Archive for Parliament
Sometimes the government is really rather good at design
A little gem I discovered from Who Goes Home? A Parliamentary Miscellany by Robert Rogers: The red despatch box is a badge of ministerial office … The lock is on the bottom, not the top, which is intended to ensure that the box is locked before it is carried. That’s a very smart piece of design, [...]
Who Goes Home? A Parliamentary Miscellany by Robert Rogers
Given the number of Parliamentary Miscellanies I’ve read over the years, probably the most important aspect of this volume by Clerk of the House of Commons Robert Rogers is that very little of the content in it felt familiar. That’s the case even though I’ve also read his previous volume, Order! Order! One reason for [...]
Paul Burstow is new chair of the Parliamentary Party
A bit of party news today with various posts being filled. Paul Burstow has been elected chair of the Parliamentary Party, succeeding Lorely Burt who in the reshuffle became PPS to Danny Alexander. Meanwhile there have also been changes at both the Commons and Lords end to the Co-Chairs of various Liberal Democrat Party Parliamentary [...]
Labour MP caught on microphone urging heckling of Tory minister
One of the reasons the behaviour of MPs in the House of Commons is often so appalling, baying and insulting in a way that if done by a school child in a classroom would have MPs lining up to demand tough action to restore decency to British life, is that the place is very small. [...]
From the Parliamentary archives: the Palestinian false leg
Hansard for 9 February 1983 brings us this: Mr. Graham asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs why a payment of £341 was made by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to Palestine for 1981–82, as listed in the Appropriation Accounts for that year. Mr. Hurd: When the mandate for Palestine terminated in 1948 [...]
Order! Order! A Parliamentary Miscellany
Robert Rogers, the Clerk of the House of Commons, is the latest in a long line of distinguished authors to have produced a miscellany of Parliamentary history, information and quirks. His volume Order! Order! A Parliamentary Miscellany is a worthy addition to that sequence. Originally published in 2009 it has just been republished with little changed other than [...]
How well do you know the party’s MPs?
One (and as far as I know, only one) current or former Lib Dem/SDP/Liberal MP has presented a 45 minute ITV programme about venereal disease. Can you guess who it is?
The other issue Lib Dem peers can win on tomorrow
Moves in the House of Lords to amend the health and welfare bills have been getting the lion’s share of recent coverage, but this week sees a quartet of Liberal Democrat peers leading the charge on a different topic – the Legal Aid Bill. Lib Dem Lords Thomas, Carlile, Clement Jones and Phillips have a [...]
How well do you know the British Prime Ministers?
A quick history quiz for the weekend: only five recent Prime Ministers have not subsequently taken a seat in the House of Lords. Who are the five? Three you should find quite easy, a fourth not too hard if you are an older reader, but the fifth may surprise – or make you think “oh, [...]
Secret Royal influence or journalists not reading Hansard?
I’m not an expert in this area, so there’s one thing that really puzzles me about the Guardian’s splash about the “secretive” process by which the Prince of Wales is asked to approve certain legislation: it doesn’t seem to me to be anything new. Obscure perhaps, but not new. Which is why I took a [...]
