Frankly good!

Mr Field, a long-time champion of welfare reform, has been asked to lead a major review into levels of poverty across Britain. He is also expected to study how poverty should be measured in the future.

The appointment, which could be officially confirmed in the next few days, comes as the Prime Minister seeks to boost his coalition between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats with a number of outside figures in key roles.

From the Telegraph

Let's hope this goes ahead.

Government sources said Mr Field was expected to "work alongside" Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who was made Work and Pensions Secretary last week.

Mr Field had a raw deal from his own party

A former director of the Child Poverty Action Group, he has spoken out against means-tested benefits.

He was appointed minister for welfare reform by Tony Blair after Labour came to power in 1997, with a brief to "think the unthinkable", but quit less than a year later following a series of rows both with Mr Brown and Harriet Harman, then the social security secretary.

....

@ Demos today.

Mrs Rigby notes that David Cameron, Frank Field and Camila Batmanghelidjh (founder of Kidsco) shared a platform at Demos today, launching "Commission on Character" or "The Character Enquiry" (name depends on source)

Mr Field discusses this on his site here (Good Character), with further comment here (Demos launch its Commission on Character) (the link on Frank's site from within the former item to the latter is broken)

The Times carries a news item here and the BBC here. There is also a report in Tory Diary.

I think all these things are worth reading, which is why I've put them together - it'll take quite a bit more than five minutes of your time.

I'm not going to make any comment about either the project or the people involved. I am, however, intrigued to see how this will pan out over coming days and weeks and wonder if there will be a backlash of some sort for this overtly public co-operation?

Frank Field is first!

Actually, Mrs Rigby doesn't know if he is first, but he's the first she has noticed in her wanderings round the internet.

Frank Field, who is Member of Parliament for Birkenhead, has published his expenses on his website. They can be found on the front page of his site, which is here

Hat's off to you Mr Field, for doing the decent thing.

Separately, Iain Dale had an informal poll for, asking visitors to his site who they would most like to see as Speaker. 2,100 people (members of the public who visit his blog) voted and this answer caught my eye. Mrs R hopes he doesn't mind it being shown here.

who you would like to succeed Michael Martin
Frank Field 19%
Sir Ming Campbell 18%
Sir George Young 15%
Kate Hoey 13%
David Davis 6%
Sir Alan Haselhurst 6%
Ken Clarke 5%
Alan Beith 4%
John Bercow 3%
Keith Simpson 3%
Sir Patrick Cormack 3%
Richard Shepherd 2%

Mrs Rigby thinks Mr Field would make an excellent Speaker, but she thinks his job on the back benches is more important to his constituents.

Frank Field has an idea.

Mrs Rigby has got a lot of time for Frank Field, she thinks he talks a lot of sense.

This is what he has to say about MP's allowances here

There is literally no obvious way out of the appalling mess in which MPs now find themselves over our allowances. The opportunities we have had - in deciding how to disclose information about our allowances - were squandered.

He suggests that Mr Brown should

... invite again the leaders of the other parties to join him in Downing Street. The purpose would be to agree an all party leadership recommendation to the Kelly Committee and they should not leave Downing Street until the outline of an agreement is made. If he doesn't, one of the other party leaders should take the lead.
They should then ask the Kelly Committee to speed up their enquiry. It should be asked to report on the second homes allowance within a month.

Mrs Rigby wonders if anybody will listen to his ideas.