For 22 years a BBC Parliamentary journo, now an ex-BBC Parliamentary journo. All views my own.
Joined October 2013
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In my post-BBC life, I do talks about Parliament to school sixth-formers in Herts. & Bucks. I end with a ‘show of hands’ on lowering the voting age. In all 35 schools out of 35, keeping the age at 18 has won by very clear majority. Seen no evidence 16 & 17 yr olds want the vote.
Remembering Rodders. Many wonderful & whacky Westminster stories exchanged in Essex today, as family and friends gathered at the funeral for former BBC reporter Rodney Foster, one of the finest of the 'old school' of political journos.
Not quite right to say Sunak-Truss are fighting over who gets ‘keys to 10Downing Street’. Apparently the building has no keys - only bolts on the inside. Just saying.
Wasn’t it 350 million a week for the NHS by leaving the EU ? Now it’s 350 a month for people taking in refugees. Just wondering. Does BoJo have a thing about 350 ?
Debate raging outside Hertfordshire vaccination centre. How would Oliver Cromwell have dealt with #Covid-19 ?
Bit concerned about the wisdom of Professor Van-Tam’s penalty shoot-out analogy for vaccines. Don’t England nearly always lose on penalty shoot-outs? ⚽️
‘you can pretend to be a dandy highwayman’. Novel enticement to mask wearing by high street shop owner,Berkhamsted Herts
Slogan corner. Following on from the A.U.T.'s famous 'Rectify The Anomaly', anyone for 'Recalibrate The Algorithm'?
Presumably when the Prime Minister returns to Heathrow Airport from a Caribbean break in early January, his first words on meeting journalists will not be "Crisis? What crisis?".
So much non-Brexit news around. Catch it all on #todayinparliament Labour says Foreign Sec. Hunt 'got away with murder' over Saudi Arabia. The FE Colleges cash crisis worsens. 70 years of NATO. Plus, the SNP MP caught fast asleep in the chamber... or was she? @BBCRadio4 11.30pm
Three Ministers resign as MPs take part in late night Commons votes on how to get out of the Brexit logjam. So what did they decide? Look no further: #todayinparliament on @BBCRadio4 11.30pm .
“Are you going to resign, Chancellor?" Don’t we all love reporters’ shouts in Downing Street? One analyst says it’s pointless, silly and ought to stop. Tune in to my feature on @BBCRadio4. Are you going to listen, Minister? That’s @BBCWestminHour with @carolynquinncq from 2200.
Late-night drama in the Commons. Brexit breakthrough? Or is it back to the backstop? Plus, anger that headteachers have become school cleaners. And reaction to Ethiopian plane crash. All on #todayinparliament 11.30pm, @BBCRadio4
Hansard copes admirably with Lord McNally doing canine snarl — during dog debate in Lords. Plenty of sound bites & a lead story: #todayinparliament 11.30pm, @Radio4
The row over Britain's handling of Chagos Islands; the migrants who reach Kent on make-shift boats; and the fax machine-- is it time to make it illegal? Meanwhile a Plaid MP says Brexit is going round in circles. Make sense of it all with #todayinparliament 11.30pm @Radio4
Chris Grayling should quit, say Opposition MPs. Also on #todayinparliament on R4 at 11.30pm: anger over tactics of Sir Christopher Chope, cash crisis facing universities, and, should the school day start at 10, instead of 9, to give kids an extra hour in bed?