In a fortnight’s time Douglas Carswell, MP for Harwich & Clacton, is introducing a Ten Minute Rule Bill to make the criminal justice system more accountable, and he has announced that he plans to bring in several more. So what is a Ten Minute Rule Bill? Well, they tend NOT to be an earnest effort […]
In the latest copy of Hansard, several more written questions have been inadequately answered. There will be times when the Government really can’t answer a question, or when it would be undiplomatic for it to do so, or when pulling the information together would be excessively costly. But those occasions are comparatively rare. This post […]
Backbencher Philip Davies asked this searing question of the Government yesterday: "The best thing that the Government could do to help small businesses is get off their backs. If the Government do not do something to ease the taxation, regulatory and employment cost burdens on small businesses, many thousands of them will go to the […]
One of the curiosities of the House of Commons is its questioning of the Church Commissioners (who manage the Church of England’s estate), through their representative Sir Stuart Bell (a Labour MP). He is a member of Her Majesty’s Household as the Second Church Estates Commissioner. As such Sir Stuart is tasked with "liaising between […]
Mike Penning – raconteur, aesthete, Shadow Health Minister and MP for Hemel Hempstead – has uncovered yet another extraordinary example of Governmental ignorance. This came out in a written answer. "Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there are per 1,000 people in Hemel Hempstead constituency. [228365] Ann […]
Debates in Westminster Hall are by no means universally popular. In 1999 MPs began sitting there, in what is a parallel chamber to the main one in the Commons. The building itself is steeped in history, however. Yesterday Anne Milton, MP for Guildford and part of the Conservatives’ Health Team, spoke in Westminster Hall about […]
Stand-up comedian, writer and actor Dylan Moran and James Gray, MP for North Wiltshire, look incredibly similar.
Surfing around the Scottish Parliament website (which is an ineffably cool thing to do) one learns rather interesting things about how that legislature works. Of particular interest is the Private Bill: "A Private Bill is introduced by a promoter (who may be an individual, a company or a group of people), for the purpose of […]
Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan has just posted on his Telegraph blog: "I don’t know whether this is a first, but I’m blogging from the chamber of the European Parliament. Addressing the session is – I promise I’m not making this up – the "UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilisations", a former Portuguese president." […]
In contrast to the Government in recent days (and indeed years), Damian Green has outlined a clear strategy on immigration on behalf of the Conservatives. Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday in an Opposition Day debate, he highlighted the confusion caused by Phil Woolas over the weekend. He also made some specific proposals: "A […]
Lord Strathclyde, who leads the Conservatives in the upper chamber, offered further proof yesterday (as if it were needed!) that in a sane world the Prime Minister would always be a hereditary peer: "We hear that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been reading up on the history of the great depression. Well, that should […]
It wasn’t initially intended that this should be an ongoing series, but once again the Government has shown a staggering inability to answer a written Parliamentary question. Nigel Evans (incidentally the only MP with the surname ‘Evans’, which seems statistically surprising) asked about people buying drink on behalf of the underaged: "Mr. Evans: To ask […]
Nicholas Soames, the mighty MP for Mid-Sussex, elicited an interesting reponse from Work and Pensions Secretary Tony McNulty yesterday, when Mr Soames raised the issue of a cap on immigrants during oral questions in the Commons: "Mr. Nicholas Soames (Mid-Sussex) (Con): Does the right hon. Gentleman acknowledge that there is a good deal still to […]