Michael Crick has left Channel 4 News. This is an archive of his reports.
Labour’s candidate for police commissioner in Avon and Somerset, Bob Ashford, today stood down. Astonishingly, it was all because of two minor offence committed 46 years ago when he was just 13, and for which he was fined a total of £5, writes Michael Crick.
“That would be the ultimate irony of a saga that contains several ironies already – like appointing more unelected lords so as to reduce the size of the elected Commons.”
Tonight the Coalition is probably at it’s lowest ebb. If it wasn’t for the Olympics and the fact most MPs are on holiday, then this would be a much bigger story. There are serious tit-for-tat exchanges, and could soon be all-out war.
Relations within the coalition grew significantly worse today, with Conservative sources in Whitehall admitting defeat on the coalition’s plans for Lords reform.
Accounts for the political parties published today by the Electoral Commission show a fall in membership for the Liberal Democrats. But Michael Crick writes that Labour has little to cheer about either.
I regret to have to report the death of Derek Scott, the Eurosceptic economist who was a leading adviser to Labour in government. He had been suffering from stomach cancer for several months.
The Trade Minister Lord (Stephen) Green was today refusing to answer questions about what he knew about the large-scale money laundering at HSBC exposed yesterday by the US Senate Investigations Committee in a damning report.
“There are very few barristers and QCs in the Commons with the experience of mounting a detailed and probing line of interrogation.”
Three Scots and no women will investigate the Barclays Libor scandal, writes Michael Crick.
‘The Liberal Democrats have long had a quirky system where every couple of years members at their annual conference elect a panel of names for the party’s future peerages.’
Political Correspondent Michael Crick blogs on what the selection of Michael Mates as Conservative candidate for Hampshire’s PCC could be a good sign for older politicians.
Embarrassment for the Electoral Commission as it reveals some sensitive email addresses in a mass mail-out, not once but twice. Michael Crick blogs on a bad few days for the quango.
Political Correspondent Michael Crick blogs on Falklands war hero Simon Weston’s decision to pull out of the election to become the new police and crime commissioner in south Wales.
After this week’s historic, symbolic handshake in Belfast between Martin McGuinness and the Queen, is the logical next step for the five Sinn Fein MPs to take their seats in the House of Commons, asks Michael Crick.
“It does seem odd that the Tories only have one contender for being a candidate in what should be quite a promising and high-profile contest for the party.”