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Punctuation and rhetoric: the difference between the “the people’s parliament” and “the peoples’ parliament”

Professor David Judge of the University of Strathclyde provides a valuable examination of the current parliamentary balance in the House of Commons. He considers how representative the chamber is and outlines some of the potential difficulties in effecting scrutiny that may lay ahead. The blog was originally written for the LSE Politics and Policy page but has been kindly shared with the PSA Parliaments Specialist Group.

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Treaties: Parliament’s Blind Spot?

In the second blog from our annual conference ‘Parliaments: Coming of Age’, Eleanor Hourigan, Counsel for Human Rights and International Law at the UK Parliament, discusses how to improve parliamentary scrutiny of treaties.

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Strengthening interparliamentary relations in the UK: first steps and possible future directions

Jack Sheldon and Hedydd Phylip discuss potential improvements to interparliamentary relations among the UK’s four legislatures, in the first blog from our Parliaments: Coming of Age? conference.

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Brexit and parliamentary legitimation: beyond constitutional minutiae

David Judge writes that, while much of the discussion around Brexit and Parliament is about procedure and conventions, it should also be about the bigger picture: what does Brexit tell us about the fundamental principles of the UK’s parliamentary state and representative democracy?

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The Good Parliament Report, Brexit politics, and the Institutionalisation of a Diversity Sensitive Commons

Professor Sarah Childs discusses the implications of the parliamentary politics of Brexit, and prospects for future reforms at Westminster. 

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A leaky roof and a democratic crisis within – what better time to get serious about redesigning Westminster?

Alexandra Anderson and Alexandra Meakin discuss the flood in the Commons and the need for public engagement with the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster, in a blog originally posted on The Conversation

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Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar: (mis)connecting Brexit and the Expenses Scandal

The link between the Expenses Scandal and Brexit suggested by a new BBC documentary is not so convincing, writes Nick Dickinson, but the desire to connect the two reveals a lot about the tendency of sophisticated political observers to refuse to take certain events at face value.

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Constitutional and Territorial Governance: Inter-parliamentary Relations in the UK and Brexit

As the Brexit chaos continues, Professor Margaret Arnott discusses the constitutional issues it has posed for inter-parliamentary relations in the UK.

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Constitutional Scrutiny by Parliamentary Committee

At a time of significant structural change, the UK’s constitutional and political arrangements face unprecedented challenges. There are strong arguments to be made for increasing the level of scrutiny of constitutional reform by accountable bodies, particularly through the vehicle of the Parliamentary Select Committee.  Yet, the number of Committees tasked with examining constitutional matters has decreased; in particular, the Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee was not re-appointed following the 2015 General Election.  Drawing on a detailed case study of the work of this unique committee, Dr Eloise Ellis examines the implications of its dissolution for the parliamentary scrutiny of constitutional reform more broadly.

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How did the Government end up in contempt of Parliament?

On Tuesday 4 December the UK Government was found to be in contempt of Parliament. Dr Andrew Defty explains how this unprecedented situation occurred.