By Anton Morgun and Franklin De Vrieze Returning to the Wroxton Workshop always feels special. Under the leadership of Lord Philip Norton of Louth, the Workshop continues to offer something that is increasingly rare: a genuine exchange between academic research and parliamentary practice. The formal presentations matter, but so do the conversations over coffee, lunch and dinner, making the inter-disciplinary learning environment quite unique. Measuring parliamentary success This year, one idea surfaced repeatedly: Parliamentary success…
By Stefanie Reher This blog is based on an article first published in the Scottish Election Analysis Report. Many of the 1.3 million disabled people in Scotland and their families will be wondering what the next years will bring for the representation of their interests. Two former MSPs who were among the most outspoken advocates of the disabled community in the previous Parliament, including as Conveners of the Cross-Party Group on Disability and contributions to the Assisted…
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…
