Launch of Exploring Parliament textbook at the House of Commons
Tag: UK Parliament
Meg Russell and Philip Cowley discuss Anthony King’s seminal 1976 article ‘Modes of executive–legislative relations: Great Britain, France and West Germany’.
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.
In the latest blog from our Legislatures in Uncertain Times conference, Anikka Weerasinghe and Graeme Ramshaw discuss the work of communications professionals within the UK Parliament.
In a new Political Studies article David Judge and Cristina Leston-Bandeira identify non-elected officials rather than elected members as those who ‘speak for’ and ‘act for’ parliaments as institutions most often. In this post, originally posted on The Constitution Unit, they discuss this paradox and some of their key findings in relation to the UK parliament.
The Lord Speaker’s Committee on the Size of the House of Lords, has recommended moving to a chamber of no more than 600 members, appointed for 15-year terms. This follows years of controversy about the growing size of the Lords, which currently stands at over 800. In a post originally published on The Constitution Unit, Sir David Beamish, formerly the most senior official in the House of Lords, argues that the proposals offer the best opportunity for years for some small progress on the knotty issue of Lords reform.
There are over 600 All Party Parliamentary Groups in the Westminster Parliament. Dr Paul EJ Thomas discusses the monetary and in-kind support these informal groups receive, and their role in the policy-making process.
August was filled with newspaper stories about the repair works to Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, and the temporary silencing of the chimes of Big Ben. In a blog originally posted on the PSA Insights blog, PSA Parliaments Communications Officer, Alexandra Meakin, argues that this media coverage poses a concern for the future of the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster programme.
When witnesses appear before select committees, Hansard records their words – but not their expressions. In a blog originally posted on Democratic Audit, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey (LSE), analysed nonverbal behaviour in 12 economic policy committee hearings, including some in which George Osborne gave evidence. In some of the hearings with Osborne, he appears to be smirking; in others, his smiles appear genuine. She argues that gestures, expressions and tone may be pivotal in whether a policymaker’s arguments are accepted.
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Data in Parliament? It’s complicated…
By Michael Smethurst and Ben Worthy
We’re the data and search team in the Parliamentary Digital Service. We’re currently working on:
- Building a data platform to power the website. [1]
- Designing and developing a data model that properly ties together parliamentary people, processes and outputs.
- Improving search internally and externally.
This is easy to write but difficult to do. Mainly because it’s complicated.