Welcome to our round-up of snippets from the corridors of power.
Welcome to our round-up of snippets from the corridors of power.
SNOOZING NOT LOSING For most denizens of the Commons, the annual ballot of MPs to win debating time for private members' bills is a kind of legislative fruit machine, which allows the lucky winner the chance to bring in the bill of their choice and enjoy a serious prospect of getting it onto the statute book. For a few, who've mastered the intricacies of the rules for private members business, it's a chance to pull a procedural fast one. Andrew Dismore has a cunning plan
SNOOZING NOT LOSING For most denizens of the Commons, the annual ballot of MPs to win debating time for private members' bills is a kind of legislative fruit machine, which allows the lucky winner the chance to bring in the bill of their choice and enjoy a serious prospect of getting it onto the statute book. For a few, who've mastered the intricacies of the rules for private members business, it's a chance to pull a procedural fast one. Andrew Dismore has a cunning plan
Step forward Labour's Andrew Dismore. Part procedure nerd and part performance artist, he specialises in helping the private members bills he likes to get through, while killing the ones he dislikes, often by absorbing all the available debating time with marathon speeches of quite stupifying tedium. And this Monday, having slept on the floor of the Commons Public Bills Office, earlier in the week, to ensure he was first in the queue, he will be presenting no less that 12 Bills which will lurk low down the agenda for Friday private members business debates.
Step forward Labour's Andrew Dismore. Part procedure nerd and part performance artist, he specialises in helping the private members bills he likes to get through, while killing the ones he dislikes, often by absorbing all the available debating time with marathon speeches of quite stupefying tedium. And this Monday, having slept on the floor of the Commons Public Bills Office, earlier in the week, to ensure he was first in the queue, he will be presenting no less that 12 Bills which will lurk low down the agenda for Friday private members business debates.
The logic is that if a bill higher on the agenda goes through unexpectedly rapidly, fails or is delayed, Mr Dismore will be poised to take over and free debating time that results. It will give him a chance to raise issues ranging from Civil Service rules that limit the employment of foreigners, to artworks in museums which were taken from holocaust victims, to the use of tropical timber from unsustainable logging.
The logic is that if a bill higher on the agenda goes through unexpectedly rapidly, fails or is delayed, Mr Dismore will be poised to take over and free debating time that results. It will give him a chance to raise issues ranging from Civil Service rules that limit the employment of foreigners, to artworks in museums which were taken from holocaust victims, to the use of tropical timber from unsustainable logging.
He's delighted to have cornered the market, which will give him a real chance to have his say on a variety of pet subjects. But the real pleasure comes from having gazumped his Tory rival Chris Chope, who popped into the Public Bills Office at midnight with the same trick in mind, only to discover the recumbent Mr Dismore snoring contentedly on the floor.
He's delighted to have cornered the market, which will give him a real chance to have his say on a variety of pet subjects. But the real pleasure comes from having gazumped his Tory rival Chris Chope, who popped into the Public Bills Office at midnight with the same trick in mind, only to discover the recumbent Mr Dismore snoring contentedly on the floor.
NOW THAT'S WHAT WE CALL A LEGACY PROJECT
NOW THAT'S WHAT WE CALL A LEGACY PROJECT
Exciting plans for the 2012 Games emerge from Lib Dem HQ.
Exciting plans for the 2012 Games emerge from Lib Dem HQ.
PESTON'S PICK BBC Business Editor Robert Peston is, perhaps wisely, not in the habit of handing out market tips. Unlike his father, it seems. Labour peer Lord Peston, emeritus professor of economics at London's Queen Mary University, could not resist offering his Tory counterparts a bit of free investment advice this week during a debate on exchange rates. "If noble Lords opposite want some free financial advice and fancy a punt, my guess is that the forward purchase of sterling over the coming year will be highly profitable." You heard it here first.
PESTON'S PICK BBC Business Editor Robert Peston is, perhaps wisely, not in the habit of handing out market tips. Unlike his father, it seems. Labour peer Lord Peston, emeritus professor of economics at London's Queen Mary University, could not resist offering his Tory counterparts a bit of free investment advice this week during a debate on exchange rates. "If noble Lords opposite want some free financial advice and fancy a punt, my guess is that the forward purchase of sterling over the coming year will be highly profitable." You heard it here first.
CAT POWER Sybil has made friends with the BrownsThere's a furry creature on the loose in Downing Street. Not one of Alistair Darling's eyebrows making a bid for freedom. It is, rather, the chancellor's pet cat Sybil (as in Sybil and Basil Fawlty). The black and white moggie has become a firm favourite with Gordon Brown's two sons apparently. She has discovered the connecting door between Number 10 and 11 Downing Street and happily slinks back and forth between the two all day. Except during recess, of course, when a civil servant takes Sybil home, while the Darlings and Browns head for Scotland.
CAT POWER Sybil has made friends with the BrownsThere's a furry creature on the loose in Downing Street. Not one of Alistair Darling's eyebrows making a bid for freedom. It is, rather, the chancellor's pet cat Sybil (as in Sybil and Basil Fawlty). The black and white moggie has become a firm favourite with Gordon Brown's two sons apparently. She has discovered the connecting door between Number 10 and 11 Downing Street and happily slinks back and forth between the two all day. Except during recess, of course, when a civil servant takes Sybil home, while the Darlings and Browns head for Scotland.
SLINGS AND ARROWS
SLINGS AND ARROWS
Spotted on the Commons benches: Tory MP Tim Loughton with his arm in a sling. "People have been speaking to me who have never spoken to me in years. Margaret Beckett asked me about it and I haven't spoken to her in about five years," he tells the Diary. "Everyone is assuming it is a skiing accident. The official line is I got it from a constituent asking questions about my expenses," he jokes. The truth is more prosaic but no less painful. "I had an inflamed elbow," says the shadow children's minister. The bandage, happily, has now been removed and Mr Loughton is on the mend.
Spotted on the Commons benches: Tory MP Tim Loughton with his arm in a sling. "People have been speaking to me who have never spoken to me in years. Margaret Beckett asked me about it and I haven't spoken to her in about five years," he tells the Diary. "Everyone is assuming it is a skiing accident. The official line is I got it from a constituent asking questions about my expenses," he jokes. The truth is more prosaic but no less painful. "I had an inflamed elbow," says the shadow children's minister. The bandage, happily, has now been removed and Mr Loughton is on the mend.
YES THEY CAN HAVE A PROMOTION
YES THEY CAN HAVE A PROMOTION
It was a day when anything seemed possible. While Barack Obama was about to be inaugurated, Harriet Harman gave a speech welcoming his victory at an Operation Black Vote party in Millbank Tower. The emcee introduced the Labour MP as "deputy prime minister". Ms Harman - the holder of several government jobs, such as Commons leader and Labour chairman, and not known for her lack of ambition - did not correct her host on the inadvertent promotion. Jack Straw and others be warned. Following Ms Harman was Tory frontbencher Dominic Grieve, who was described as "shadow home secretary", despite recently being moved "sideways" to shadow justice secretary. He too declined to offer a correction. Next on the bill was Vince Cable, rightly described as deputy Lib Dem leader but with no mention of his role as the party's Treasury spokesman....
It was a day when anything seemed possible. While Barack Obama was about to be inaugurated, Harriet Harman gave a speech welcoming his victory at an Operation Black Vote party in Millbank Tower. The emcee introduced the Labour MP as "deputy prime minister". Ms Harman - the holder of several government jobs, such as Commons leader and Labour chairman, and not known for her lack of ambition - did not correct her host on the inadvertent promotion. Jack Straw and others be warned. Following Ms Harman was Tory frontbencher Dominic Grieve, who was described as "shadow home secretary", despite recently being moved "sideways" to shadow justice secretary. He too declined to offer a correction. Next on the bill was Vince Cable, rightly described as deputy Lib Dem leader but with no mention of his role as the party's Treasury spokesman....
IDENTITY CRISIS
IDENTITY CRISIS
Gordon Brown never tires of talking about the importance of "Britishness". But the message does not seem to have got through to the civil service. Less than half - 37% - of permanent civil service employees describe themselves as British or "mixed British" according to an Office for National Statistics survey released this week. Some 46% declared themselves English, 8.9% said they felt Scottish, 5% Welsh and 1.9% Irish. Just 1.9% said they had another national identity, although 17% were "not declared" or, more worryingly, "not known".
Gordon Brown never tires of talking about the importance of "Britishness". But the message does not seem to have got through to the civil service. Less than half - 37% - of permanent civil service employees describe themselves as British or "mixed British" according to an Office for National Statistics survey released this week. Some 46% declared themselves English, 8.9% said they felt Scottish, 5% Welsh and 1.9% Irish. Just 1.9% said they had another national identity, although 17% were "not declared" or, more worryingly, "not known".
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