I have a confession to make. I was the planning minister that helped take the 2008 Planning Act through parliament – an Act that was designed to speed up development of national infrastructure projects. As you can see, it has had only limited success. We haven’t built a new runway[…]
The NHS has benefitted from having a diverse workforce over the past 70 years. That’s something for is all to be proud of. But diversity isn’t just about race, faith, gender or sexuality. There are many types of diversity that help to make our public services better. The importance of[…]
I’ve had many roles in my life. One of my favourite was as Minister for Faith Communities in 2008, a role I held as a Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government. It wasn’t the title I fell in love with, but the role, including the challenges. I[…]
In June 2018 the proposed new runway project at Heathrow achieved outline planning consent, through its Parliamentary majority of 296 in a vote of MPs. It is set to be the biggest privately funded infrastructure project in the world. However, there are still many hoops it must jump through before[…]
From feedback, this is one of the most popular chapters of my recent book (My Political Race). I hope you enjoy Chapter 8, about Steve Pound MP’s count in Ealing North, 1997. *** Chapter 8 1 May 1997 – A New Dawn I rang Terry Ashton. He was my big[…]
I recently asked Insight Public Affairs to work with me to compile some data about political parties, their MPs and the racial make-up of the constituencies they represent. The research has just been published by the Guardian and I can only assume, and hope, that the main political parties are[…]
Some politicians love doing TV interviews, some hate them and you can tell. I must confess due to it being late/a long day at work/the World Cup/the dog ate my homework, I didn’t see that much of BBC Question Time this week. But what I saw was a delight. I[…]
I do still get quite a lot of questions about the incident mentioned in this article. This blog tries to answer those questions here in my own words. I gave evidence in person to the All-Party Inquiry in to Electoral Conduct, which looked in to abusive behaviour in election campaigns.[…]
Margaret Thatcher, Geoffrey Howe and Leon Brittan held Britain’s three great offices of State thirty years ago. The idea that they could have allowed the SAS to get involved in the Indian government’s attempt to retake the Golden Temple in Amritsar by force would have seemed fanciful just hours ago.[…]
The phrase ‘responsible capitalism’ has become a popular slogan for those on the left and the right. However, slogans are no substitute for policies. Responsible capitalism is sometimes used as a cover to bash the bankers, but there is much more to it than that. Kofi Annan, in his term as[…]