This is not the moment to be playing petty politics. I find it extraordinary that Labour ministers can spend time briefing that I have been too keen an advocate of deregulation, and even more bizarre that they think people will believe them when they say deregulatory views caused the current crisis. They should take a cold shower and then do their jobs as regulators of economic policy more carefully.

In [...]

The Bow Group has been a good forum for debate, a place where talent can find its voice and be given its head. Geoffrey Howe, an early father of the group, described its mission as being "to make the Tory party fit for Observer and Guardian readers to live in". James Barr, the group's first hagiographer, concludes this labour of love by reminding us that his current boss, Francis Maude, [...]

Some of the most liberal people I know are also some of the most intolerant. John Gray explores this commonplace in philosophical language. Many of us have suffered at the hands of those who are so tolerant that they shout down your opinion or feeling as intolerant and unacceptable. They insist that we tolerate gays and greens - which I do happily - but shout that we should not tolerate [...]

The events of the past week have left me more time to review and to think about the future of British politics. Two and a half years of opposition have taxed my critical abilities. Now I can be more creative and wide-ranging, able to comment on how we can and should be governed. A good starting point to reflect on the battered state of our democracy is this pamphlet about [...]

Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. I had a sense of deja vu when I read the passage in Andrew Marr's book telling of how he agonised over his dramatic title. When I wrote my book, The Death of Britain, on the constitutional revolution we are now living through, I did not expect the idea to be taken up by the elegant pen of Marr. I had [...]

Devolution aspires to be all things to all men. In attempting to woo all it ends up winning none. Unionists do not like it; it starts to pull the Union apart. Nationalists do not like it; it is not the proper thing, namely self-government. Devolution is a compromise waiting to be cast aside, an accident waiting to happen, a question mark of a policy.

Vernon Bogdanor catalogues the many failures [...]