By Olly Deed Douglas Carswell is the Conseravtive MP for Harwich and Clacton and a blogger at Talk Carswell. He met Olly Deed in February, 2010. Criticism is part and parcel of being in government. Some of it is superficial, partisan and not worth the time of day. Some, on the other hand, is tactile, resonant and worthy of discussion. As a party we should be willing to listen and learn from those on the other side. That's why I...
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James Purnell is Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde, and former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He met Alex Smith on Thursday, February 11th, 2010. You're doing a lot of work at the moment on Labour's ideology. We're now effectively in the middle of a long campaign after 13 years in office. Won't most people say – whatever you come up with – that it's all too little, too late for this Government? Well, it's really picking...
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Ed Balls is the Secretary of State for Schools, Children and Families and MP for Normanton. He met Alex Smith at the DCSF on Wednesday, 27th January, 2010. The main grapple you’ve had with the Tories recently is on families policy, and on marriage policy in particular. You said David Cameron is cosying up to the Daily Mail with his tax breaks for married couples, and you called Tory policy “total and utter nonsense”… The Tory policy was incoherent, uncosted,...
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Tessa Jowell is the Minister for the Cabinet Office and MP for Dulwich and West Norwood. She met Alex Smith on Wednesday 16th December. On Tuesday you announced a new commission to look into the relationship between ownership and social fairness. Tell me more about that commission. What are its intentions and its remits? It’s a commission that will be funded by Co-operative Financial Services and serviced by Mutuo, so it will be at arms length from government. We see...
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Caroline Flint is the former Europe minister and MP for Don Valley. She met Alex Smith on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at the Houses of Parliament. You left the cabinet six months ago now. What have you been doing with yourself since June? Well, what’s been great is that I’ve been able to spend more time on things in the constituency. Obviously, with the election coming up over the next few months, it’s allowed me to look at how the...
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UPDATE: Further to the comments below and on Tory Bear, we would like to point out that the reference to the Chair and Vice Chair of Conservative Future in the interview is an error. Heydon meant to refer to the Chair and Deputy Chair of London Conservative Future, as seen in the original "New Young Conservatives" video on Don't Panic here. Many apologies to all concerned for the error. We would also like to clarify that Haydon is happy for...
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Glenis Willmott is the leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party. She is an MEP for the East Midlands, and is a former political officer for the GMB. She met Alex Smith on Monday, 16th November, 2009. You spoke at conference about Labour not yet having won the argument on Europe. After the party’s poor showing at the European elections in June, do you still think Europe is comfortable ground for the party as a domestic issue? I don’t think...
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Kerry McCarthy is MP for Bristol East and is also Labour's new media campaign spokesperson. She met Mark Hanson on Wednesday, 12th August, 2009. Blogging, Twitter and Facebook are all the rage and there's a suspicion that politicians jump on the bandwagon sometimes...what does the internet mean to you and how is it useful in politics? I think those politicians that are bandwagon-jumping quickly get found out online, which is why it's so powerful, as it rewards authenticity. That doesn't...
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Claude Moraes is a Member of the European Parliament for London. This interview with Alex Smith was conducted by telephone and email in the week of July 27th. In the past six weeks we've had three elections - for the European Parliament, the local councils and now the Norwich North by-election - and in each one Labour has been badly defeated. Being so involved in the party but not in domestic politics, it would be interesting to hear your perspective...
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Tony Wright is the Labour MP for Cannock Chase and is currently heading up the Commission on Parliamentary Reform. He met Alex Smith in his office at Portcullis House on Wednesday, 15th July, 2009. You’re heading up the commission for Parliamentary reform. Why do you think you’re the right person to spearhead that? It’s not up to me to think whether I’m the right person. I wrote to the Prime Minister a few weeks ago, suggesting what we might do...
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Ken Livingstone is the former Mayor of London. He was previously leader of the Greater London Council, Labour MP for Brent East and a councillor in Lambeth. He met Alex Smith at his home in London on Tuesday, 14th July, 2009. It’s been 14 months since you lost the mayoralty. How do you think Boris Johnson has done up to now? Broadly, Boris’ strategy is that this is a platform that allows him to rise to the premiership. For him,...
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Martin Bell is the former BBC war correspondent and was the independent MP for Tatton between 1997 and 2001. He met Alex Smith (AS) and Anthony Painter (AP) on Monday, 6th July, 2009 at his home in London. As we begin the interview, we are already talking about expenses and the last 12 years of Labour government... MB: I think it went wrong early on, from which point your party’s original pledge to clean up politics was completely ignored. If...
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Jessica Asato is Acting Director of Progress. She met Alex Smith on Sunday, 28th June, 2009. The honorary President of Progress is Alan Milburn, who announced his intention to stand down as an MP over the weekend. How do you feel about his decision? I think Alan has had a very long and illustrious career in Parliament and he’s bought a lot to Labour politics over the years. He’s certainly served Progress very well and has always had a lot...
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Sunder Katwala is the General Secretary of the Fabian Society. He met Alex Smith on Saturday, 20th June, 2009. AS: We’re at the Fabian conference 6 months to Copenhagen. What’s the purpose of this conference as you see it? SK: The job of the Fabians is not to replicate what environmental campaigners and others are already doing. But even amongst a highly informed, highly engaged political audience there is no real sense that Copenhagen is a big deal. We need...
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Neal Lawson is the Chair of Compass, the centre-left campaign group. He met Alex Smith on Tuesday, 16th June, 2009. One of the criticisms I’ve heard of Compass’ No Turning Back conference is that – although it was a great expression of the collegiate progressive ideal – there was no plan of action set out or even discussed for how to achieve it. Compass is on a journey. We started as a constructive critique of Blairism and still have one...
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Fiona Millar is a journalist, education campaigner and author of The Secret World of the Working Mother. She met Alex Smith on Friday, 29th May, 2009. You’ve campaigned for years to make schools admissions fairer, but when I applied to the school at which you are now a governor, they had a quota for musically gifted students. Isn’t that a form of selection? I’m completely opposed to any form of selection at eleven, whether it’s by musical aptitude or academic...
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Mary Honeyball met Alex Smith on Friday, 15th May, 2009 Labour launched its European election campaign last week in Derbyshire. What are your hopes for Labour in Europe during the next term? We’ll probably find that the Tories leave the EPP, leaving Labour as the main party of the mainstream. That leaves us with a particular responsibility and a range of things to work on. Climate change is one of the main things on the agenda and there’ll be much...
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Iain Dale met Alex Smith on Monday, 11th May AS: I listened to your internet radio show the other day. Are you trying to become the British Rush Limbaugh? ID: No, I’m not! I’m not trying to be a US style shock-jock but the fact is that on the internet you can be opinionated. You can do a three-minute monologue about what you feel passionate about. I’m not really “attack, attack, attack” because while I can be an opinionated conservative,...
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