In my family, where my mum, dad and sister are all teachers, we had a special family rule during my two stints as a schools minister. We didn’t discuss education at family get-togethers! Having been a teacher myself, I totally understand the traditional school staffroom temptation to grumble about the government. As Woody Allen once …

Ed Miliband’s tone was exactly right on Friday when he came to the west Midlands to recognise the successes of the council elections. In Birmingham, where Labour had regained control, he spoke of the Labour councillors working every day to repay the trust placed in them. In Worcester, where Labour had made gains but not …

This government is running out of steam. For some government departments and minister, it has been a frenetic first two years in government. Michael Gove, Eric Pickles, Andrew Lansley and Iain Duncan Smith have been energetic in putting forward reform – some has worked, some hasn’t; some I agree with, a lot I don’t. But …

David Cameron finds himself in a pretty bad place this week, between desperate Lib Dems and  disgruntled Tory backbenchers. Today, the Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform reports. A bill on Lords reform should be a central plank of the Queen’s Speech coming up on 9 May. Having lost out on delivering any sort …

In South Yorkshire the chief constable seems to be backtracking publicly in the face of the row about changes he is proposing to neighbourhood policing teams. This is likely to be the first of many such rows as police forces struggle to find the savings necessary with a 20 per cent cut in funding. For …

A shortage of women candidates risks undermining the case for city mayors. I present a weekly programme on LBC 97.3 (10am-1pm on a Saturday if you fancy calling in). If you live outside London, you may only just have come across LBC. Following a lively radio debate as part of the London mayoral campaign,  Boris …

It was a great moment in 1997 when I heard the Queen read out Labour’s pledge card. It wasn’t quite as John Prescott would have done it but the priorities we’d been talking about on doorsteps across the country were now being outlined in the first Queen’s speech of a Labour government. The Progress alternative …

There are many things that make me proud about having been a Labour Minister – being the Bill Minister for the Civil Partnerships Act is well up the list. Compared to some of the other legislation I was responsible for, the Bill had quite a smooth passage through the House of Commons. There had been …

The police minister, Nick Herbert, had a go at John Prescott’s campaign against police outsourcing plans this week by accusing those who have concerns of being anti-reform. Come off it, Nick. These plans are about saving money. I’m (notoriously) keen on a bit of contestability and outsourcing in public services if it means that the …

With two weeks to go to the budget, everyone’s making their bids for tax cuts. Last week 500 business people called on the chancellor to reduce the 50p top rate of income tax. I thought their argument that reducing the income tax rate would help them to create jobs was pretty specious. This would be …