The Green Box

The House now looks and feels very different from the near-white male preserve it was 30 years ago. It’s the Liberal Democrats, with just seven women and every MP white, who are the least representative of modern Britain. When it became apparent before the election that this Parliament would have more new members than even the 1945 Parliament, I had assumed that the effectiveness of the Commons would be held back, as the new members struggled to find their feet. I was wrong. The reverse has happened. In my view this is the best quality intake that I have seen in eight parliaments. It’s all the more remarkable given the expenses scandal, and the consequence that being an MP no longer carries the cachet that it once did.

British Prime Minister David Cameron seems to be putting his money where his mouth is. Preceding his India visit, there had been a fair amount of talk about London's desire to build a special relationship with New Delhi. Now, he is making the right moves, from an unexpectedly forthright denunciation of Pakistan's role in exporting terrorism to allowing the export of civil nuclear technology and expertise to India. These are indications that the New Delhi-London relationship is on the right track. But more can and should be done. As Cameron himself has noted, both countries need each other.

There is Scottish Labour, there is Welsh Labour and there is Labour. But there is no English Labour. In May's general election, Labour won in Wales and was ascendant in Scotland. But it lost the election in England. In England, Labour has been driven back into deindustrialised areas; its presence in prosperous parts of the country is tenuous. To avoid becoming a regional party, Labour needs to build a specifically English strategy to win back the support of the working class, the middle classes and those in the south-east.

Alexander D. - Strange lad. Still not sure if he's at the right school. Sometimes looks completely lost. Seems incapable of independent thought. Suspected of cribbing all Osborne's best ideas and representing them as his own. Probably better suited to looking after public relations than the public's finances. Cable V. - Exceptionally sulky. Clearly unhappy with new classmates. Often looks as if he's sucking lemons. Fails to follow the agreed curriculum, and has been reprimanded for making up silly stories about taxing graduates and letting in more immigrants. Likes dancing. Wouldn't be surprised if he dropped out. Cameron D. - Head boy. Handsome and well dressed. Very polite. Nice manners (except when dealing with uppity foreigners). Good team player. Popular with most parents. Lovely girlfriend. A huge improvement on his predecessor, who was a real stinker. Trouble is, nobody believes a word he says. I wonder why?

'I am starting to feel a bit sorry for the Lib Dems. One day Vince Cable says his depart-ment intends to scrap university tuition fees and the next Tories tell him he can't. Nick Clegg has a go at PM's Questions and does so badly the Tories say he isn't ' speaking for the Government. The Lib Dems think they have a commitment to a refer-endum on the voting system, but 43 Tory MPs have come out against it. With so little to show from this "honey-moon" period it is no surprise they have dropped in the polls.

Mystery surrounds the seismic events that unfolded on Monday, May 10 - the day when Mr Cameron finally persuaded his party to back a deal with the Lib Dems that included voters getting the chance to decide whether Britain should adopt the alternative vote electoral system. Now, less than three months on, it is still utterly unclear whether Labour did tell Clegg that they would accept electoral reform without taking the issue to the country. Indeed, it's looking increasingly likely that Conservative MPs were pushed into accepting the coalition deal on the basis of what was, at best, a misunderstanding - and, at worst, an outright untruth.

It is necessary to give a clear answer that the Freedom Pass is safe. If I am selected as Labour's candidate and then elected as Mayor I will oppose any attempt to means test the Freedom Pass. I will defend the concessionary schemes. I never expected to hear in a Labour Mayoral selection that we should consider means-testing the Freedom Pass. It is a catastrophic mistake, a gift to our opponents including Boris Johnson. We must have a clear bottom line - and a universal Freedom Pass should be part of it.

News of Cameron's visit may have been sidelined by Pakistan's worst-ever air disaster. Yet his speech in Bangalore, India, has fast become infamous here. It isn't so much the substance of his remarks that have raised our collective ire. We have already heard ad nauseum that Pakistan must end its double game of supporting both the militants and US-led forces in the region. No, what irked was the fact that they were uttered in the heart of elite India. Coming from a first-term British prime minister on his first official tour of the south Asian country, Cameron's comments inevitably fed the perception that the world, and especially India, is out to get Pakistan.

Sometimes, the most urgent truths are rolled up and hidden away in the most apparently trivial news. So if I tell you that Moody's, the leading credit rating agency, has downgraded Ireland's debt, it sounds pretty irrelevant. Ireland has been doing exactly what Cameron and Osborne urge, with a two-year headstart. What are the results? Last week, a study by the International Monetary Fund – nobody's idea of a left-wing pressure group – found that country's economic collapse now "exceeds that being faced by any other advanced economy, and matches episodes of the most severe economic distress [anywhere] in post-Second World War history."

The victors write history. But as last night's BBC2 documentary on the negotiations that followed May's indecisive election result has shown, the very attempt to write that history – or at least a first draft of it – can just as easily open a new front in a continuing battle. The cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, would have done well to remember that when he agreed to give an interview to the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson. By contributing to the programme, he has, first, come perilously close to appearing to be a participant in a matter that is still a live and contentious issue. And, second, he has revived traditional suspicion of the role that Whitehall officials play in politics.