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I'm a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth; this blog mainly covers that, sometimes general politics and policy and occasionally anything else that takes my fancy.
Tag Archives: David Cameron
Cameron’s virtuous U-turns
The Institute of Government blog has an interesting post on the value of insubordination. The central thrust is that allowing a degree of dissent and challenge results in better policy making. The example cited, from Tim Harford’s book Adapt, was from the Iraq war: US commanders on the ground … discarded their orders and tried
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Posted in Politics
Also tagged Adapt, change, Institute for Government, Tim Harford, U-turn
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Council houses, or homes?
Since I’ve moved to London I’ve had five main addresses, not including a couple of stints ‘between homes’. Effectively a different home every 2.6 years. Of course, if I’d been living in social housing, that would have been one home for all that time – and, actually, if I were a social tenant the chances
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Posted in Politics
Also tagged council housing, security of tenure, Simon Hughes, social housing
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Big Society – it’s already there, we just need more
The Prime Minister got the headlines yesterday for his ‘launch’ of the Big Society. Along with a lot of scepticism about what the Big Society actually means. It is a concept that a lot of people are struggling to understand. And if you don’t understand something it must be wrong. Right? Plenty were there to
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My champagne shame
I owe readers and residents a confession. At the weekend I drank champagne. I had quite a lot too. This is obviously the single biggest issue that faces Wandsworth at this time – so I thought you’d best hear from me before a photo appears in the local press. Of course, if you were at
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Nick Clegg can take heart from Gordon Brown
The council goes into a mini-hibernation during party conference season, partly because so many councillors attend their conferences. This doesn’t, however, apply during the Liberal Democrat conference for the simple reason that there are no Liberal Democrats on Wandsworth council. We have been in the fortunate position of being a two party council and, despite
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Posted in Politics
Also tagged conference, Conservative, Gordon Brown, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable
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Whose shirt is the hairiest?
I’m still not sure what to make of David Cameron’s speech on cutting the cost of politics yesterday. Obviously there’s a lot in there with which I agree. I am a Conservative member and activist, after all. But I often find myself in a minority of one when it comes to subjects like this (a
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Cameron on Twitter
It’s clearly silly season. On Twitter David Cameron has become a ‘trending topic’ (meaning he’s one of the ten most talked about topics worldwide) because of his flippant remarks about Twitter.
Another lesson for Cameron from Wandsworth
I mentioned Wandsworth’s great results in the Audit Commission’s place survey in a post last week. Over the weekend a short article by the council Leader, Edward Lister, appeared on the ConservativeHome website. (I’ve included the whole article at the end of this post.) Obviously, I’m not going to disagree with his article – he’s
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Confessions of a Conservative canvasser: Part II
Yesterday I highlighted some of the things canvassing is not. Today I want to go through some of the things canvassing is, and my thoughts at the end of this particular campaign. While the media will concentrate on Cabinet resignations and pressure on Brown, the life of a party activist is less glamorous and less
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Posted in Politics, Wandsworth
Also tagged BNP, Canvassing, Conservative, European elections, Gordon Brown, Labour
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Latest Battersea ‘In Touch’
We are currently in the process of distributing the latest issue of ‘In Touch’, our consitutency wide paper. If you prefer paperless, you can download a copy by following this link (543kb). The issue contains: Zero council tax increase this year A message from Wandsworth Council Leader Edward Lister Boris tackles City Hall waste to
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Posted in Politics
Also tagged Battersea, Council, council tax, Edward Lister, In Touch, Jane Ellison, recession, Residents' News
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