On procedure and politics

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined

Parliamentary Privilege and Prayers in the House

Recently, in response to legal action brought by the National Secular Society, Britain’s High Court ruled that Bideford Town Council had acted unlawfully by allowing prayers to be said during meetings. This decision prompted quite a backlash in the UK media, and the Government announced that it would bring in early part of the Localism [...]

The Financial Privilege of the House of Commons

A controversial bill overhauling the UK’s social benefits system suffered a number of defeats in the House of Lords as the upper chamber rejected several provisions of the Government’s bill. When the bill was returned to the House of Commons, something happened. A committee of the House of Commons resolved that the bill “engages the [...]

Keyword post: Some answers to search results

This post will provide answers to actual search engine queries that led people to this blog. None of these would really make a full blog post on their own, which is why I’ve decided to answer a few in one post. 1. How many people did/didn’t vote for David Cameron? This one is very easy [...]

Important Political Resources

I admit to being somewhat surprised by some of the keyword searches that bring people to this blog. It seems that too many people have no idea where to get key information – somehow they end up on this blog rather than on the sites they should be visiting to get the information they want. [...]

Contempt of Parliament not a criminal offence

My attention was recently caught by a post on ProgressiveBloggers.ca asking if contempt of Parliament is a federal crime that can bar Prime Minister Stephen Harper from re-election. The question seems to have come from this very unfortunately blog post arguing that indeed, Harper has committed a federal offence. The short answer to the question [...]

On misleading the House

On 9 March 2011, the Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons delivered two rulings on matters of privilege raised by the opposition against the Government. In both instances, the Speaker found that prima facie cases of privilege had been established, and that the government was in contempt of Parliament. It should be noted that [...]

Loose lips – Part 1

Business Secretary Vince Cable finds himself at the centre of a media storm today because of comments he made in a conversation with undercover newspaper reporters posing as constituents. There are two separate issues I want to explore here, and will do so in two separate posts. The first is the issue of parliamentary privilege. [...]

The jurisdiction of privilege

(Note: Not the information you’re looking for? I do try to help people as much as I can and regularly monitor key word activity on this blog to see what is bringing people here. If this post doesn’t answer your questions, please consider contacting me with details regarding what information you’re looking for, including context [...]

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