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Divisions in the Select Committee on Exiting the European Union

Philip Lynch and Richard Whitaker discuss the work of the House of Commons Select Committee on Exiting the European Union, and its current split on the issue of hard or soft Brexit.

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Why Labour’s defeat on the Windrush motion was a victory for Parliament

Andrew Defty, University of Lincoln, argues that the Opposition Day Debate on the Windrush affair in the House of Commons on Wednesday 2 May was a victory for Parliament.

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Key findings of the European Commission’s 2018 country reports on the national parliaments of the Western Balkans countries

Blerim Vela discusses the state of the parliaments of the six candidate countries and potential candidate countries from the Western Balkans that are aspiring to become members of the European Union.

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Exploring Parliament: opening a window onto the world of Westminster

In February this year, Oxford University Press published Exploring Parliament, which aims to provide an accessible introduction to the workings of the UK parliament. In this post, the book’s editors, Louise Thompson and Cristina Leston-Bandeira, explain why the book is necessary and what it hopes to achieve.

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On the ballot: how electoral procedures shape the work of Members of the Scottish Parliament

The electoral system by which members of parliament are elected shapes how legislators perceive their roles. Furthermore, write David C.W. Parker and Caitlyn M. Richter, in the case of the Scottish Parliament, both the electoral system and the change implemented prior to the 2007 election, whereby candidate names were removed from party-list ballots, have an impact on how Members of the Scottish Parliament spend their time and resources.

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1979 and all that: an alternative view of select committee reform

Dr Philip Aylett, House of Commons Clerk, discusses his doctoral research on select committees in the 1960s and 70s.

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Revisiting Tony King’s analysis shows just how much parliament has changed

Meg Russell and Philip Cowley discuss Anthony King’s seminal 1976 article ‘Modes of executive–legislative relations: Great Britain, France and West Germany’.

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“Living this written life”: Early impressions from a fieldwork study of parliamentary engagement through narrative

In the latest blog from our Legislatures in Uncertain Times conference, Alex Prior (University of Leeds) discusses the use of ‘narrative’ as a means of strengthening parliamentary engagement.

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Changing times? The shifting gender balance of Scottish Parliament committee witnesses

In the latest blog from our Legislatures in Uncertain Times conference, Anouk Berthier (Scottish Parliament) and Hugh Bochel (University of Lincoln) discuss their research into the diversity of witnesses to committees in the Scottish Parliament.

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Engaging the public with the scrutiny of legislation requires more than just asking for their views

Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson examine the impact of a stage of the legislative process piloted by the House of Commons in 2013, during which the public were invited to comment on a bill undergoing parliamentary scrutiny. They explain why, despite an impressive response, the Public Reading Stage failed to make much of an impact.