a request for answers.

  • Westminster Week: Currency in politics

    Monday

    It’s a busy day in Parliament, as usual. There are lots of debates, if you care to listen. At one point it ranged from defence spending, railways, to rural affairs. It’s a lot to cover, but both sides of the house and their counterparts in the smaller parties try it aptly. At times they draw guffaws, and at others support (from their bedfellows, of course).

    Wednesday

    I think political football is a professional sport in Westminster and some are very good at playing it. It happened today during PMQ’s neither the Prime Minister nor the new leader of the official opposition scored a goal against the other. It was back and forth, and ended in a draw.

  • Drama at Westminster

  • Westminster Week: Conservatives surge ahead

    Monday

    Monday is a rough start to a week in most cases, but Nigel Farage MP (Clacton/Reform UK) got off to a running start, as well as Richard Tice MP (Boston and Skegness/Reform UK). They both appeared at a branded and fronted press conference in London to launch a broadside against Greater Manchester Police. Their effort was to bring up the beating of a police officer or two in an airport there, and the leaking of subsequent video footage.

    Later on, they both appeared in a debate in the House of Commons over the Chagos Islands, sparing with David Lammy MP (Tottenham/Labour) Foreign Secretary, over the rights and wrongs of it all (the UK recently announced a handover of sovereignty back to the Islands). They obviously feel passionately about it.

    In the evening, they graced us with a launch of a relatively new feature in their repertoire – a party political broadcast. It’s novel for them because it doesn’t quite make sense circa a year ago. I get the sense they can’t believe, having been at it for so long, it’s now their opportunity to reach out on television cold turkey.

    Tuesday

    Tom Tugendhat MP (Tonbridge/Conservatives) was kicked out of the Tory leadership race. It’s not a bad end to a long-running, populous campaign that started with six. It’s now down to three.

    The remaining candidates all put up a good fight, but James Cleverly MP’s campaign (Braintree/Conservatives) has surged ahead and may be the likely one to win. However, we have to watch this space.

    Wednesday

    Perhaps politics can be a bag of surprises, and considering James Cleverly MP (Braintree/Conservatives) was kicked out of the Tory leadership contest today, maybe we need to be reminded it sometimes happens overnight. It’s not to say his supporters are wrong but it’s a question of what Conservatives are looking for right now.

    Thursday

    President Zelenskyy visited London today, not to pay his respects to our political system, but to meet with the Prime Minister to allegedly discuss his “Victory Plan” in the war against Russia. As it happens, London is a busy day for a visit like this, so it’s interesting to see important-looking people in the usual hive of activity.

  • Drinking in the political air is not such a bad idea

    Westminster culture is one thing to observe, but not, perhaps, as a tourist.

    It doesn’t behove many people to enjoy the political ‘culture’ that any nation has, as if politics is enjoyable, or produces moments that are as sublime as our own, in our own lives, that we make with each other.

    I suppose any job produces its ‘highlights’ that go down in the history of the office as worth having had, and pockmarking the banal moments and the boring periods worth forgetting is important to keeping things going, in other words.

    I suppose Westminster has its own way of marking ‘events’, or moments to cover epochs of its own it would rather forget. It isn’t necessarily easy to make decisions for other people, as if it goes down well that some win, and some loose out.

    Imagine this happens hundreds of times a year, and you get the point. People are not happy with the way things are for them, according to their ‘scorecard of democracy’, so to speak, and it gets worse as other people have their time to speak and make a louder noise as a result.

    This is gruelling stuff, surely. So, it makes sense to have to deal with it in other ways, in having and enjoying lighter moments, such as this pub I’m in, in Westminster, called St. Stephen’s Tavern.

    It’s a small pub, but it sits in a very busy corner of Westminster, and must have seen its fair share of ‘interesting’ characters, both foreign and domestic, who wanted to make their mark on a visit, a tour, or an excursion during lunch, in a pub.

    I can imagine it’s worth stopping by in, on a day when work is little more pressing, but then, Westminster has its own bars inside its own walls, so it’s not compulsory. It’s just a part of the way we do things here, as well in other places, but very much our own, too.