The list of MPs who voted to exclude themselves from the Freedom of Information Act has a few surprises in it. The biggest surprise was Tom Watson who has done so much through his blog to open up the life of an MP and the House of Commons. I guess Read more…
The House of Commons did themselves a great disservice today when they allowed a third reading of David Maclean’s Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill. They have sent out a message that it is OK for them to pass laws for everyone to obey but themselves. They have slapped other elected Read more…
No not the Grease Michelle (although I do think she is the best Sandy by far). It’s Michelle Epstein from the London Borough of Redbridge that you need to back. Michelle has been nominated for the Inclusion Local Government Worker of the Year in the Local Government Channel Awards. Michelle’s Read more…
It seems that the Labour Parliamentary Committee is supporting the Private Member’s Bill brought by Conservative MP David MacLean. According to the Independent: The email from Labour MPs Tony Lloyd, Angela Eagle, Kevan Jones, Ann Cryer, Joan Ruddock, Martin Salter and Don Touhig says: "We feel strongly that the measures Read more…
Andrew Brown has been stung into action by an article in Prospect and a regular reader of his blog. He’s promised to come up with some positive reforms to make local government better. He has started the discussion on his blog here. One aspect is going to be the role Read more…
David MacLean’s damaging Private Member’s Bill was due to debated again this morning, but somehow yesterday it was dropped off the agenda and postponed until May 18th. It isn’t clear why it has been dropped. The Deputy Speaker said only the Sponsor of a bill can withdraw it. I’m guessing Read more…
Daniel Cox, one of the Councillors who took part in the original Norfolk LifeSwap event was recently elected as Leader of Norfolk County Council at the age of 36. According to our sources this makes him the youngest Leader of a County Council in the UK. Congratulations to him.
Parliament (at least the 25 MPs those that are there on a Friday – only 25 are visible on Parliament TV) is currently debating the Private Members Bill brought by David MacLean (Con). The bill looks to amend the Freedom of Information Act to allow MPs to exclude themselves from Read more…
Not all councils suffer the same problems. Up and down the country the political parties are battling with each other over the candidates they are fielding. But in Teesdale (pop. 24,457) they have a different problem. Out of 32 seats up for election only 7 are being contested. Even then Read more…
I saw an old friend at the weekend and got very excited when I heard about her new job. I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to this absolutely brilliant project by the BBC. It’s called School Report, and Year 8 students (12/13 year olds) got the chance to make their Read more…