The Wardman Wire

For someone who didn’t want to overshadow the Conservative election campaign, the timing of Lord Ashcroft’s announcement is very hard to fathom indeed. In fact it is quite astonishing and Cameron, despite claiming otherwise, can not be pleased with being pushed down the headlines.
After the bombshell weekend poll from YouGov, today was fight back [...]

Writing obituaries for the Conservative party is vastly premature, they are still the clear favourites to win in May and are performing well in the key marginal seats. However, there can be no denying that something is wrong at Tory HQ at the moment and things are no going entirely to plan.
By [...]

Writing obituaries for the Conservative party is vastly premature, they are still the clear favourites to win in May and are performing well in the key marginal seats. However, there can be no denying that something is wrong at Tory HQ at the moment and things are no going entirely to plan.
By [...]

This is a guest post by Bishop Nick Baines.

When the Telegraph launched its month-long revelation of MPs’ expenses I posted a very critical response. In turn I was heavily criticised and posted further pieces as the very interesting debate between several offended journalists, me and others developed.

My fundamental charge was (put succinctly) that having ‘pulled down’ trust in public servants, what responsibility does the media have for ‘building up’ trust in public institutions? I was roundly told that the media have no responsibility for building up: they merely report what the wicked people do and leave it to the rest of us to put the pieces back together again. I refused (and continue to refuse) to accept this – that as long as journalists consider themselves to be part of civil society, they have a responsibility to be constructive within it. Or, put differently, those who hold the rest of us to account must themselves be open to public accountability for their own behaviour. The media do not only ‘reflect’ our culture, they shape it powerfully.)

So, the launch of the Citizen Ethics Network is hugely welcome. This has been established in conjunction with the Guardian and its inaugural pamphlet (which was published with Saturday’s Guardian) can be downloaded and debate entered on the Comment is Free website. When I read it I felt genuine hope for the first time in a long time that it might be possible to change the way we talk about ethics, public policy and those who engage in the public discourse. Perhaps, at last, we can begin to talk properly, intelligently and passionately (but politely) about how we are constructing our public life and conversation about it.