Right from the beginning Michael Martin's Speakership was mired in controversy when Labour MPs defied the convention that the post alternates with the Conservatives. Labour MPs used their majority to ensure he succeeded Betty Boothroyd as Speaker in October 2000.

GreenGate is certainly digging the Government, whether it’s Brown or Smith, and the House, whether it’s Martin or the Serjeant-at-Arms, or the Met, in the persona of Sir Ian Bliar’s successor Sir Paul Stepping-over-the-Mark-henson, into a very deep hole. Many Labour MPs are closing ranks on GreenGate, but they would, wouldn’t they?  The overpaid thuggish Labour

The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, is refusing to back down over a decision to let out its congress hall this Friday to a British company whose suppliers are alleged to use sweatshop labour in Bangladesh to manufacture cheap T shirts. This is despite pressure from two general secretaries and Labour MPs who want him to cancel the event. A letter published in today's Guardian attacks th...

Labour is bound to win any Speakership election in the next eighteen months, simply on account of there being more Labour MPs than all the others put together. And by then, Michael Martin will be just short of his sixty-fifth birthday, so might very well retire anyway. Some ghastly New Labour clone might then be imposed on his seat. But David Cameron's intra-Scottish class war to remove him from t...

It's not often that readers of this blog will agree with Guardian columnist Jackie Ashley, but she has a cracker of a column today. She rips Jacqui Smith to shreds. Here's an excerpt... We have a pyramid of authority in this country and parliament, not the police, stands at its apex. For as long as I can remember, Labour MPs have expressed scepticism and even outrage at some police actio...

The Standard's keen-eyed Paul Waugh has already flagged it up, but it's still worth highlighting Frank Field's assessment of the PBR in his latest blog post.  Even coming from Labour's insurrectionist-in-chief, some of the remarks are surprisingly cutting.  Take this passage, for instance: "Will the package work? I dearly hope so, but I doubt it. It is not just t...

Today was meant to be the start of a fiercely contested general election campaign. Last night, the mood in centre-right circles was grim—the feeling was that Brown was about to pull off another Houdini act. But instead today has ended with Labour routed. Tories are striding around Westminster tonight with renewed confidence while Labour MPs look downcast. So comprehensive has been the rout t...

Alistair Darling said two seriously scary things during the course of his pre-budget report statement, one because it sounded optimistic, the other because it may not have been pessimistic enough. The cheerful detail was that the economy will be growing again by between 1.5% and 2% by 2010 after a sharp downturn next year. That is likely to be election year, so it had better be right, Labour MPs m...

Labour MPs have urged Gordon Brown to cash in on a minirevival in Labour's fortunes and call an early election after a fortnight in which clear battle lines were drawn between the Government and the Opposition.

Gordon Brown has stopped short of completely ruling out an election next year as some Labour MPs urge him to cash in on the party's minirevival.