The Independent

Does devaluation really provide economic stimulus?

What's going on? Why haven't UK exports surged on the back of a weak pound as most economists expect...

All Blair’s Fault, contd.

I have been inundated with a request, from Polly Toynbee, for my opinion on an article in The Observ...

Twitter, power lists and the question of gender

In the 1920s, at the early stages of radio establishing itself as the most influential technological...

Chris Bryant: Why do civil servants still get honours when so many exceptional people don't?

25 May 2012 08:00 PM

A Political Life

Chris Bryant: We're being saddled with a daft American-style policing idea nobody wants

18 May 2012 08:00 PM

A Political Life

Chris Bryant: The Queen's Speech: an ossified ceremony that is nothing more than a big lie

11 May 2012 08:00 PM

I hate the Queen's Speech. I don't specifically mean this week's one, although it was a pretty flimsy, cowardly, empty calling card of a thing.

Chris Bryant: The naked and the dead – just a couple of the things you meet while canvassing

04 May 2012 08:00 PM

A Political Life

Chris Bryant: Tory backbenchers vouch loyalty to Hunt but there's an earthquake rumbling

27 April 2012 08:00 PM

The mushroom cloud that is Rupert Murdoch is still hanging eerily over Westminster. The bit I don't understand is why on earth Jeremy Hunt was ever asked to adjudicate on the BSkyB bid.

Chris Bryant: The Tories' clustershambles is all very entertaining, but Cameron needs to get a grip

21 April 2012 12:00 AM

Political misfortunes rarely come in isolation. If anything, they prefer to breed. That's certainly how it feels watching the Coalition Government fall so spectacularly into its slough of despond. It's not even as if anybody else tripped them up. Every element of the present malaise has been a home-grown Jack and Jill-style tumble. The NHS Bill, the petrol panic, the botched Budget, Theresa's May Day (in April). These were all unforced errors.

Chris Bryant: Bradford shows that despite Cameron's failings, Labour still has a mountain to climb

31 March 2012 12:00 AM

A Political Life

Chris Bryant: Though the Queen brought her trumpets and beefeaters, the MPs didn't play their part

24 March 2012 12:00 AM

I suppose the Queen's Diamond Jubilee address to both Houses was a grand occasion. There were beefeaters, trumpeters, 20 or so men seemingly dressed up as the Duke of Wellington, officials from the Royal Household carrying white staves (or billiard cues), a man with a name that isn't pronounced as it's spelt ("Cholmondeley" equals "Chumley") togged up in a fantastically brocaded tunic. The two Speakers wore gold-spangled gowns. Male MPs and peers had their better suits on and there were considerably more hats and fascinators than usual around the parliamentary estate.

Chris Bryant: Things are desperate when people prefer immigration limbo to deportation

17 March 2012 12:00 AM

A Political Life

Chris Bryant: I'm gay. I have a husband and he's called Jared – words that no longer shock

10 March 2012 12:00 AM

Twenty or so eight- to 10-year-olds from Cwmclydach primary school trundled down the road to my constituency office last Friday because they were studying politics in the Rhondda. We had laid out some election leaflets for them to peruse and they seemed to be taking a genuine interest. Then came the questions, starting with: "So why did you become an MP?" That was easy enough. The next one was a bit more difficult: "Why did you stop being a vicar?"