Cllr Gareth Lyon is a former councillor in Rushmoor and the Chairman of the Aldershot and North Hants Conservative Association. In 1908, a pioneering American showman by the name of Samuel Cody, who had drawn inspiration from European innovation and Chinese kite...
Nicola Richards: What happened when I explained to Barnier why EU law is no longer supreme in Germany
Nicola Richards is MP for West Bromwich East It feels as if we have been here before. Negotiations with the European Union plough on, and our old friends on the continent continue their signature manoeuvring and gibbering. It seems we’re moving forward with a...
Roderick Crawford: Almost halfway through July, there is still no sign that a trade deal with the EU is possible – never mind probable.
Roderick Crawford works on conflict resolution in countries such as Yemen, South Sudan and Iraq, and on Brexit-related matters. He is a former editor of Parliamentary Brief. We are approaching the moment of truth in the negotiations on the future relationship. In...
Neil O’Brien: No, more economic prosperity doesn’t depend on more social liberalism
Neil O’Brien is MP for Harborough. Danny Finkelstein took issue with Boris Johnson’s idea of “levelling up” in the Times the other day. He reviewed the work of Richard Florida, a thinker dubbed the “patron saint of avocado toast” for highlighting the role of bohemian...
Roderick Crawford: We have interests in the rest of Europe, but must be free to run our own foreign policy
Roderick Crawford works on conflict resolution in countries such as Yemen, South Sudan and Iraq, and on Brexit-related matters. He is a former editor of Parliamentary Brief. One could be forgiven a sense of déjà vu as we enter the second round of accelerated talks,...
There’s no good reason why Frost shouldn’t serve as National Security Adviser
It is a thoroughly good thing when ex-Prime Ministers stay in the Commons, as Theresa May has, to give their fellow MPs the benefit of their views, knowledge and experience – that last being, as Oscar Wilde once put it, “the name we give our...
Jonathan Djanogly: Parliament should be able to scrutinise new trade deals properly. But the current arrangements are unfit for purpose.
Jonathan Djanogly is a former Minister, and is MP for Huntingdon. Did we come through the Brexit process only for the UK Parliament to have less scrutiny over new free trade agreements than we had during our membership of the European Union? This is the question that...
Richard Holden: Here in Durham, Labour ponder tinkering with statues – while local people yearn for jobs, security and pay
Richard Holden is MP for North West Durham. Chatterbox Café, Marketplace, St John’s Capel, Weardale Grabbing a sausage bap (on brown, butter and brown sauce) and coffee (black, no sugar) from the Chatterbox Café in St John’s Chapel yesterday, I remembered it was...
David Gauke: Big Government is back. It didn’t work before. It may not now. Here’s why we should be wary of it.
David Gauke is a former Justice Secretary, and was an independent candidate in South-West Hertfordshire at the recent general election. It is all but an inevitably that, post-Coronavirus, we will be in an era of big government. Even before anyone had heard of the...
Why Conservatives must get Britain’s nightlife going
Yesterday there was troublesome news for Westminster’s drinking aficionados. The council has reportedly been planning to ban drinking outside for fear of Covid-19 spikes. Although the council appears to have since u-turned on its decision, the debacle highlights...