The Coalition Agreement proudly declared that the new government would govern by the “values of freedom, fairness and responsibility.” But what is fairness? Most people have some vague idea of what fairness means to them, but few actually know the true definition....

No opposition party in recent British history has overturned a majority of 179 at a single blow to gain a mandate of its own. The 2001 general election campaign was in many ways uninteresting both to the pundits and to the punters: policy differences were not...

Is the Conservative Party in favour of Foundation Hospitals or not? In the Commons, the Conservatives voted against the Health Bill at Second and Third Reading. The Government came closer to losing the Bill than any previous piece of Government legislation since...

Recent months have seen intense debate on the rights and wrongs of military action against Iraq, as well as the use of intelligence in coming to the decision to engage in conflict and the aftermath of that conflict. In an age when political apathy is seen as...

There is a slight tendency when you're defeated in an election to think that the electorate have made a mistake and its the electorate who have got to change their mind next time. Whereas I think they get most elections right and its the party that has to change....

The great British institutions to which people gave their faith and trust have, in the last four or five decades, mostly declined from the positions they held. These would include organised religion; political movements and parties; the monarchy; trade unions;...

The 2008 presidential election will turn on national security just as the 2004 one did. Iraq remains the biggest dividing line between the two parties. Indeed, the past four years has seen this line become ever more distinct as Democratic support for the war has...

It was, of course, thirty years ago, which is time enough to rose-tint the most objective of glasses. And I am only too well aware that "the old gray mare she ain’t what she used to be" is a condition as common in 60 yearolds as it is irritating to their 30-year...

Since Britain’s fortunate departure from the Exchange RateMechanismin 1992, the economy has grown well. In no small part this was because of the 1980s supply side revolution, which concentrated on trade union control, tax reformand privatisation, and the 1990s...