Posted by Warwick Smith on 22 March 2010
Just emerging from a series of radio and TV interviews on the weekend’s lobbying scandal … except it wasn’t. There was no lobbyist to be seen. Rather a few MPs willing to be paid to do things which most right-minded people would think were just plain wrong. As Nick Clegg said yesterday (I paraphrase), what [...]
Posted by Logan Ashcraft on 11 March 2010
After attending this afternoon’s talk , hosted by the Henry Jackson Society and held in the House of Commons by invitation of Derek Twigg MP, I have been pondering what Japan’s next strategic move will be. Professor Kenneth B. Pyle offered his commentary on Japan’s past and present foreign policy. He first rightly focused [...]
Posted by Warwick Smith on 9 March 2010
I spent the afternoon with 20 other people sitting in a Defra meeting room debating how to make the collection and recycling of small household items work. Which got me to wondering whether we haven’t lost the way with this sort of environmental legislation.
We were in the domain of “producer responsibility” where manufacturers pay independent [...]
Posted by Marco Di Benedetto on 3 March 2010
Every time we talk about the EU’s Foreign Policy, Henry Kissinger’s fateful question comes to mind: “Whom do I call if I want to talk to Europe?” and yet it seems this quote is still quite pertinent of today’s enhanced European foreign affairs framework.
What came first, the chicken or the egg? the structure or the [...]
Posted by Katharina Derschewsky on
The BBC’s success in convincing the three Parties’ leaders to appear in a TV debate prior to the General Election may have heralded a change in the way we will be discussing the impact of new media on politics in the future.
We always knew that new media would not win elections but did have the [...]
Posted by Logan Ashcraft on 25 February 2010
Historically speaking, Greece has been a dynamic and hugely influential tour-de-force in Western culture. We see its influence in artwork, religion, and architecture throughout the world. Homer’s poetry and mythological tales of Zues and Hercules will forever remain a pillar of classic literature, and every day when we pay for a coffee or sandwich using [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 13 February 2010
Are you surprised that the Conservative’s poll lead is up to 11, just after we had been told that Labour were pulling it back? Has David Cameron had a really good week? Did Gordon Brown have a good January. Or is it just that journalists are hopeless at maths?
Opinion polls interviewing 1,000 people have an error of 3% . [...]
Posted by Warwick Smith on 11 February 2010
Great post by Roger Helmer. Best explanation of lobbying from a politician for a long time.
Posted by Warwick Smith on 10 February 2010
Yesterday’s public comments on the regulation of lobbying have produced much heat and little light in today’s media. OK, I accept that the debate between my old friends Peter Bingle and Mark Adams at the CPIR didn’t generate that much airtime. But David Cameron’s speech was widely reported, albeit sadly inaccurately.
The common theme between the [...]
Posted by Katharina Derschewsky on 4 February 2010
Social Media… Everybody’s doing it. Why? Mainly, it seems, because everybody else is doing it. That, at least, was one of the conclusions that could be drawn from last night’s event “Show me where the money is – measuring ROI in social media”. While the panel included some of the thought leaders and high flyers [...]