22/01/2011

Available for over a year

Elinor Goodman looks behind the scenes at Westminster. The week began with the Government unveiling major plans to legislate on health service provision and devolving power to local neighbourhoods. It ended on a much less worthy but dramatic note, with two resignations: the Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson and the Prime Minister's Director of Communications Andy Coulson. Conservative MP George Eustice worked as an adviser for David Cameron in opposition, Chris Leslie is a member of the Shadow Treasury team, and Lord Oakshott speaks for the Liberal Democrats on Treasury matters in the House of Lords. What, according to them, will be the aftermath of these events? Radical reform of public services was something Tony Blair, on his own admission, left unfinished. This week's Government announcement of a bill to devolve power to GPs over health budgets has many detractors. Stephen Dorrell, a former Conservative Health Secretary, now chair of the Commons Select Committee on Health, discusses the path to radical reform with Baroness Sally Morgan, an adviser to Tony Blair when he was pushing through his reforms. All of a sudden war has broken out in the House of Lords over the Referendum and Constituencies Bill. Instead of using the "usual channels" for negotiating compromises, peers have engaged in tactics normally reserved for the House of Commons. Baroness Liddell (Labour) and Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat) explain what they've been up to. And tweeting -is it acceptable to tweet during debates in the House of Commons? Labour MP Kevin Brennan, who objected this week to a fellow MP tweeting during a debate, explains why.