On procedure and politics

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined

Electoral Boundary Reform – Canada

The proposed UK electoral boundary changes officially made public today are a major topic of debate. The Coalition Government proposed reducing the number of MPs in the House of Commons from the current 650 to 600, in part to save money, and in part to make the system fairer as the electorate in each constituency [...]

Some interesting numbers

During Questions to the Leader of the House on 8 September, a few interesting statistics were made available. First, in response to a question regarding the use of ministerial statements to make major government announcements, the Parliamentary Secretary, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons informed Members that 139 oral ministerial statements and [...]

Politics, privacy and public disclosure

Recently, the Leader of the Official Opposition in Canada, Jack Layton, passed away from cancer. At the outset of the election campaign in March, questions were raised about his health since he had previously battled prostate cancer (successfully, he said), but had undergone surgery for a hip fracture. He refused to say what caused the [...]

Will MPs rebel over boundary reforms?

Since day one back in May 2010, the UK media has made predicting the break-up of the coalition a favourite hobby. Indeed, almost every controversial policy has been dubbed the issue that will spell the end of the Coalition – the budget, tuition fees, the AV referendum, reform of the NHS, the London riots to [...]

The Backbench Business Committee on e-petitions

As readers may know, part of the plan when the UK Government launched its new e-petitions scheme this summer was that a petition which garnered over 100,000 signatures would be referred to the Backbench Business Committee for consideration for possible debate in Parliament. Two petitions have reached the required number of signatures and have been [...]

What’s what in Parliament: The Standing Orders

The Standing Orders are the written rules under which a Parliament conducts its business. They regulate the way Members behave, Bills are processed and debates are organised. The continuing or “standing” nature of rules means that they do not lapse at the end of a session or a Parliament; they remain in effect until the [...]

HM e-petitions: clarifying misconceptions

Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab): But does the Minister agree with the Daily Mail, which says that this amounts to an e-petition con? The Government said to the public, “If 100,000 of you sign one of these petitions, there’ll be a debate.” What discussion did the Government have with the Backbench Business Committee about how the [...]

Some interesting links

This blog’s author is rather swamped at work these days, and so I will take this opportunity to share with you some recent links that have caught my attention. 1. Is the tide finally turning for Nick Clegg? Having gone from everyone’s darling after the first ever leaders’ debates last spring to the most despised [...]

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