Pauline Latham is the MP for Mid Derbyshire  Stepping back from politics, as I have chosen to do at the next general election, gives one a sense of perspective. In my case, I’ve gained a distance from the day-to-day to reflect on the positive legacies of what the Conservatives have achieved in government since 2010. These cannot and should not go unacknowledged, despite the continued challenges we face both at home and on the world stage. On a personal level, I’m immensely proud of my role in the banning of child marriage in England and Wales which, with support from the Government, was e ..read more

Iain Duncan Smith is a former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and is MP for Chingford and Woodford Green. The first duty of any government is to protect its people. Too often this mantra is uttered by politicians and then quickly forgotten by them as the annual spending round is settled. Defence gets into the queue and as health, education and the other spending departments jostle for priority, all too often gets squeezed out. That’s why I welcome the Prime Ministers significant commitment to a sustained increase in defence spending, the largest since the cuts at the end of the ..read more

As research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance and Policy Exchange has shown, Conservatives are still heavily under-represented when it comes to appointments to public bodies. ConservativeHome has regularly highlighted some of the appointments to these bodies, and encouraged subscribers to apply, and we will continue to do so. As well as checking out the appointments that we highlight, we would also encourage all those subscribers with an interest in offering their expertise to public bodies to sign up to the free Cabinet Office email alert service. Here is the link for the se ..read more

Defence 1) Sunak says spending billions more on defence won’t stop tax cuts… “Rishi Sunak has said that boosting defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP would not stop him from cutting taxes or spending on public services amid questions over how he plans to fund his pledge. The prime minister said he would protect budgets for schools and the NHS, but it is thought that deep cuts would be needed in other areas to fund the funnelling of billions of pounds into defence… Sunak’s new pledge means spending more than £75 billion more on defence over the next six years compared with existing levels. T ..read more

In our February survey, ahead of the Budget, we found that three-quarters of our panellists said they would rather that Jeremy Hunt prioritise increasing defence spending over cutting taxes. Despite that, and a determined campaign by Conservative MPs, the Chancellor at that point (less than two months ago) decided not to announce a penny more for the Armed Forces. Yet here we are, not two months later, and the Government is touting an extra £75bn – and the Rishi Sunak is saying it won’t even get in the way of cutting taxes. In current circumstances, any extra funding for the military is welcom ..read more

Garvan Walshe is a former national and international security policy adviser to the Conservative Party How does the Parliament of a country one-fifth of whose territory has been occupied by Russia end up voting for a Russian-style law to attack independent civil society? The answer has to do with the Georgian Dream party under the influence of Berzina Ivanishvili, a pro-Russian oligarch. He is fighting a battle for Kremlin influence in a country least likely to accede to it for the right reasons. Corruption, intimidation, and division is all he has left. The public wants to join the EU, so lik ..read more

Miriam Cates is MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge. What is childcare policy for? That is the important and timely question posed by think tank Civitas in a new report. Over recent years, childcare has become something of a political arms race in the UK, with all parties competing to offer more ‘free hours’ of daycare to parents. Last year, the Chancellor announced a massive expansion to the current scheme, extending eligibility for 30 hours a week of funded childcare to babies of working parents from just nine months old. State spending on the Early Years is now scheduled to reach £9 billion p ..read more

David Sidwick is the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset. As a society, we in the UK know that the issue of illegal drugs is a significant problem, if not the most significant one. We have been hearing from our communities that they are fed-up with seeing drug dealing persistently in their towns and cities. We all can see the harm to individuals and communities. However, it is not enough to reduce complexity to simple solutions. To address this issue effectively, we need to deliver three things – tough enforcement, effective treatment, and impactful prevention. We are proud to say that we ..read more

Alan O’Reilly is a political activist based in London. As Simon Harris, the new taoiseach, gets his feet under the table, the obvious question for many readers is what does it mean for the relationship between Britain and Ireland – and in particular, what does his leadership mean for the future relationship with Northern Ireland? It wasn’t immediately clear where his priorities would be. While Harris has served in government in a range of roles over the last decade, these have primarily been in domestic facing ministries with little involvement in either foreign policy or Northern Irish policy ..read more

Rishi Sunak was in Berlin, visiting the beleaguered Chancellor Olaf Scholz, to whom he referred every few sentences during their press conference as “Olaf”, as if such mateyness could show how close they are, and even on one occasion as “mein Freund”, as if this demonstrated a familiarity with the German language. Back in Westminster we therefore found ourselves with a change of cast, Oliver Dowden standing in for Sunak and Angela Rayner for Sir Keir Starmer. Both these understudies had over-prepared. They and their handlers had drafted lengthy lines which were considered too good to jettison ..read more