Politics

Mulling over the organ donations row, and the fascinating posts by Coffee Housers, I went back to the last time the Commons debated the issue properly – which was on an amendment to the Human Tissue Bill in June 2004 calling for “presumed consent”. I recommend the debate to anyone interested in the forthcoming controversy over Gordon Brown’s proposals. The amendment four years ago was put forward by Dr Evan Harris, the Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, although Tam Dalyell recalled that he had championed similar measures decades before. This was Harris’s summary of the case for change: First, it creates a default position that life should

Anyone wanting proof of the contempt in which Ken Livinsgtone holds the London taxpayer need only read this item on Guido’s blog. Not content with deluging Londonders with dubious, public information announcements that have an uncanny tendency to reflect well on the Mayor he is also posting his Londonder newsletter to the constituency offices of MPs around the country. I’ve contacted the Mayor’s office for a comment and I’ll let you know what there justification is for this. Also watch out for more on Livingstone and his unsuitability for the job in the next few days.

About the only thing we learned at his press conference today is that David Cameron  has mastered the art of not answering awkward questions. He dodged several this morning, but in a way that sounded as if he had given answers.   Nick Robinson asked it first. Why didn’t George Osborne personally declare to parliament the cash raised for the party in his name? Cameron said the registrar had given him “unclear” advice – but we knew that as he told Marr this yesterday. Nick asked why Cameron had not decided “if in doubt, publish and be damned”. No direct answer. He was later asked why Osborne sought advice about these donations

I find Gordon Brown’s notion of ‘presumed consent’ for organ transplants, unveiled in the Sunday Telegraph, morally repugnant. It goes without saying that those who choose to give their organs after their death, and carry Donor Card to ensure this happens, are behaving commendably. They take a clear, proactive, individual decision about the fate of their physical remains, and one which is self-evidently to be applauded. What the Prime Minister now proposes is effectively the nationalisation of the body – with a new ‘right’ to opt out of the otherwise automatic procedure that your corpse will be stripped of organs for recycling. I am squeamish at the suggestion that my

Fraser wrote the other day about how public attitudes seemed to be moving decisively in favour of welfare reform and new poll numbers,flagged up by Conservative Home, back up this argument.  82% back the new Tory policy that those who have been on unemployment benefits for two years should have to do work in the community if they are to continue receiving benefits.  While more than three quarters of voters, 77%, thinks that unemployed people who live where they do could get work if they really wanted it. It looks like the Tories have a new powerful weapon in their armoury. The key, now, is not to overreach in terms

After Hillary’s remarkable come from behind victory in New Hampshire there have been a lot of jokes about how we can now expect Gordon Brown, and every other ambitious politician, to start choking up in public. Somehow, I can’t see Brown doing this or pulling it off if he tried. However, there is one thing that Brown should learn from Hillary. When her campaign was at its lowest ebb, Hillary embarked on a new strategy of making herself as available as possible. In the last few days in New Hampshire she took questions from the audience, which she hadn’t in Iowa, and allowed the press to talk to her far more