Where should a Conservative localist stand on devolution? In favour of the maximum decentralisation of powers, obviously. Ah, but what if people on the spot don't want such powers? Scottish and Welsh legislatures should devolve power downwards It is a dilemma that Tory localists currently face over plans for referendums in Wales and Scotland (on legislative autonomy in the former, full i...

Welcome to the third in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. Traditionally Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have far from seen eye to eye over local government with devolving liberals and centralising conservatives taking fundamentally different approaches. However, this policy area offers a

THE Coalition Agreement published yesterday afternoon marks a fundamental shift in the way the UK government will be run over the next few years. Here is the document in full:

Welcome to the eleventh in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. Unlike the nearly all of the rest of the document, both of these sections lift very heavily from Conservative Party policy, with little of the Liberal Democrat manifesto featuring. However, whilst

The full coalition agreement document has just been published, covering a much wider range of policy areas than the initial document released previously. There’ll be plenty of commentary and analysis on this, but for the moment here is the full document for you to read: Coalition Programme

On the 10th of October the House of Lords killed off the prospect of voters getting the power to initiate referendums on local issues. Up until then the Localism Bill had contained a modest proposal to give local people in England the power to call non-binding referendums on local issues if 5% of their fellow

Research at the University of East Anglia concludes there is only a one in five chance of the present coalition government lasting a full term.

Welcome to the ninth in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. The equalities section continues a theme common throughout the coalition document: if this section was presented to Liberal Democrat conference as the party’s policy in this area, people would be generally

Welcome to the twentieth and last (phew!) in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. Traditionally the transport sections of party manifestos contain commitments to various expensive, long-term public expenditure projects. In the current financial climate it is no surprise that the coalition agreement...

Scotland will have to vote in favour of independence in two referendums to legally separate from the United Kingdom, the Scottish Secretary has said.