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Blog

Combating discrimination and human rights violations through Post-Legislative Scrutiny

Franklin De Vrieze of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy discusses the use of post-legislative scrutiny to combat human rights violations.

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Blog

When select committees speak, do newspapers listen?

It is frequently claimed that the House of Commons’ select committees have grown in prominence since key reforms were implemented in 2010. In a blog originally posted by Democratic Audit Brian J. Gaines, Mark Goodwin, Stephen Holden Bates and Gisela Sin test this claim specifically in relation to press coverage. They find a pattern of increased newspaper attention after the reforms, but caution that these results show no consistent sustained increase, and also vary considerably depending on committee.

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Blog

How to make the select committee system more effective and influential

Dr Sarah Wollaston, Chair of the Liaison Committee, discusses its new report into how the system of select committees can operate more effectively, both in terms of their place within the House of Commons and their external impact, in a blog originally posted on The Constitution Unit. New ways of working and more powers are suggested, such as taking a ‘digital first’ approach to reports and formalising formalising further the arrangements for the Prime Minister to appear before the Liaison Committee.

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Blog

Getting data is hard to do: Clean data on House of Commons Members

Data on Members of Parliament is notoriously non-standardised and difficult to sift through. That’s why Dr. Larissa Peixoto Gomes is sharing her database on the House of Commons.

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Blog

Electing a new Speaker: what happens next?

After over ten years as Speaker, John Bercow has announced his intention to stand down at the end of October. As for who will replace him, that is unclear and will be decided by an election amongst MPs, several of whom have already declared their candidacy. But how does that election work? Mark Bennister offers a guide to the process. 

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Events News

Call for Papers: PSA20

Call for Papers for PSA Parliaments Panels for the Political Studies Association Annual Conference in 2020: Reimagining Politics: deadline 14 October.

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News

September 2019 newsletter

Image courtesy of .Martin. via Flickr. CC BY-ND 2.0

In this month’s newsletter, we have the following announcements/information:

  1. Our Annual Conference: please remember to register!
  2. PSA Conference 2020, Edinburgh: Call for Papers
  3. Job Opportunity at Birkbeck
  4. Recently on our blog

If you have any notices / messages you would like us to circulate to the group, please let us know.

Best wishes,
Marc (@marcgeddes), Louise (@LouiseVThompson) Alex (@A_Meakin) and Seán (@S_Haughey)


Categories
Blog

Destroying parliaments leads to war – just look at history

Aristotle Kallis, Keele University, places the recent prorogation of the UK Parliament in historical context.

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Blog

Free (and Near-Complete) Access to Membership Data from the Select Committee Data Archive, 1979-Present!

Stephen Holden Bates (University of Birmingham), Mark Goodwin (Coventry University) and Steve McKay (University of Lincoln) discuss opening up their select committee data archive for open access research.

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Blog

Who is watching Parliament?

Ben Worthy discusses his new Leverhulme research project on parliamentary data.