DEBATE: Was Boris Johnson right to merge DFID and the Foreign Office? Was Boris Johnson right to merge the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)? Lauren McEvatt, managing director of Morpeth Consulting and a former government adviser, says YES. The merger of DFID and the FCO is overdue. For too long the UK government has been operating too many strands of [...]
DEBATE: Will the business rates reform package be effective enough to react to the coronavirus crisis? Will the chancellor’s business rates reform package be effective enough to react to the coronavirus crisis? Lauren McEvatt, managing director of Morpeth Consulting and former government adviser, says YES. This business rates package as a whole, when coupled with the decisive action taken by Bank of England on Wednesday morning and considered alongside other support [...]
DEBATE: Could Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation turn into a major headache for the government? Could Sir Philip Rutnam’s resignation turn into a major headache for the government? Eliot Wilson, head of research at Right Angles and a former House of Commons official, says YES. The resignation of Sir Philip Rutnam is not just a spat between a Whitehall mandarin and his minister. Its impact goes much further than that, [...]
DEBATE: Could tactical voting actually make a difference to the result of this election? December 12, 2019 Could tactical voting actually make a difference to the result of this election? Joe Twyman, co-founder and director of Deltapoll and a presenter of the Polling Politics Podcast, says YES. In first past the post elections, the difference between winning and losing a majority can be small. Really small. Back in 2017, the difference between [...]
DEBATE: Who has the most to gain from tonight’s TV debate? November 19, 2019 Who has the most to gain from tonight’s TV debate: Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn? Lauren McEvatt, managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says BORIS JOHNSON. The spectre of Theresa May’s decision to dodge the debate in 2017 looms in the minds of Conservative strategists. It was a move that proved her poor leadership. Just taking [...]
DEBATE: Can the Tories win on the NHS? November 5, 2019 Can the Tories win on the NHS? Lauren McEvatt, a former Wales Office special adviser and managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says YES. The Tories can win on the NHS, because the Tories can win in Wales. Yesterday’s Welsh Barometer poll has the Conservatives on track to gain nine seats from Labour. The success of the [...]
DEBATE: Has John Bercow done more harm than good as House of Commons speaker? September 11, 2019 Has John Bercow done more harm than good as House of Commons speaker? Lauren McEvatt, managing director at Morpeth Consulting, says YES. John Bercow, with his regular abuses of convention and obvious partisanship, has presided over a gross politicisation of the formerly independent nature of the speaker of the House of Commons. A role which [...]
DEBATE: Are the citizens’ convention on UK democracy proposals a good idea to restore faith in politics? July 31, 2019 Are the citizens’ convention on UK democracy proposals a good idea to restore faith in politics? Eliot Wilson, chief writer at Right Angles and a former House of Commons official, says YES. “Politics is broken.” That’s been the mantra for years now, at least since the expenses scandal of 2009. There has been a terrible [...]
Are labelling rules about designation of origin just a form of protectionism? July 3, 2019 Are labelling rules about designation of origin just a form of protectionism Matt Kilcoyne, head of communications at the Adam Smith Institute, says YES. Loyalty is not won by being first. Nor should it be won by locking out competitors by law. It is won by being best. Brand matters. This is not the case [...]
Should people be allowed to dip into their pensions savings to get onto the housing ladder? June 5, 2019 James Brokenshire’s proposals risk undermining the progress that has been made through auto-enrolment
