Tag Archives: peter bone

Caron Lindsay

How to do Twitter, Home Office style

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 22nd August 2013 - 10:25 am

Oh, they have been busy bees at the Home Office this Summer.  The Go Home vans, immigration checks at tube stations, not telling Nick Clegg what they’re up to, it’s amazing they’ve found time for anything else.

On Tuesday they published their Twitter policy. While I’d like to think it was hastily drawn up in response to criticism of the way its account was used during the immigration spot checks, with statistics of how many people had been arrested were given along with disturbing photographs of people being bundled into vans, I’m not sure the wheels of …

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Caron Lindsay

Birtwistle in burger-off

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 3rd July 2013 - 3:15 pm

BurgersBurgers have been in the news too much in the last week. And having had to pay £15 for one in a Hilton Hotel this weekend, you better believe they are not my favourite food at the moment.

Yesterday’s Daily Politics, in an attempt to keep the story going for a bit longer, had a trio of MPs taste test 3 burgers and pick which one was the best. The MPs were our Gordon Birtwistle, Labour’s Ian Murray and the legend that is Conservative Peter Bone. Have a look here …

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Stephen Tall

Tory rebels launch their own alternative Queen’s Speech as helpful reminder of why Lib Dems vital to Cameron

By Stephen Tall | Fri 21st June 2013 - 9:05 am

It’s enough to make you feel sorry for David Cameron. The Telegraph report gives the highlights:

Conservative MPs launch attempt to bring back death penalty, privatise the BBC and ban burka

Conservative MPs have drawn up an “Alternative Queen’s Speech” with radical policies such as bringing back the death penalty, privatising the BBC and banning the burka in public spaces.
The 42 bills also include legislation to scrap wind farm subsidies, end the ringfence for foreign aid spending and rename the late August Bank Holiday “Margaret Thatcher Day”. Britain’s relationship with Europe features prominently in the action plan, with draft laws setting

…

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NewsHound

LibLink: Ming Campbell – Europe offers the best deal for Britain

By NewsHound | Sat 12th January 2013 - 1:00 pm

Menzies CampbellFormer Lib Dem leader Ming Campbell has called on David Cameron to put the national interest ahead of his party’s interest as he prepares for his major speech on Europe:

Those who argue for disengagement in whole or even part have a duty to tell us what the consequences would be. So far they have failed to do so. We need to be rational, not emotional. The issue must be about the essential nature of the relationship, not about squashing the ambitions of Ukip. The EU offers the best deal for Britain.The

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg does PMQs in style

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 7th November 2012 - 6:55 pm

Nick Clegg did Prime Minister’s Questions today while David Cameron is schmoozing his way round the Middle East. He was so assured, confident and natural and spoke completely without notes. He even answered the question he was given and not the one he wanted to answer, too. He made David Cameron look like a complete amateur, to be honest, and Gordon Brown, too.

My Liberal Democrat Voice colleague Nick Thornsby reminded us on Twitter this morning that four years ago, two days after Barack Obama was elected the first time round, Nick, then a humble third party leader, questioned PM Gordon Brown, who put him down quite snidily. And the subject of his questions? Taxing the wealthy and cutting taxes for the poorest. Nothing if not consistent. Have a look here.

 

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Caron Lindsay

Nick Clegg does PMQs – my tweets

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 14th March 2012 - 1:16 pm

As always, Paul Walter will be along later with his imitable account of PMQs, but I thought that seeing as our own Nick Clegg was standing in for David Cameron today, we could have a bit of a bonus.

I tweeted my way through a session that could have been a tough one for our leader – but he managed to deal with the predictable Labour attacks on unemployment and the Health and Social Care Bill thoughtfully and without aggression or rancour.

Here is a link to my tweets – with apologies for the spelling mistakes. My fingers had trouble keeping …

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Caron Lindsay

PMQs: Tragedy, comedy and the Continuing Saga of the Family Bone

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 23rd February 2012 - 4:28 pm

I’m not used to learning anything from the weekly pantomime that is Prime Minister’s Questions. Sadly, though yesterday’s session brought  me the news of the death of Marie Colvin, the veteran Sunday Times reporter whose often heartbreaking reports from war zones I’ve been reading most of my adult life. Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband paid tribute to her work, the latter calling her brave, tireless and an inspiration to women in her profession. More tragedy followed as Sajid Javid, the MP for Bromsgrove, asked the PM to join in with sympathy for those killed and injured in the bus crash …

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Paul Walter

DPMQs: LibDem MPs enjoy an untroubled post-questions lunch

By Paul Walter | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 10:03 am

Time was when Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions was the closest you got to bloodsports in the House of Commons. The DPM would be tethered, red-faced and growling, to the dispatch box, as Labour MPs taunted him and propelled all sorts of bile at him, augmented by the odd tactical nuclear missile rear-launched by the Tory swivel-eyes.

We’ve come a long way in a few months. Now, DPMQs are relatively sedate affairs. The DPM is well in control and there is little mischief from the Labour benches. Well, none that would spoil LibDem MPs’ lunches.

Indeed, at least four MPs found it difficult …

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