Out Now: ’5 Days in May: The Coalition and Beyond’ To order in hardback at the special price of £7.99 visit www.politicos.co.uk/promotions and enter code 5 DAYS ‘Is a deal still possible?’ Nick Robinson texted me at 3.26 a.m. on election night. ‘Everything looks possible,’ I texted back. One of the great dramas of modern [...]
Frontline gets go ahead to change lives through children’s social work A new organisation, with the specific aim of boosting the image of social work and getting the very best people into the profession, today received the Government’s green light to start recruiting candidates for one of Britain’s toughest jobs from this September. Frontline, which [...]
This morning the consultation on Crossrail 2 was launched at Wimbledon Station. Here’s the TfL press release: Consultation opens on proposed routes for Crossrail 2 Crossrail 2 would create a new high frequency, high capacity rail line with shorter journey times between south west and north east London Proposed routes would help relieve congestion and [...]
From The Telegraph on 10 May 2013. A sharp rise in fees in recent years has left the independent education system so exclusive that children fail to mix with peers “who don’t have parents of substantial means”, said Lord Adonis. In a speech, he said most major private schools had originally been established as charities for the [...]
This article first appeared on Progress Online on 8 May 2013 and is based on the final chapters of ’5 Days in May: The Coalition and Beyond’ which can be bought at the special price of £10 by visiting www.politicos.co.uk/promotions and entering the code: PROGRESS. Few short periods in politics have mattered more in Britain than the ‘five days [...]
To buy ‘Education, Education Education’ for the discount price of £7.99, visit www.politicos.co.uk/promotions and type 5 DAYS (all in CAPS) into the box. “David Cameron should make each of his ministers read this book – (remember Keith Joseph’s reading lists?) – because in Chapter 12 Adonis offers some very good tips on how to be a successful reformer. He demonstrates [...]
This review first appeared in the New Statesman of 26 April 2013. Because Sir Edward Grey was such a nice man, historians have followed contemporaries in excusing the fact that he was such a disastrous minister: arguably the most incompetent Foreign Secretary of all time for his responsibility in taking Britain into the First World [...]
The strengths of the North East are great people, companies, universities, cities, countryside, public and cultural institutions, natural resources and a great location on the exporting edge of Europe. These are phenomenal assets. There was 10% employment growth in the decade to 2008 – 67,000 jobs, with strong growth in the private as well as [...]
London’s Tube and rail systems are bursting at the seams. Even with current Tube upgrades and the new Crossrail and upgraded Thameslink lines, congestion in central London will be unbearable by the late 2020s without a second Crossrail line. This is why the Mayor must start planning now for Crossrail 2 to go from south-west [...]
This book review appeared in The Times on Monday 29 April 2013. Alan Johnson is the nattiest dresser in Labour politics. When I was his junior minister in the Education Department, I would admire the succession of immaculately well cut lightweight suits, pressed shirts, tasteful cufflinks, faultless Windsor-knotted ties and smart shoes. There was never a [...]