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Peter Kellner
:Cameron's EU Tactics Backfire
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Deborah Jack
:End Homophobia to Reduce HIV
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Philip Mansbridge
:G8 or Too Late: Obama, Cameron and G8 Heads Must Tackle Ivory Poaching Crisis Now
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European Parliament Web Team
:Homophobia: One-In-Four LGBT People Victim of Violence or Threats in the Last Five Years
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Neil Durkin
:A Week's Delay Should Suffice: Is the UK Still Dragging Its Feet on Guantánamo?
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
In a recent Westminster lecture David Miliband warned that, "for many people, politics is broken" - a sentiment rooted in the mistrust of politicians since the expenses scandal, the privileged backgrounds of many of our leaders and the apparent loss of ideology in British politics.
Despite warnings from digital rights groups, privacy advocates and experts in the tech world, the government has gone ahead with their plans for blanket surveillance measures on the internet, including controversial practices such as deep packet inspection.
They are not eligible to vote and most of them live thousands of miles away from the nearest EU country, so there was no reason for MEPs to even take an interest. Still the European Parliament took a key role in preventing thousands of seals being killed for use in luxury products.
Belonging to and campaigning for the Lib Dems is now not merely fruitless, but positively destructive. For all the welcome crumbs they have pilfered from the Tory table, history will surely remember today's Lib Dems for supporting a brutal austerity government.
We're currently planning a retailer roundtable on diversity and retouching to deepen the debate on the use and prevalence of retouching and the lack of diversity - whether shape, age or colour - in the media. We want to get all sides talking to come to a shared idea of what responsible retouching and real diversity looks like.
Leyla Zana is a Kurdish politician and member of Peace and Democracy party in Turkey. She has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by Diyarbakir's High Court for nine speeches she has made between 2007 and 2008.
Russell Brand speaks sense. It's important that people recognise this, because it would be so easy to dismiss him. He's a comedian, therefore he masks a lot of his own serious emotions and insecurities in self-ridicule and jokes.
Although I do not agree with a lot of what George Galloway says and certainly never want to meet the man, I do think the brand that is George Galloway is a force for good in this country.
Few events in the political calendar underline quite so graphically the power of the government and the impotence of the opposition as much as the Queen's speech. Backed by all the pomp and finery the British state can muster, the Gracious Address, to give it its proper title, affords the government the opportunity to draw a line under past difficulties, and turn a somewhat dry recitation of its legislative programme into a demonstration of its political priorities. The shadow cabinet should seize on this year's Queen's speech to provide its own 'shadow Queen's speech' as a way of demonstrating how Britain could be different under Labour.
British politics at the moment is in a complete state of disarray. I often don't know whether to collapse laughing or cry endlessly whilst ripping my hair out.
David Cameron said that he thought the next big political scandal after MPs' expenses would involve lobbying. Sadly, but one might say predictably, the next big political scandal has involved a party fundraiser attempting to encourage a company to give money in return for access to policymakers.
The European Parliament has always argued that the EU should have its own resources. Today 75% of the EU's budget comes from national contributions based on gross national income. A contribution based on value-added tax accounts for a further 11%, while traditional own resources such as customs duties, agricultural duties and sugar levies come to 13%.
Today hundreds of people will march on Parliament to protest the closure and diminished service of their public libraries all over the country. Public officials simply do not understand why libraries are important - and that is because they are all of an age and an income which, for some reason, makes them believe that libraries are a thing of the ancient past.
Is the civil service accountable to parliament?
David Cameron, as you would expect from an ex-PR man, has a smooth answer on why he wants to be prime minister, but I have the sense that the real answer to why he wants the job is simply "because it is there."
One of the perks of being an MP is access to a wonderful private library - the House of Commons Library. I know that MPs can ask for the Library to buy books they are interested in reading. So, curious to know which books MPs have been asking us, as taxpayers, to buy for them, I lodged a Freedom of Information Act request.
