Frank's Westminster Blog

Acres of newsprint and hours of media time have been taken in discussing Alistair Darling's revelations on the Jeff Randall show on Monday. The BBC's political editor, for example, suggested that the Chancellor was demob happy. Whatever the results of the General Election he thought Alistair Darling's time at the Treasury was now limited. I think there is a much more plausible explanation. When the Prime Minister last shuffled his Cabinet he was intent on putting Ed Balls into the Treasury.

It is very difficult to get space for the counter argument to the meddling of neo Keynesian views about the economy. Last Friday the FT carried two letters with a huge appendage of signatures making what is now thought to be the Keynesian line, on the dangers of cutting back before the recovery gets underway. I have been trying to argue that this is a false dichotomy. The issue is whether people will go on lending us money now that the Government has halted printing funny money to buy its...

Yesterday in the Commons we debated potential reform of the voting system. The Tories charged the Government with conducting a cynical exercise to try to win votes at the pending election. But nevertheless the issue of reforming how Britain votes is crucial. I have written before on the twin principles of representative and responsible government underpinning our democracy. Making our voting system fairer - in the sense of making each vote more equal, wherever it is cast in the UK - can...