House Magazine Article Archive
A kick in the teeth for culture
Two of Britain's most fertile creative industries are being crippled by the coalition while sport has been hobbled, says Ben Bradshaw.
Wednesday 29th September 2010
International Humanity Index
International development became a beacon of Britain’s compassion during the Labour years, says Douglas Alexander, who is troubled by both clear and coded coalition comments on aid.
Wednesday 29th September 2010
Cuff the criminals not the police
Alan Johnson fears that a combination of policing cuts and libertarian ideology are taking the coalition into risky territory on law and order.
Tuesday 28th September 2010
Staring into the abyss
By accelerating the cuts programme without rebuilding confidence in the private sector, the coalition is gambling with people’s jobs and the country’s future, says Alistair Darling.
Monday 27th September 2010
Unfinished business
Hazel Blears offers her analysis of why Labour lost this year's election but also why it won the previous three – with bold initiatives which captured the public imagination, which were too often derailed but can be reclaimed.
Sunday 26th September 2010
Legal lieutenant
The decision to educate his children privately hampered Lord Falconer’s ambitions to be a Labour MP, but as a minister in the Lords he played a highprofile supporting role in the Blair government.
Sunday 26th September 2010
Ready for the ruck
Austin Mitchell charts an unhappy year for Labour on the face of it, but one that leaves the party ripe for renewal – with certain of its veteran members relieved that the navel-gazing is over and eager to re-engage in hand-to-hand political combat.
Sunday 26th September 2010
Lost in the rushes
Adrian Sanders is concerned not so much by the loss of the UK Film Council per se as the lack of alternative arrangements to support Britain’s film-makers and distributors.
Tuesday 21st September 2010
Economic ladders beat eviction orders
With social housing under increased pressure, Mike Hancock is keen to deliver on Lib Dem pledges to increase the stock, and he doesn’t welcome unilateral policy announcements on housing by coalition partners.
Tuesday 21st September 2010
Marching in step
On armed forces issues, as elsewhere in government, the Liberal Democrat voice is being heard loud and clear, says Nick Harvey
Monday 20th September 2010
Budgeting for a brighter tomorrow
Though a period of austerity is unavoidable to get the economy back on track, Danny Alexander is confident that laying new ground rules will bring resurgent and sustainable prosperity.
Sunday 19th September 2010
Refurbishing the Foreign Office
Foreign policy had become stale by the time Labour left office and Liberal Democrats are now playing a key role in repositioning Britain in the modern world, says Jeremy Browne.
Sunday 19th September 2010
Not quite a head of steam
Transport is an area where the Lib Dems have extracted key concessions from their coalition partners, says John Leech, but regional transport budgets remain overstretched and rail fares still aren’t competitive enough.
Sunday 19th September 2010
A new Scottish enlightenment
Ahead of his speech to conference today, Tavish Scott outlines the core values of the Liberal Democrats' Scottish parliamentary election campaign, with their focus on new ideas for community, education and employment.
Sunday 19th September 2010
Bigger dragon power
Just a stone’s throw from Liverpool, Wales helped build the great city and will be repaid with a raft of election pledges on constitutional reform, says Kirsty Williams AM.
Sunday 19th September 2010
Nick Clegg: Profile
Nick Clegg at his best is a persuasive and gifted politician. Over the lifetime of this coalition, he will need to be all that and more.
Saturday 18th September 2010
Keeping up the cut and thrust
Party president Baroness Scott welcomes members to Liverpool, where she looks forward to debating the compromises of coalition and celebrating the conversion of Lib Dem rhetoric into action at last.
Saturday 18th September 2010
Conor Burns - keeper of the flame
The vision and determination of Margaret Thatcher inspired Conor Burns at an early age and he continues to draw strength from her example.
Friday 10th September 2010
Eye on the big society ball
Lord Pendry describes how the Football Foundation has helped change communities for the better in the decade since it was established.
Thursday 29th July 2010
If we can’t legislate, at least derogate
Cars are a necessity in remote rural areas, yet their residents pay a premium for petrol – and in the case of the Western Isles something must be done, says Angus MacNeil.
Thursday 29th July 2010
Coalition does not have 'permanent inbuilt majority'
Lord Wallace of Saltaire challenges the claim that the coalition has undermined the role of the Lords as a revising chamber.
Thursday 29th July 2010
More leverage at the points
Louise Ellman MP is watching the new transport secretary closely to see how the coalition’s professed commitment to rail investment will be implemented – and at what cost to the travelling customer
Thursday 29th July 2010
Julian Huppert - on top of the electoral cycle
Julian Huppert recounts his two-wheeled campaign for Cambridge and the libertarian instincts that resonated with the university city
Monday 26th July 2010
More than window dressing
Caroline Flint has few regrets about her time in government, but was one of several women ministers to feel marginalised in the last cabinet, and hopes the rules of the political game may yet change to play to women’s strengths
Monday 26th July 2010
Priorities for the new defence chief
Former defence secretary and foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind examines the challenges faced by the new chief of the defence staff, Sir David Richards.
Saturday 24th July 2010
George Freeman - too nebulous for Norfolk
Even if the Tories Big Society concept didn't quite resonate on the doorstep, George Freeman still made it to Westminster on a localist platform.
Monday 19th July 2010
Farnborough's 'vintage year'
Defence analyst Paul Beaver looks ahead to this week's Farnborough Airshow – where the industry gathers ahead of crucial defence and spending reviews.
Monday 19th July 2010
Hold it or head for the hills
Selected as a candidate late in the day, Gavin Williamson fought South Staffordshire as if his life depended upon it.
Wednesday 14th July 2010
Century of the cybercop
No area of policing has seen faster growth in recent years than cybercrime, says Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, with resource implications for all forces as well as a need to learn new skills.
Wednesday 14th July 2010
Plant foods with an unknown yield
Mephedrone was only the beginning – laboratories in the Far East are formulating recreational drugs faster than pharmacologists in the West can determine their safety, warns Philip Strange.
Wednesday 14th July 2010
E-borders all at sea
Some elementary oversights by the UK Border Authority in implementing the EU’s e-Borders programme give Keith Vaz little confidence that the scheme is viable in its present form.
Tuesday 13th July 2010
Owl in the eaves
In the concluding part of our exclusive interview with the country’s longest-serving parliamentarian, Lord Carrington tells Sam Macrory about the Falklands, global affairs, the coalition, and the future of the House of Lords.
Tuesday 13th July 2010
Legislative learning curve
While many new MPs will now be busy 'learning by doing', others may still be finding their feet - but help is at hand, explains Ruth Fox of the Hansard Society
Sunday 11th July 2010
Must pop eat itself?
Until a business model is developed for the music industry that takes account of 21st century delivery methods, Feargal Sharkey fears artists will be left vulnerable to exploitation.
Wednesday 7th July 2010
Democracy's 'unfinished business'
By the year 2020, Britain could be beginning seriously to feel the benefits of having its first written constitution, were a referendum to be held in 2015 to coincide with the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, writes Graham Allen MP.
Tuesday 6th July 2010
Lord without peer
In the first of a two-part interview with the country’s longest-serving parliamentarian, Lord Carrington tells Sam Macrory about his early years at Westminster, and giveshis verdict on the prime ministers in whose governments he served.
Monday 5th July 2010
High principle will need a hard edge
David Davis MP argues that for those with a liberal inclination, one element of the coalition agreement was a cause for unbridled celebration – namely that part devoted to reinstating liberties and preserving constitutional and judicial rights
Monday 5th July 2010
Grazing on the long grass
Although Baroness Noakes would like to see the Tote continue to provide financial support to British horseracing, she would be happy just to see uncertainty over its future dispelled.
Sunday 4th July 2010
Handouts and bad habits
The inflated salaries of senior BBC staff reveal an organisation that has been cosseted by the licence fee-payer for too long and not had to be commercially competitive, says Christopher Chope.
Saturday 3rd July 2010Free speech reboot
There is already a pressing need to relax Britain’s libel laws, says Lord Lester, made all the more urgent by fast-moving developments in information and communications technology.
Friday 2nd July 2010
Tessa Munt - bucking the trend
An extraordinarily varied career has culminated at Westminster for Tessa Munt, whose localist concerns saw her realign from Labour to the Liberal Democrats – and now intocoalition with a remodelled Conservative Party that she finds 'distressingly reasonable'.
Friday 2nd July 2010
Polluter turned gamekeeper
Diana Wallis MEP is proud that the industrial region she represents in Europe is leading the way in the development of carbon capture and storage.
Tuesday 29th June 2010
Putting ideology before industry
Clive Betts sees an ulterior motive to the veto of a loan to Sheffield Forgemasters by senior Lib Dem members of the coalition government
Tuesday 29th June 2010
Behemoth in the back yard
The immediate environmental and social costs of the Gulf oil spill are bad, says Simon Boxall, but if America is prompted to re-evaluate its relationship with oil, some good may come of it.
Tuesday 29th June 2010
Into overdrive just to stand still
Alan Whitehead takes the temperature of coalition commitment to climate-change goals and offers a sobering reminder of the steps that will be required to keep CO2 emissions on track
Monday 28th June 2010
Mark Menzies - the path less trodden
The schools assisted places scheme opened Mark Menzies’ eyes to a world far removed from the west coast of Scotland norm
Monday 28th June 2010
This gun's not for hire
The famously free-spirited Lord Jones will work with any party that helps him champion British industry around the world, but is not likely to be found tethered to a Whitehall desk any time soon.
Monday 28th June 2010