By Meryl Kenny and Sarah Childs This blog is based on an article first published in the Scottish Election Analysis Report. Only a few weeks before the pre-election dissolution of the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood passed a series of standing order rule changes to take effect from the start of the new Parliament. Amongst their number were new rules: (i) ruling out single sex committees; (ii) requiring due regard be given to gender balance in committees,…
By Tim Bale This blog is based on an article originally published in Parliamentary Affairs by the author. Keir Starmer, in his first eighteen months, has had three. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss had one each. Boris Johnson contrived to have nine, while Theresa May made do with just three, as did David Cameron. Gordon Brown had four, as did Tony Blair. John Major managed with only two, while Margaret Thatcher had five. The superbly…
By Stephen Holden Bates This blog was part of a larger project undertaken on policy specialisation and parliamentary roles with Caroline Bhattacharya and Stephen McKay, both of whom were involved in the collection and analysis of the data used in this blog. A draft of this blog has been hanging around for a few years now which explains why it doesn’t cover the 2019-2024 Parliament – apologies for that! Backbench MPs can submit Early Day…
By Dr Larissa Peixoto Gomes. It must be said that Wales is a place of complex identity that I would never claim to personally understand. Many Welsh people see themselves as British, others see themselves as British and Welsh, others as Welsh and British, others still as Welsh only (Henderson 2021). Some that I have spoken to claim that they have been colonised by the English, some that they are part of the British empire.…
By Franklin De Vrieze. Across democratic governance systems, parliaments are facing a paradox. Never before have there been so many technological tools promising to improve legislative scrutiny, evidence use, and public engagement. Yet never has the gap between the pace of technological change and the capacity of democratic institutions to respond felt so wide. This is not simply a story about adopting new software or experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI); it is about institutional transformation.…
