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DavidBoothroyd

Listed below are comments made by DavidBoothroyd between Thursday, 23rd October 2008 and Thursday, 12th November 2009.

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Your questions answered - part 15 11:09pm on 12 Nov 2009 Best potential team combination of all time? How about Juan-Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher driving the Williams FW14B from 1992.
Labour waits in Glasgow North East 5:11pm on 09 Jul 2009 SJB - the rules on calling byelections during a recess depend on the reason why the seat has become vacant. Seats vacant by the death of the previous MP can have their byelections called in a recess; seats vacant by the resignation of the previous MP can't.

In 1999 when George Robertson became NATO Secretary-General, he was deliberately given a Peerage rather than resigning, so that the byelection could be called immediately. Although Michael Martin has already resigned, it might be possible (once his Peerage is formally granted) to move the writ in the recess.
There's always one 12:02pm on 09 Jul 2009 I'm a councillor in Westminster. It always annoys me that councillors actually have a legal obligation to decide the level of our own allowances, and that we can't hand it over to an independent body. However I hope that there is a recognition that being an effective councillor is very time-consuming. It might save money but it wouldn't improve democracy nor efficiency if councillors were all either retired or unemployed people.
Classic British Grands Prix 6:09pm on 14 Jun 2009 Has to be 1987, and if allowed a second preference it would be 2008. Pity some of the 1970s races are not available; the rain-soaked mass pile-up of 1975 would be good to see again.
Government plans FOI restrictions 1:10pm on 11 Jun 2009 Although in theory this means some documents are less likely to be released under FOI, you have to really strain logic to argue that it is overall cutting down on FOI releasing. Cabinet minutes were certainly never intended to be released before the 30-year rule and it was a surprise to put it mildly when the tribunal suddenly decided that they should be. However reducing the 30-year rule to 20 years is a big change - and that means a whole stack of documents being released significantly earlier.

The Royal Family has always been removed from the operation of the FOIA so that's really just tidying up. Overall these changes are good.
Seals fate of a short-lived Whitehall department 12:57pm on 11 Jun 2009 There are several examples of Departments of State which only had two holders, including Education and Employment (Gillian Shephard and David Blunkett) amd Commonwealth Affairs (Herbert Bowden and George Thomson). However there is one which had only one holder: Constitutional Affairs (Lord Falconer). Almost at the end of the Blair era, it was converted into the Department of Justice with substantially different responsibilities.

There are lots of Ministries which had only one holder, mostly temporary wartime appointments like Lord Woolton as Minister of Reconstruction.
Classic Monaco Grands Prix 6:46pm on 14 May 2009 Put me down for 1982 ("We're all standing around waiting for a winner, and no-one's coming through"), with second choice as 1992.
Looking forward to Melbourne 2:13pm on 15 Mar 2009 I would go for 1994, because of the way Damon Hill harried Schumacher over many laps. 1986 had its moments but not as much competitive driving; the Mansell blowout incident only lasts about 15 seconds.
VAT slip? 9:55pm on 25 Nov 2008 A good rule of thumb is that governments have plans for everything - for raising VAT, for lowering VAT, for abolishing zero-rating, for abolishing VAT. The fact that one of them accidentally got published doesn't mean that it is some kind of hidden commitment.
The monitoring of MPs 2:34pm on 23 Oct 2008 Merseyside Police will definitely have had a file on Terry Fields because he was imprisoned for non-payment of the Poll Tax in 1991.

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