Overview
- In a Times column, Paul Ovenden argues power has shifted from voters to a network of campaign groups, regulators and litigators that he says leaves ministers "emasculated."
- He says the push to free Alaa Abd el‑Fattah became a "running joke" inside No 10 and a symbol of skewed priorities, after the activist’s decade‑old posts surfaced and he issued an unequivocal apology.
- Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a review into "serious information failures" over the missed historic posts, which ministers described as abhorrent.
- Keir Starmer has recently voiced frustration about slow delivery, citing layers of regulations, consultations and arm’s‑length bodies that delay action.
- Ovenden, who resigned last year over historic messages about Diane Abbott, urges scrapping the pensions triple lock, tightening welfare, rolling back new business rules and cutting green energy subsidies.