Tag Archives: nick herbert

Mark Pack

How Parliament walked eyes wide open into the Bob Ashford mess

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th August 2012 - 1:08 pm

Would-be Labour Police and Crime Commissioner candidate Bob Ashford is rightly getting a positive press and sympathy from across the political spectrum today for discovering he’s disqualified from standing thanks to a £5 fine he paid 46 years ago.

It is absurd that he can’t stand. It is an absurdity that Parliament deliberately decided to enact, for the ban does not arise from unintended side effects of another measure or from poor drafting. Instead, it was a deliberate decision to introduce an unprecedented restriction on who can stand in the Police …

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Posted in Election law | Also tagged , and | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

Gay rights – what will you believe: the Tory spin or the Tory voting record?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 17th February 2010 - 2:02 pm

Bless Nick Herbert: he’s doing his best today to make the claim that the Tories’ attitudes to homosexuality have changed, and that gay people should trust the party. The trouble is Nick has to contend with the reality of the Tories’ voting record – which, as the Lib Dems have pointed out, shows what the Tory party really believes.

The voting records of current Tory MPs who are standing again in 2010 show that:

  • One in six voted against the repeal of Section 28 in 2003 – including David Cameron and a third of the Tory shadow cabinet;
  • One in

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 5 Comments
Mark Pack

All aboard the new quango train, Conservative Party style

By Mark Pack | Wed 6th January 2010 - 3:20 pm

Toot toot! Hold tight! Another one coming on board the quango express.

It’s another new quango promised by the Conservatives with, as the Telegraph has reported,

Nick Herbert, shadow minister for farming and environment, promising a farmers’ conference that a future Conservative government will implement the Competition Commission’s recommendation to create an ombudsman to rule on disputes between supermarkets and their suppliers. That is one more quango to add to the already long list: perhaps they should call it Offtrolley.

Ah, you say. But that’s an ok quango. Surely there’s room for a bit of flexibility?

Only problem is, it’s an awful lot …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
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