A Bigger Voice Amidst the Chaos
The European | 17th May 2012
Europe's problem are economic, but the solutions must be political. It's time for the parliamentarians in Strasbourg to speak up.
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European Parliament must find a bigger voice
Total Politics | 14th May 2012
Few follow its happenings, but the European Parliament has an unenviable opportunity to offer democratic leadership on Europe's economic troubles.
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To Make The World A Better Place
The European | 8th April 2012
Part of the European magazine's debate series on 'the future of British Conservatism', in English and German.
Conservatives must modernize - by returning to their roots. The basic tenets of conservative beliefs still hold: The skepticism towards radical change, the commitment to stability in a risky world, and the desire to leave behind a better world for our children.
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Why Stop At Mr Fred? Time Has Come To Avenge Darien
Dale & Co | 1st February 2012
Nik Darlington argues the case for stripping Sir William Paterson of his knighthood.
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David Cameron is playing the man, not the ball
Dale & Co | 9th January 2012
Nik Darlington believes David Cameron's attitude towards Alex Salmond and the SNP is increasingly reckless.
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The free market is failing this country’s children
Total Politics | 9th December 2011
The Daily Telegraph's revelation that some examiners are tipping teachers off about the content of exam papers is further confirmation that the free market in education has failed.
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The eurozone's fiscal marathon
Total Politics | 6th December 2011
Angela Merkel has quite the little marathon ahead of her - Nik Darlington wonders if she realises quite what's in store?
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George Osborne’s Cunning Plan To Keep Boris In City Hall?
Dale & Co. | 30th November 2011
Last year, David Cameron appeared to rule out the option of building a new London airport on an artificial island - dubbed ‘Boris Island’ – but following the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement today this would appear to be back on the table. An alternative, built on an existing island, has been sketched out by the architect Lord Foster of Thames Bank. Estimated costs range between £40bn and £50bn.
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The Government needs to help rail users as well as motorists
Total Politics | 24th November 2011
The Government should pay attention to lessons learned from Thomas the Tank Engine when considering rail fare rises.
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Only time will tell if the union holds
Total Politics | 21st November 2011
As we take one step closer to changing the clocks, Nik Darlington assesses the
possible impact of the Daylight Savings Bill on the United Kingdom.
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possible impact of the Daylight Savings Bill on the United Kingdom.
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Stubborn nihilism and the student protests
Total Politics | 10th November 2011
Tuition fees are too high. For some. For others, they’re still too low, says Nik Darlington.
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The Fate Of The Scottish Tories: Survive And Die, Or Die And Survive?
Dale & Co. | 4th November 2011
The contest they’re calling Tory Idol draws to a close today. The 8,500 Scottish Conservative and Unionist party members have been balloted by post over recent weeks for the new leader of that party - or, if one of the candidates has his way, an entirely new party. Read more...
In politics we mistrust
Total Politics | 3rd November 2011
George Clooney’s new film, The Ides of March, is an absorbing story about a telegenic, attractive and idealistic Democrat running for high office, and the political arts – high and low – that his campaign team deploy to get him there.
If it sounds a bit like Robert Redford’s classic political film The Candidate, that is because it is a bit like Robert Redford’s classical political film The Candidate. Read more...
If it sounds a bit like Robert Redford’s classic political film The Candidate, that is because it is a bit like Robert Redford’s classical political film The Candidate. Read more...
Do Constituents Truly Care About Europe?
Dale & Co. | 28th October 2011
It is a historic principle that Members of Parliament are representatives of the people, not delegates sent by the people. It is as it is, or has been as it is, since the earliest days of our modern parliamentary democracy.
The best articulation of this simple fact was provided by Edmund Burke, in a speech to his Bristol constituents in 1774. The philosopher-politician’s words have a rare timbre and rhythm; winsome force and poise; and their lesson is as relevant now as it was nearly 237 years ago to the day. Read more...
The best articulation of this simple fact was provided by Edmund Burke, in a speech to his Bristol constituents in 1774. The philosopher-politician’s words have a rare timbre and rhythm; winsome force and poise; and their lesson is as relevant now as it was nearly 237 years ago to the day. Read more...
Burkean vindication of the right of MPs to disagree
Total Politics | 27th October 2011
'Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement’ said the philosopher-politician. We would do well to remember that in light of the EU 'rebellion', says Nik Darlington.
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Pilots could fly 'drunk' tired under EU regulations
Total Politics | 21st October 2011
Would you feel safe climbing into a car with someone 400% over the alcohol limit behind the wheel? No. Likewise, you would not feel safe boarding an aeroplane with a pilot similarly inebriated.
But that is what newly proposed EU flight time regulations would allow if passed. According to new research from BALPA, the pilots’ union, a 16 hours shift, including more than 12 hours in the skies, renders pilots fatigued to the equivalent of being five times over the limit. Read more...
But that is what newly proposed EU flight time regulations would allow if passed. According to new research from BALPA, the pilots’ union, a 16 hours shift, including more than 12 hours in the skies, renders pilots fatigued to the equivalent of being five times over the limit. Read more...
Low taxes could be the making of Scotland
Total Politics | 13th October 2011
Over the next few years, Scotland has an enviable opportunity to switch to a radically low-tax economy. As a result of the changes to the Scottish tax regime that will come from the Scotland Bill, and the likelihood of full fiscal autonomy after a referendum in 2014 or 2015, Scotland could become the next economic miracle. But only if it wants to. Read more...
Conferences are corporate affairs but if parties keep shedding members they have no choice
The Independent | 10th October 2011
Much has been made of how all the major party conferences are corporate lobbying exercises. The FT writes that lobbyists outnumbered Conservative party members by six-to-one. It has been claimed that as many as 4,000 of the 12,000 delegates in Manchester were party members, although insiders suggest that figure is closer to 3,000.
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In planning we trust
Total Politics | 6th October 2011
It is the first time that the National Trust has had an exhibitor’s stand at the Conservative Party conference. They were in Liverpool last week too, where Labour delegates treated them with confusion. Siding with the rural and heritage lobby is not a natural Labour impulse (if only because electorally speaking the countryside is a Labour-free zone), but doing so inconveniences the government. Read more...
Tory Grassroots in Manchester Show Little Appetite for Fighting Murdo Fraser's Separation
Huffington Post | 5th October 2011
The Scottish Conservative & Unionist party held a leadership hustings in Manchester on Monday. In a hotly contested debate (in an even hotter Midlands Hotel), Murdo Fraser, Ruth Davidson, Margaret Mitchell and Jackson Carlaw entreated an attentive audience to support them in their bids to lead a political party at rock bottom. Read more...
Nation Running on Empty, but Optimist Dave Wants Britain to Summon Appetite for the Fight
Huffington Post | 5th October 2011
If the Lib Dems had their heads in the Birmingham clouds, and the Labour party bore its authentic soul on the Mersey, the Tories have kept their feet firmly on Mancunian ground. Read more...
Conservative Party Conference 2011: 4 October
Daily Telegraph | 4th October 2011
Nik Darlington is at the fringe talk on global food security. Agriculture Minister Jim Paice faced some angry heckling from a member of the audience over the National Planning Policy Framework, which "threaten our open countryside".
Paice responded, saying: "There has been a huge amount of hype" over what is only a "consultation document". Read more...
Paice responded, saying: "There has been a huge amount of hype" over what is only a "consultation document". Read more...
FCO’s arms-length policy in the Middle East
Total Politics | 4th October 2011
The former British Ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, was the star draw this morning at a foreign affairs brunch put on by the Tory Reform Group.
He and Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt ranged widely over the Arab Spring, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, geopolitics and the US presidential race. Read more...
He and Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt ranged widely over the Arab Spring, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, geopolitics and the US presidential race. Read more...
Conservative Party Conference 2011: 3 October
Daily Telegraph | 3rd October 2011
Nik Darlington is at the Scottish Tories leadership hustings. He says the Scottish Conservative leadership candidate Murdo Fraser told the audience in Manchester that he believed a new identity for the party would help revive its fortunes north of the border.
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Elephants, mice & banner envy at Scottish hustings
Total Politics | 3rd October 2011
Sandwiches were so-so and the mineral water was as warm as a Mexican puddle. If the voices of the four leadership candidates were not dry enough already, they were at the end of a tub-thumping, high-soaring hustings.
The four candidates for the leadership of the Scottish Conservatives fought it out in frightful temperatures at the Midland Hotel. The current frontrunners Murdo Fraser and Ruth Davidson lined up alongside older hands Margaret Mitchell and Jackson Carlaw. Read more...
The four candidates for the leadership of the Scottish Conservatives fought it out in frightful temperatures at the Midland Hotel. The current frontrunners Murdo Fraser and Ruth Davidson lined up alongside older hands Margaret Mitchell and Jackson Carlaw. Read more...
Political grandstanding of the worst kind
Total Politics | 30th September 2011
Exam board’s proposal to penalise private school pupils is condescending and contemptible.
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The aesthetic value of organic farming
Soil Association | 23rd September 2011
We cannot clothe the entire countryside in organic farmland. ‘Conventional’ agriculture shall bear the brunt of food production for the foreseeable future. But we have learned from the science that even small proportions of organic farmland can keep the great British landscape a living work of art. Read more...
No taxation without representation
Total Politics | 22nd September 2011
Cornwall's electoral review panel has decided to deny voting rights to second home owners. If these people pay tax in the county, though, why can't they vote?
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In Birmingham, dreaming of opposition
The Spectator Coffee House | 19th September 2011
The intrigue of the Liberal Democrats’ conference has centred on the party’s split personality. A Sunday Times/YouGov poll disclosed that as many as 50 per cent of Lib Dems believe that it was wrong to go into coalition in the first place, leading one to assume that only the small clique of ‘conservatives’ around Nick Clegg is keeping the Lib Dems in government.
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There's no such thing as sustainable development
Total Politics | 15 September 2011
Ministers should be frank with us about what they really mean when they talk about planning, says Nik Darlington.
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A tale of two shoppers: why to buy organic meat
Soil Association | 14 September 2011
The well-heeled woman in front of me at the checkout assembled her basket of goods in precise formation. A soldiery of foodstuffs: the hardwearing infantry of bottles and boxes in advance, the rear brought up by more powerful but more vulnerable cheeses and tropical fruits. Read more...
The rise of the clickocracy
Total Politics | 8 September 2011
It's easier than ever to click on a petition and 'participate' in democracy. But is it a good thing that we can click without understanding?
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Lies, lies and damned GCSEs
Total Politics | 1 September 2011
Amidst the unsettling sight of elderly male journalists commenting on the year-on-year improvements in the quality of happy blonde schoolgirls, you might have noticed that this summer nearly one-quarter of GCSE results were graded A or A*. This is three times higher than when GCSEs were introduced in 1988. Read more...
Politicians are Ignoring the Plight of the Great British Pub
Huffington Post | 29 August 2011
The average price for a pint in a British pub is now £3, according to the Press Association.
The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) says this is partially due to "huge" tax rises, which make drinkers in Britain amongst the highest taxed in Europe. UK alcohol duties are eight times higher than in France and eleven times higher than in Germany. The increase in VAT to 20 per cent has also contributed to beer price inflation. Read more...
The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) says this is partially due to "huge" tax rises, which make drinkers in Britain amongst the highest taxed in Europe. UK alcohol duties are eight times higher than in France and eleven times higher than in Germany. The increase in VAT to 20 per cent has also contributed to beer price inflation. Read more...
Will We Blow the Final Whistle on Irresponsible Financing of Sport?
Huffington Post | 25 August 2011
We can ignore it, remain locked in romantic nostalgia for a more Corinthian age and be disappointed; or we can accept it for what it is and love it for what it gives.
Sport is not just a game. It can inspire hope from despair, as we have seen attempts at in Sri Lanka in recent years. It can make a lucky cadre of talented individuals very, very wealthy indeed (though even that is as old as sport itself -- do you think W.G. Grace made his lucre as a physician?). Read more...
Sport is not just a game. It can inspire hope from despair, as we have seen attempts at in Sri Lanka in recent years. It can make a lucky cadre of talented individuals very, very wealthy indeed (though even that is as old as sport itself -- do you think W.G. Grace made his lucre as a physician?). Read more...
Cable's mansion tax bureaucracy
Total Politics | 25 August 2011
Why a mansion tax could allow politicians to create a Domesday Book for the 21st century.
The compilation of the Domesday Book was an excuse for King William’s tax collectors to pry into nearly every household in England and Wales. People referred to it as ‘Domesday’ because it meant the ‘Day of Judgement’, after which there was no turning back. The Crown’s fiscal supremacy was total. Read more...
The compilation of the Domesday Book was an excuse for King William’s tax collectors to pry into nearly every household in England and Wales. People referred to it as ‘Domesday’ because it meant the ‘Day of Judgement’, after which there was no turning back. The Crown’s fiscal supremacy was total. Read more...
Muslim Students cry Usury to Avoid Interest on Student Loans. Is This Fair?
Huffington Post | 23 August 2011
The Independent reports that an organisation representing Muslim students in Britain is protesting against the coalition government's reforms to university finance.
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSI) warns that young Muslims could be forced to sacrifice higher education as a result of the higher rates of interest under a new university loans system.
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The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSI) warns that young Muslims could be forced to sacrifice higher education as a result of the higher rates of interest under a new university loans system.
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Get on your bike? The unfair world of rail fares
Total Politics | 18 August 2011
During last year’s spending review, the Department for Transport took the “difficult choice”, according to Philip Hammond, of raising the regulated fares threshold to 3 percentage points above RPI from January 2012. The Office for National Statistics announced on Tuesday that the RPI rate of inflation for July was a disconcerting 5%. So on current inflationary trends, fares are likely to increase by at least 8% in the New Year. Read more...
Clearing up the Mess: What Students Really Need to Know About Fees and Universities
Huffington Post | 18 August 2011
Tuition fees were abolished last year, but few people seem to have noticed. The cost of higher education is being transferred from the taxpayer to the direct beneficiaries (i.e. graduates) but students no longer have to pay any fees for their university experience. There are expenses incurred as a student, of course, and the Bank of Mummie & Daddy will be called upon as the lender of last resort. Read more...
New enterprise zones are part of a marathon, not a sprint
Total Politics | 17 August 2011
The government has announced eleven new enterprise zones today. This isn't a short-term fix, but it make make all the difference to the recovery in the long run, says Nik Darlington.
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To these young people, there really is no such thing as society
Huffington Post | 10 August 2011
Londoners have passed a night of relative peace and quiet, as opportunistic rioting and looting spread to other English cities.
As shock fades, the recriminations begin. Conservative MPs accuse the previous Labour government of fostering welfare dependency, failing to improve education and forcing fiscal austerity upon the nation. Labour MPs allege that coalition government spending cuts have created a context of weaker policing, youth unemployment and destroyed opportunities.
Both sides are wrong to blame each other without admitting to their own part. Read more...
As shock fades, the recriminations begin. Conservative MPs accuse the previous Labour government of fostering welfare dependency, failing to improve education and forcing fiscal austerity upon the nation. Labour MPs allege that coalition government spending cuts have created a context of weaker policing, youth unemployment and destroyed opportunities.
Both sides are wrong to blame each other without admitting to their own part. Read more...
What Ed Miliband must do next
Total Politics | 10 August 2011
My advice to Mr Miliband is to avoid the blame game being pursued by his colleagues and opponents. No single political party, let alone individual politician, can be to blame for these riots. The last Labour government, of which Mr Miliband was a part, made big mistakes; so did the Conservative governments that came before; and so on. This coalition government has made, is making, and will make mistakes. All governments do. Rise above this. Read more...
We Know Nothing Yet, Except That We Are All to Blame for These Riots
Huffington Post | 9 August 2011
Image from the Guardian
Barking, Birmingham, Bristol and Bromley. Camberwell, Chelsea, Clapham Junction and Croydon. Fulham Broadway. The King's Road. Sloane Square. Notting Hill. Peckham High Street and the Isle of Dogs.
The rioting and looting was indiscriminate, random and terrifying. Shops, cars, police stations, even fire engines and private homes - old women asleep in their beds - came under attack.
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The rioting and looting was indiscriminate, random and terrifying. Shops, cars, police stations, even fire engines and private homes - old women asleep in their beds - came under attack.
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Football must sort out its debt problem
Total Politics | 4 August 2011
A committee of MPs has recommended sweeping reforms to the ownership and financing of football clubs in the UK.
The Culture, Media & Sport Committee, better known these days for custard pies and the grilling of newspaper barons, last week published its report into this country’s football governance structures. Read more...
The Culture, Media & Sport Committee, better known these days for custard pies and the grilling of newspaper barons, last week published its report into this country’s football governance structures. Read more...
Junior doctors in the NHS: “It’s guaranteed to be a shambles but it’s not the end of the world”
Total Politics | 28 July 2011
Next Wednesday, the NHS welcomes another intake of junior doctors on to hospital wards. If clinical standards slide, they'll be blamed, but will it really be their fault?
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Cameron pleads for Fabregas to stay at Arsenal
Huffington Post | 26 July 2011
The Prime Minister welcomed Jose Luis Zapatero, the Prime Minister of Spain, to Downing Street yesterday. The recent events in Norway were discussed. David Cameron said that both countries had been "victims of horrific acts of terrorism in the past" and that they will be offering every support possible.
Also high on the agenda would have been the ongoing crisis affecting the eurozone. Read more...
Also high on the agenda would have been the ongoing crisis affecting the eurozone. Read more...
If Ed Balls wants to watch cricket, good on him
Total Politics | 22nd July 2011
What's all the fuss about Ed Balls popping up to Lord's to watch the cricket? British politics has a long and distinguished tradition of supporting cricket, says Nik Darlington.
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MPs' summer reading list
Total Politics | 20th July 2011
Another long summer recess, another long summer reading list for Tory MPs. Keith Simpson, the MP for Broadlands and PPS to William Hague, is waving colleagues off on their holidays with a reading list that is at turns frivolous, light-hearted, educational and enlightening.
Political books broadly fall into two categories: diary and non-diary. Many are unreadable; the cream quickly rises to the top. Read more...
Political books broadly fall into two categories: diary and non-diary. Many are unreadable; the cream quickly rises to the top. Read more...
National Countryside Week : Prince Charles at his best
Huffington Post | 20th July 2011
Prince Charles is a man who has spent much of his life being berated for trivial things (like having his toothpaste squeezed on to the toothbrush, or whispering not-so-sweet-nothings down tapped phone lines) whilst being heroically correct about some of very important things when chatterers decried him a fool: such as climate change, conservation, heritage and (organic) farming. Moreover, the heir to the throne has done more for young entrepreneurs in this country through his Prince's Trust than Lord Sugar could do in a million lamentable episodes of the Apprentice. And he is the driving force behind the inaugural National Countryside Week.
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Ed Miliband's hour has come
Total Politics | 13th July 2011
There are points in politics when everything changes. A moment passes and what came before can never be the same again. Gordon Brown had any number of those moments in the final stages of his premiership. Uppermost in people’s recent memory might be the in-car contretemps over Gillian Duffy. For my mind, the revelations about Damien McBride most damaged Mr Brown’s integrity as a prime minister, when he accepted ‘full responsibility’ for McBride’s wrongdoings. Read more...
Layman's Guide to the Final News of the World
Huffington Post | 11th July 2011
It was heavier than I expected, and thicker, just like my usual choices tucked under the other arm (I won't reveal which: some mystery is healthy in any relationship).
After 168 years in the business, the terminal edition of the News of the World is weighed down by more than the gravity of the present situation. It is steeped in history, humour, hurt, hubris and boundless self-congratulation. Read more...
After 168 years in the business, the terminal edition of the News of the World is weighed down by more than the gravity of the present situation. It is steeped in history, humour, hurt, hubris and boundless self-congratulation. Read more...
Winnie the Pooh can teach the Government a thing or two about environmental planning
Huffington Post | 7th July 2011
In the first Winnie the Pooh storybook, Piglet becomes stranded in a flood of biblical proportions. Holed up in his home, the water rising higher and higher, he fears the worst. Piglets cannot swim. Christopher Robin and Pooh Bear could climb trees; Kanga can jump very high; Rabbit could burrow; Owl can fly away; and Eeyore can make very loud noises to attract attention. Piglets are little helpless animals in comparison. So in desperation, Piglet scrambles for an old glass bottle into which he places a scrawled call for help. Off this bottle bobs and there Piglet waits, hoping that someone will come to his aid. Read more...
Sport is more than just a game
Total Politics | 7th July 2011
As I write this, England’s cricketers appear to be on top in the fourth match out of five versus Sri Lankan in Nottingham. Fast bowler James Anderson has blown away the top order, including the captain Dilshan and last week’s centurion Chandimal without troubling the scorers. Only one batsman has withstood the opening salvos. One batsman has scored one-third of Sri Lanka’s runs at the halfway stage. Read more...
Getting football governance right
ConservativeHome | 12 March 2011
It should not be down to the Government to instruct and regulate, merely to collect the necessary evidence, advise and point in the right direction. Exposure of fault and threat of legislation might be more effective than legislation itself. Whatever happens, football needs to put itself on a sustainable financial footing and re-connect with the public. Without fans the beautiful game is no longer beautiful, it is just a game. Read more...
Lib Dem MPs must vote with heads, not hearts
ConservativeHome | 12 October 2010
The Independent Review of Higher Education and Student Finance was launched by Lord Mandelson less than one year ago, on 9th November 2009. Yet on its day of long-awaited publication, we are already well aware of the chief recommendations, including the abolition of the tuition fees cap (with Government support ceasing beyond £7,000) and changes to student loans, such as the rate of interest and the repayment threshold.
Consequently, the chief concern now is how the Government reacts to it and how Liberal Democrat MPs react to the Government. Read more...
Consequently, the chief concern now is how the Government reacts to it and how Liberal Democrat MPs react to the Government. Read more...
Lord Browne is making the right call
ConservativeHome | 18 September 2010
The full report is not due for publication until 11th October but on first glance it appears that Lord Browne will be disregarding Vince Cable's transparently political prod for a graduate 'tax' - or, more appropriately, 'contribution'. If this was Dr Cable's attempt at the Cameroonian art of 'nudging' then it hasn't worked. Read more...
Minister insists Post Office 'not for sale'
ePolitix.com | 23 July 2010
The new postal affairs minister, Ed Davey, has said that Post Office Ltd is "not for sale" at the first meeting this parliamentary session of the all-party parliamentary group on Post Offices.
Davey announced that he has secured £180m from the Treasury for the Social Network Payment next year. This funds the non-commercial elements of rural post offices and is an improvement on the previous figure of £150m. Read more...
Davey announced that he has secured £180m from the Treasury for the Social Network Payment next year. This funds the non-commercial elements of rural post offices and is an improvement on the previous figure of £150m. Read more...
