Why does past political convictions mean that a politician should resign their post? Surely what someone has believed in the past means little in the present day? Political beliefs change over time. Mine certainly have in the three years since I started blogging. Yes, a political journey from the IRA to the Conservative and Unionist Party

Editor's introduction: Laura Sandys is the Chair of the openDemocracy Board as well as a contributor and a Conservative candidate preparing to fight the coming election. This post is taken from her regular emails to her constituents. Readers outside Britain especially may need to know that her father was Duncan Sandys a leading ally of Churchill and later a senior minister in the post-war Cons...

Over on ConservativeHome, Charles Tannock MEP has contributed the piece Conservative MEPs - what are the options for alliances? in the latest stage of the ongoing discussion about where Conservative MEPs should sit in the European Parliament. I've blogged before that I don't entirely care about this specific issue (Who cares where someone sits on the wrong train?) but it does raise some ...

Great to see the tide turning against the Democrats even before The One ascends to on high. "Fresh off a win in his U.S. Senate runoff, Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss is calling on his party to return to its conservative roots. Chambliss beat Democrat Jim Martin 57 percent to 43 percent Tuesday to win a second term in the Senate, denying Democrats there a filibuster-proof majority. On Wednesda...

Two months ago the people of Canada went to the polls (Canadian federal election, 2008) and the Conservative government increased its number of seats, whilst the Liberals got their worst result since federations. And not offered to the people at all was the prospect of a Liberal-New Democratic Party coalition. Since then Liberal leader Stéphane Dion has announced his resignation (No end of ...

The Queen's speech was attacked by Conservative leader David Cameron as "bureaucratic bungling and technocratic tinkering".

I hope that a Bromley Conservative Councillor is reading this, and will do something about it. I've just heard a lady on Radio 5 called Maureen Gibbett (I think). She received a parking fine of £80 even though she had paid for a ticket. Apparently it was a hot day and it peeled off her windscreen so the Parking Attendant couldn't see it. She appealed the ticket and was told to go t...

BUCHAREST, Romania -- According to results released on Tuesday (December 2nd), the alliance of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Conservative...

The conservative modernisers in the Republican party need leadership. Could Bush provide help? Not George. Jeb. Rumours abound that the former Governor is contemplating a run for the Senate. And he has given an interview expressing the view that while...

I’m beginning to think the Conservative party has made a crucial mistake that can afflict any political party. It has come to believe that their own concerns and obsessions are the concerns and obsessions of the public. As I’ve argued before, the Damian Green arrest was both a serious matter and bad news for Labour. However, by