This house believes...
18th Feb 2011
"At the heart of Parliament, either side of central lobby, lie the Chambers of the House of Commons and Lords respectively. The positioning of these places of debate at the very centre of Westminster politics emphasises how central to our democratic make-up is the practise of debate and of ‘thrashing out’ ideas.
In our new offices, just down the road from the Palace of Westminster, debate is no less rife. A working space full of political communicators, as I am sure you can imagine, leads to many interesting discussions as strong opinions are expressed, thrashed out, defended and - on rare occasions - conceded!
At WA we encourage healthy debate amongst our team. Therefore, we have been interested to note the dynamic between the coalition partners, who together make up one Government, and their approach to inter-party policy wrangles.
Positions within the Coalition on marriage, electoral reform and universities - to name but a few - vary widely and it has been an interesting case study to see two parties struggling to fight the balance between party loyalty and compromise in the interests of government.
The key in any debate, as we have found at WA, is integrity and honesty - a trait that Caroline Spelman this week demonstrated in spades with her full, frank and unabashed apology for her mistake over the recent debacle that this blog shall simply refer to as forest-gate.
This house believes that transparent debate is the backbone of democracy."