Political Positions
Carswell is an outspoken and independent-minded radical, having allied on certain issues with politicians ranging from Daniel Hannan to the chairman of the Socialist Campaign Group, John McDonnell. Dod's political biography describes Carswell as being "Tall and Eurosceptic ... one of his party's radical thinkers". Carswell was described in The Sunday Times in July 2008 as 'one of the energetic young Tory modernisers elected to the Commons in 2005'.
Carswell has been an outspoken advocate of political reform, and action to clean up Westminster politics. He has proposed radical change to force politicians to answer outward to the electorate, rather than to other politicians. In recognition of his stance, the Daily Telegraph nominated him a Briton of the Year 2009, and Spectator readers voted him their choice as Parliamentarian of the Year for that same year.
Carswell is sceptical of anthropogenic global warming, believing current climate change to be driven by non-human factors. He came to this position after reading Ian Plimer's Heaven and Earth.
Carswell is the only Conservative MP returned at the 2010 general election to have openly advocated proportional representation.
Read more about this topic: Douglas Carswell
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or positions:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That ostracism, both political and moral, has
Its place in the twentieth-century scheme of things....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“... liberal intellectuals ... tend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping that those in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the establishment.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)