I'm absolutely delighted that the White House has confirmed that President Obama will go to Copenhagen. We at the Council of Europe have been calling for the leaders of the US, China and India to follow Gordon Brown's lead by being there at the UN Climate Change Conference to ensure we get that binding political deal. On Monday in Paris, the Council of Europe - which represents 47 countries and 800 million people - passed a resolution asking all three leaders to attend. I repeated this call in the House of Commons during a climate change...
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I'm in China this week in my role as Rapporteur for Climate Change for the Council of Europe, trying to get a fairer deal for developing nations at Copenhagen. But I'm amazed about what's happening with Tories and their so-called Green agenda. David Cameron may talk green but the Tories either seem to deny climate change is happening or don’t want to deal with it. Cameron lets one of his MEPs get a motley crew of sceptics together while one of his Shadow Cabinet members, Andrew Lansley is allowed to become a NIMC ('Not In My Constituency') about wind power....
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I'm in a very good mood this afternoon. In fact I have three good reasons to be cheerful. Firstly, I travelled up to Hull on the soon to be Nationalised Express (at 23.59 tonight to be precise). Great service, great staff and it arrived on time. Compare that to the First Group. First Capital Connect could only run half its services and their takeover of Hull Trains has reduced it from a reliable and admirable service to an absolute disgrace. Secondly, Labour held Glasgow North East with a swing to us from the Lib...
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It's almost been a month since I sent my letter to the Director of BBC News seeking clarification on its position on reporting stories from the Tory donor funded TaxPayers' Alliance. I understand a reply is on its way and I'll share it with you when I get it. But in the meantime I'm grateful to the 'Other TaxPayers' Alliance' who've done excellent work in exposing this so-called impartial pressure group. Today they publish a reply from a senior BBC editor who admits that they will now be clearer in informing the...
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For more than 40 years I've had to put up with journalists getting their facts wrong about me. Now thanks to the internet and Twitter, I can now get my side across without having to beg a paper to carry my reply or bury it away on Page 34. They say papers never let facts get in the way of a good story. Well one press agency, Ferraris of Kent, has decided to do just that - put out a story that I ignored people at a working man's club. They contacted us this...
Read 'And you wonder why I hate hacks!' >

Seems my letter to the BBC's Director of News Helen Boaden ruffled a few feathers at the TaxPayers' Alliance. You'll remember I'm asking the BBC to consider referring to the TPA in their broadcasts as “a group with close links to the Conservative Party” or some similar on-air clarification. Their Chief Executive Matthew Elliott, writing on Comment is Free, denies close links with the Tory Party saying, they're ''laughable'': "We are open about being of the centre-right – we believe in low taxes, public sector reform and personal freedom. But the idea that that...
Read 'TPA @ YBF? WTF!' >

I've just got back from a fundraising dinner for Lewisham East Constituency Labour Party. Bridget Prentice is standing down so I thought I'd go along, help raise some money for the local party and support our new candidate, the excellent Heidi Alexander. But I've heard there's a great Guardian investigation into the shadowy TaxPayers' Alliance - the pressure group with remarkably close links to the Tory Party, Conservative donors and the Midlands Industrial Council. Not only are their senior officials former Tory Party politicos but senior Conservatives have addressed their meetings, including party chairman Eric Pickles,...
Read 'TPA - The Campaign for a Tory Government' >

Sadly my invite to the Tory Party conference got lost in the post but I like to feel I'm there in spirit if not in body. I've was asked to tweet in questions to my good friend Daniel Hannan and I've been been having fun tweeting on the #cpc09. But today I thought I'd find out more about the Tories housing policy so I invited some residents from the West Kensington Estate in Hammersmith and Fulham to watch the speech by Tory Housing Minister Grant Shapps. This is the same estate that the Tory...
Read 'The Tories' REAL Housing Plan' >

Well, it's been my shortest ever party conference. I arrived yesterday afternoon one year on from the launch of Go Fourth to hold a tweet up with bloggers and tweeters at the Charles Street club. Delighted to see Kerry McCarthy, who is helping to spread word about social media to all our MPs, candidates and members, come along to say a few words and answer questions. The old media turned up too, responding to an interview I did with the Independent. Sadly it was flammed up to a John v Harriet story which wasn't...
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I've just got back from a very successful school tour for the Council of Europe's New Earth Deal campaign. I must say I've throughly enjoyed talking to the students in Leeds, London, Birmingham and Manchester and telling them how this Government has been leading the world on combating climate change. Don't let anyone tell you that they don't care about what will happen in Copenhagen. They were all passionate, informative and more than prepared to challenge me! So I must say I felt like it was groundhog day when I...
Read 'Last of the summer whine' >