Posted by admin on 15 March 2012
…not according to the packed audience at the Policy Exchange’s Fight Club Event last night. Two votes were taken on the motion, one at the beginning of the debate and one at the end, and I could have counted on one hand those that were in favour of Scotland becoming independent. If you were indifferent [...]
Posted by admin on 31 January 2012
Yesterday via Twitter, Chiltern Railways was informed by Wycombe MP, Steve Baker, that by temporarily removing Marylebone’s ticket barriers, it has made his journey “so much more pleasant”. Seizing the opportunity, what followed was a brief interaction between the train operator and the MP, with the former stating that the gate line will be [...]
Posted by admin on 24 November 2011
Ahead of the Autumn Statement on the 29th November, I attended Policy Exchange’s event addressing what needs to be done to generate growth in the UK. The event was chaired by Matthew Oakley, Head of Growth at Policy Exchange, and he was joined by Matt Hancock MP and David Smith, Economics Editor for The Sunday [...]
Posted by admin on 26 October 2011
At present, being a Europhile native German living and working in the UK appears the perfect recipe for a rollercoaster of emotions. I’ve grown used to the taunting of friends and colleagues that clearly the Euro was a bad idea and almost congratulate myself that I set up permanent residency in the UK ‘just in [...]
Posted by admin on 19 October 2011
Last week, following revelations of Liam Fox’s improper relationship with Adam Werrity, it was announced that Justine Greening was to be elevated from the relatively junior position of Economic Secretary in the Treasury, to the considerably more senior post as Secretary of State for Transport, replacing Philip Hammond who has moved into Liam Fox’s [...]
Posted by admin on 7 October 2011
We have returned from the last party conference this year. Party conference season 2011 is officially over. There’s a few tired faces in the office and a few team members are nursing their ‘conference cold’. Social and mainstream media are still coming to terms with Tim Farron’s leadership ambitions, Ed Miliband’s speech and Theresa May’s [...]
Posted by admin on 17 September 2011
Last night I attended the Institute of Economic Affairs event ‘High Speed 2: the next government project disaster?’. For those against HS2, which appeared to be everyone in the room except one lone panellist, the event would most certainly not have been viewed as a disaster. There was huge support for the view that HS2 [...]
Posted by admin on 3 August 2011
The Government just launched a new public e-petitions website which will begin publishing next Thursday. It’s a familiar procedure: anyone can create or support a petition on anything the government is responsible for; if a petition gets more than 100,000 signatures, it could be considered for debate in Parliament. It is not Britain’s first attempt [...]
Posted by admin on 14 July 2011
There’s a number of things I learned last night, having attended Policy Exchange’s panel debate on ‘A Mutual Future’ that sought to address the question if mutuals would transform public service delivery. First, Policy Exchange is a very cycle-friendly think tank allowing me to park my precious two wheels in their office thereby preventing any [...]
Posted by admin on 21 June 2011
“If I were a global investor seeking to invest in renewable energy technology, I would not go to the UK,” Tim Yeo, Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, let slip during last week’s Policy Exchange debate on the ‘Future of the 2020 EU climate targets’. The purpose of the expert panel was [...]