House of Comments

37 – The End of the Party

This week sees the final episode of The House of Comments podcast, in which we chat with Labour blogger Antony Painter, and Mark Wallace of Crash Bang Wallace about recent events in UK politics.

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We chatted about:

• Matthew Elliot, CEO of the TaxPayers Alliance, will be running the anti-AV campaign for the forthcoming referendum on changing the voting system. We discussed the different approaches of the pro- and anti-AV campaigns and which is currently in the strongest position. We also asked whether it is, as some have suggested, ‘unfair’ that Matthew Elliot also owns the internet domain name ‘yes2av.org’.
• The Coalition has received much criticism from members of the Labour party for their recent announcement that the new ‘NHS111′ non-emergency telephone service will eventually replace NHS Direct. Is the ‘Save NHS Direct’ petition a great example of social media campaigning from John Prescott, or merely ‘bandwagon jumping’ and ‘crying wolf’?
• Tony Blair’s memoirs will be published in the very near future. We discuss political autobiographies, the Blair years of Labour, and the ‘end of the party’, as documented in Andrew Rawnsely’s book of the same name.
• We also discus recent developments in the Labour leadership contest, and whether they’re in danger of finding themselves in the same position as the post-Thatcher Conservative Party.
• Tory minister Crispin Blunt has recently come out as gay and announced that he is separating from his wife of twenty years. Rumours have been swirling around the blogosphere about another Conservative minister. We ask if it’s right for the press OR the blogosphere to ‘out’ people against their will.

Finally, we’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who’s listened to the podcast over the last year, and especially those people who’ve been kind enough to appear as guests on the show. It’s been a blast.

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34 – Labour’s Dilemma

This week we’re joined by Sara Bedford of the Lib Dem “Always win when you’re singing” blog and Labour blogger Paul Evans from “Never trust a hippy“.

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We discussed the Labour party and how it needs to position itself in relation to the coalition as well as raking over its history in office. We also discussed Paul’s new “Political Innovation” initiative which seeks to bring together political bloggers from all parties under a common purpose.

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32 – The Cracks in the Coalition

This week we’re joined by Richard Angell, the Deputy Director of Progress, and James O’Malley of the Pod Delusion podcast.

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• 2 Liberal Democrat MPs voted against the VAT rise in the budget, could we be seeing trouble within the government, or is this just far for the course in a coalition?
• Labour Leadership candidate Diane Abbot had an ‘absolute meltdown’ on the This Week sofa at the hands of Andrew Neil. What was she thinking?
• This week sees a cabinet meeting taking place in Bradford. We ask whether cabinet meetings should be sent around the country, or if that’s just a waste of money
• Freelance photographer Jules Mattsson claims he was harassed and mistreated by policemen who seized his camera and pushed him down some stairs.

31 – Taxi Taxes

This week we’re joined by Benny Austwick and Arnie Craven from the Ben and Arnie Podcast (Available on iTunes) to talk about the week’s events in politics, including the Coalition’s first Budget, Charles Kennedy’s feelings about the Coalition with the Tories and an upcoming reduction of the drink driving limit. Also, we disagree about the England football team fans’ response to their dismal World Cup performance against Algeria on Saturday.

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28 – The Breaking of Laws

This week we’re joined by Stephen Tall of Lib Dem Voice and Emma Burnell of Scarlett Standard to talk about the events of the last week, which have focused on the resignation of David Laws following revelations about his expenses in the Telegraph over the weekends.

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27 – The Queen’s Speech

We’re joined by Tracey Cheetham of A View From the Public Gallery, Darren Bridgeman of the Lib Dem Bracknell Blog, and Conservative activist and blogger Walaa Idris, to talk about the week’s events in politics.

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26 – The Nick And Dave Show

We’re joined by Allen Green of the Jack of Kent blog and Labour blogger Tim McLoughlin to talk about coalitions governments, Labour’s leadership elections, and the trial of Labour Blogger Dave Osler.

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25 – Activate the Queen!

Regulars Mark Thompson and Stuart Sharpe are joined by Labour MP Tom Harris, who writes the And Another Thing… blog, and Paul Evans, of Slugger O’Toole and Never Trust A Hippy.

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Events in Westminster were unfolding as we recorded, with Gordon Brown visiting Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation and David Cameron being instated as the new Prime Minister, announcing a formal coalition between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. We discussed an unprecedented week in British politics which has led up to this point, and what ramifications this coalition government may have in the future.

We also discussed the negotiation process, and whether it potentially presents a bad advert for Proportional Representation. Also, was there really ever any chance of a ‘Rainbow Coalition’, and indeed how can the ‘Change Coalition’ last?

Despite their position of power post-election, the Lib Dems lost significant ground on polling day. Whatever happened to the much-discussed Lib Dem Surge?

Finally, we moved away from election news to update you on the Paul Chambers story, the man who tweeted a joke about blowing Robin Hood Airport ‘sky high’. Read more about the case on the Jack of Kent blog.

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24: Election Day Is Here!

We review the election campaigns, ask what the ‘big moment’ of this election has been, and cautiously make predictions for what Thursday May 6th 2010 will hold, with the internet’s Charlotte Gore and Bill Jones, author of the Skipper blog and Professor of Politics at Liverpool Hope university.

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23: The Chaotic Election

This week’s we chatted with blogger Charlotte Gore and Political Betting’s Greg Callus, aka Morus.

We talked about the continuing election campaigns, what a hung parliament could mean for the country, whether a change in voting system will be needed after this election – and if David Cameron could be the one to bring it in – and about the way the leaders debates have dominated this election campaign.

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