North Wales Weekly News – The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 was introduced by the 2010 – 2015 Conservative – Liberal Democrat Government with the best of intentions. It abolished the power of the Prime Minister to call general elections and instead created a system under … read the full article
North Wales Weekly News – Send my Friend to School campaign
The last weeks of summer term bring their own repeated rituals. In many respects, they are among the happiest of an MP’s duties. Most Sundays in June and July see the annual civic church services in the towns throughout … read the full article
North Wales Weekly News – Assistance Dogs
Members of Parliament are used to having a large number of visitors from their constituencies at the House of Commons. Recently, quite a few of my callers have been of the canine variety. Following hard on the paws of … read the full article
North Wales Weekly News – Leadership of the Conservative Party
The contest for the leadership of the Conservative party is nearing the end of its first stage. At its start, it appeared that almost every Conservative Member of Parliament had thrown his or her hat in the ring. Before the … read the full article
North Wales Weekly News – European Parliamentary election
The European Parliamentary election was won emphatically by the Brexit party. It was a remarkable result, particularly given that the party itself had been formed only some six weeks previously. There was a significant swing in support away … read the full article
Daily Post – The Conservative leadership campaign
The tearful announcement by Theresa May of her resignation as leader of the Conservative Party was, at a human level, deeply distressing. It would have taken the hardest of hearts not to be moved. Politically, however, the departure of … read the full article
The debate about whether the Chinese company, Huawei, should participate in the construction of the United Kingdom’s 5G network has, at least temporarily, diverted attention from the exciting opportunities that 5G itself has to offer. 5G will amount … read the full article
Speech to Politeia – The role of the ECJ post-Brexit – 15 May, 2019
At the outset, let me set out my credentials. I am a “Spartan”, one of the awkward squad of Conservative MPs who have, on three occasions, voted down the Government’s Withdrawal Agreement. I am often asked at events … read the full article
Life as an MP entails a lot of travelling. During the working week in term time, I am, of course, in Westminster. Weekends are spent in the constituency, seeing people in “surgery”, attending local events and trying to see a … read the full article
The Easter recess has belatedly arrived and MPs have returned to their constituencies after the most intense spell of Parliamentary activity anyone can remember. The period since New Year has been given over to Government attempts to get the … read the full article