On procedure and politics

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined

Parliaments, PMOs and Social Media

On Tuesday, 31 January 2012, Education Secretary Michael Gove appeared before the House of Commons Education Committee. It is the Committee’s mandate to monitor the policy, administration and spending of the Department for Education and its associated arms length bodies, and having the Minister give evidence allows them to scrutinize his work, performance and policies. [...]

Scottish Consultation on Independence Referendum

As mentioned in an earlier post, the Scottish Government launched its own consultation on a referendum on Scottish independence, which you can view here. The consultation runs until 11 May 2012. The Scottish Government is looking to hold said referendum in the fall of 2014. This time frame is to allow for the responses to [...]

Update on e-petitions

The UK House of Commons Procedure Committee recently released its report on the Government’s e-petitions scheme. It is well known that there is significant confusion regarding how many signatures an e-petition requires in order for it to be debated in the House of Commons. Indeed, this blog regularly gets hits from people searching for information [...]

Some interesting links: rebel MPs, e-petitions, hung parliaments, and political disengagement

1. Rebels of the Chamber Isabel Hardman has a fascinating piece looking at some of the most rebellious backbench MPs in the UK House of Commons: Once an MP starts down the route of the serial rebel, it seems easier for the whips to leave them be. Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, is one such [...]

Public Perception of Access to Parliament

UK House of Commons Speaker John Bercow established the Speaker’s Advisory Council on Public Engagement (SACPE) which provides informal, independent advice from an external perspective on the programs which the House of Commons has already introduced to improve outreach and to serve as a vehicle for thinking about what Parliament needs to do to convince [...]

2011 Canadian Weblog Awards Shortlist

I was genuinely astonished, and incredibly pleased and proud to find out today that this blog has been shortlisted as one of the five best politics blogs in the 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards. To my fellow nominees, I extend my congratulations. It is an honour I am pleased to share with you all. The winners [...]

Link clean-up

The beauty of the internet is that it is a dynamic place. Unfortunately, that dynamism means websites change, content moves around and sometimes disappears completely. For bloggers, particularly those writing about politics, this presents a special challenge. I am careful to link to sources that I believe are going to be around for the long [...]

Coalition Street or Parliament Hill Street Blues?

There is an interesting article on the BBC website discussing the dearth of British political dramas on television. Inspired by the airing of a Danish political drama, Borgen, on BBC Four, the writer, Terry Stiastny, wonders why there have been no British equivalents since the excellent House of Cards which aired in the 1990s. Borgen is [...]

The debate on Scotland indepedence heats up

Debate on the issue of independence for Scotland has heated up again this past week in the United Kingdom. On Tuesday (10 January), the Government launched its consultation on “facilitating a legal, fair and decisive referendum on whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom”, which you can download here. The “legal” bit seems to be [...]

On candidate selection

Recently, a Canadian Member of Parliament elected as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from the province of Quebec announced that she was crossing the floor to join the Liberal Party. The MP, Ms. St-Denis, explained that she found herself increasingly disagreeing with the positions the NDP were espousing in the House of [...]

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