Archive of 2012
Queen's No 10 visit says more about Cabinet's irrelevance than hers
Brace yourself, Your Majesty. The Cabinet meeting you're attending will be nothing but political theatre.
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Press regulation: Could royal charters be the answer?
As the clock continues to tick on Lord Justice Leveson's proposals, Downing Street continues to look for answers - and a royal charter might just be the get-out-of-jail-free option the prime minister is looking for.
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Don't panic! If Kate has a girl, she WILL Be Queen
The government hasn't finished legislating to scrap the rule of primogeniture which hands the throne to a boy where possible. Has Kate's baby come too soon?
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With gender equality we would all have been Germans
Had the current reform to primogeniture rules been in place a little over a century ago, we would all have been eating schnitzels for breakfast. Or something.
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Sally Bercow's departure will be a big loss for Twitter and Westminster
The wife of the Speaker was frustrating and accident-prone, but she brought a touch of the real-world to the Westminster bubble.
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What's on David Cameron's iPad app?
David Cameron's bespoke Downing Street iPad app: What's on it (lots of data!) and what's not on it (Eastenders).
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I'm a Celebrity: Dorries could succeed in humiliating reality show
Sure, she'll be publicly humiliated and lose any reputation she has in Westminster. But a little bit of public recognition can make an MP's career.
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Boundary changes: An utterly unsubtle delaying tactic angers peers
I've just come from the chamber of the House of Lords, into which peers had packed to vent their spleen over the increasingly entertaining boundary changes farrago.
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Lib Dems and Tories can't even agree on a review
Maybe they can compromise on "alternative review"? Here's why the coalition's Trident review anomaly won't help the Lib Dems.
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Could Cameron fight Clegg on boundary changes?
It is the Tories which have won the behind-the-scenes battle of winning over boundary commissioners to their way of thinking. No wonder, now it has become even more glittering, they are having second thoughts about walking away from their prize.
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Bristol airport: Give us the runway instead
The constant bickering over airport capacity in London prompted Bristol airport to suggest politicians look outside the capital for solutions to the UK's aviation policy today.
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The Week in Review: Tories fail to screw up their own conference
Cameron speech is highlight of an often low key conference.
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Boring conferences, fixed terms and a midterm sag
This was, perhaps, the most boring conference season of modern times. And the coalition's constitutional reform agenda has been at least partly to blame.
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Scottish independence: Overconfident London could rue the day
The whole point of the standoff in January was over who would be able to control the rules of the game.
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Independence referendum: SNP and Westminster avoid all-out war
Officials are putting together a draft package to be rubber-stamped by the two sides. But what's in it? Here's an update on what we know about the state of play.
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Americans care more about Magna Carta than we do
David Letterman's TV audience would have been seriously unimpressed with David Cameron's failure to know everything about Magna Carta - because they study it in school more than the British, a Tory MP has told me.
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Was Queen's Abu Hamza intervention a rare royal gaffe?
Buckingham Palace should be at least as apologetic as the BBC is after the Queen's first gaffe in a long, long time.
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Can Cameron survive the Late Show?
The US TV fixture offers few oppourtunities and several clear and present dangers.
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Will ads skew voting in police commissioner elections?
The Home Office's advertising campaign ahead of November's police and crime commissioner elections is giving the Electoral Commission a distinct case of the jitters.
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Clegg's ball of Lords reform bitterness
The subject of politicians' bile is Lords reform, the great centrepiece of this year's Queen's Speech and Nick Clegg's great constitutional shakeup.
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Britain's vicious circle of political failure
Just as the double-dip recession continues to blight the UK, so the political process continues to stagnate.
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Police elections: The far-right threat
The Home Office decision to skimp on the police and crime commissioner elections is prompting another bout of handwringing, this time from the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) over the threat from extremist parties.
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Scottish independence: Westminster's hostility is transparent
Sub-headings like 'the changing position of the Scottish government' make clear that this is not a report by supporters of independence.
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Is Blackpool about to ban smoking in parks?
It appears Blackpool may be about to take a page out of New York's book.
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So much for constitutional reform
There's still all-postal primaries to look forward to...
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