Tag Archives: Parliament

Opinion: Cherish the independence of elected members

By Matt Burrows | Tue 2nd September 2014 - 4:38 pm

I was alarmed initially by the title of Mark Pack´s piece “Lessons from Rennard #4: who gets the party whip is a matter for the whole party”. As it turns out I find myself in agreement with much of it.

Rightly he points out that the smaller the group the more disproportionate influence one person will have. I like his suggestion of referring decisions of removal of the whip to the Federal Appeals Panel. Some scrutiny of the decision from outside parliament will be beneficial to Party and the individual. If adopted, I hope this would apply only to cases of personal misconduct.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged whip | 8 Comments

Duncan and Andrew Hames make history

By The Voice | Wed 16th July 2014 - 10:06 pm

Last week Harriet Harman said a rumour had been put round that she’d – shock horror- taken a baby through the voting lobby:

When I came back after having my first baby I was reported to the serjeant-at-arms for breaking the rules by taking my baby through the division lobby under my jacket.

What a difference 30 years makes.

Tonight, Jo Swinson tweeted:

A little bit of history… @duncanhames the first MP to take a baby into the House of Commons voting lobby during a division! #fb

— Jo Swinson (@joswinson) July 16, 2014

At least, we’re assuming that it …

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew hames, duncan hames, Jo Swinson and making history | 2 Comments

What’s on in our Parliaments next week? 7-10 April

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 5th April 2014 - 11:17 am

The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd are in recess next week, but Westminster is still sitting.

House of Commons

The Commons is still dealing with the Finance Bill, implementing the measures in the Budget. There, is however, a Justice and Home Affairs debate on Monday.

Communities & Local Government, Foreign Office, the Department of International Development (therefore Lynne Featherstene) and Business, Innovation and Skills face questions.

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged andrew george and kishwer falkner | Leave a comment

And the new Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader is…

By The Voice | Tue 28th January 2014 - 7:19 pm

…..Drum roll…..

Sir Malcolm Bruce MP.

Reaction will be added as we get it.

Update 19:53. It’s definitely a surprising result given that Lorely Burt had said when she announced her candidacy that she had 24 MPs backing her. She only needed five more to have a majority. Why could she have lost a seemingly unassailable position?

Well, Sir Malcolm Bruce is very well liked and respected. Remember what Vince Cable was like as Deputy Leader? Malcolm will not be dissimilar. He won’t always be as on message as Lorely, either. …

Posted in News | Also tagged deputy leader and malcolm bruce | 44 Comments

Should MPs be allowed to take their babies into the voting lobby?

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 9th January 2014 - 11:28 am

There’s been a bit of controversy over the issue of breastfeeding in the House of Commons and taking babies into the voting lobby sparked by comments by Jo Swinson, who gave birth to her son Andrew on 22 December. The argument goes that you can take a sword into the Commons voting lobby, but not a baby. On face value, it sounds like yet another way in which Westminster needs to be dragged into the 21st century.

Jo said to the Guardian:

“I think it’s been lovely the way people have been really supportive in parliament of my pregnancy,” she said. ” I think some of the structures of the institutions of the House of Commons probably don’t make it as easy as it could be, in particular that you don’t get maternity cover. As a minister, I get cover for my work … but nobody else will be being the MP for East Dunbartonshire.”

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged breastfeeding, david steel, featured, jenny willott and Jo Swinson | 29 Comments

What’s on in the Commons next week? 6-10 January 2014

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th January 2014 - 9:23 am

MPs return to Westminster from their Christmas holidays next week. What does the parliamentary agenda have in store for them and when are Liberal Democrat ministers in action?

On Monday, it’s Education questions, followed by the completion of Commons stages for the Water Bill. I wonder how quickly the first Blackadder reference will creep in.

On Tuesday, Nick Clegg’s in action at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions. Then the Mesothelioma Bill completes its Commons stages.

Wednesday sees the first PMQs of the year. I can’t see any prospect of this weekly pantomime becoming any less depressing. It would be so nice if our MPs …

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged house of commons | 2 Comments

EDMWatch #6 Pubs, badgers and elephants – but what about people?

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 18th December 2013 - 3:23 pm

We take an occasional look at the Early Day Motions tabled by MPs. These are basically House of Commons petition and are used to raise awareness of an issue. One of the biggest elements of an MP’s postbag or inbox is a pile of requests from supporters of a particular organisation or charity to sign a particular EDM. As a rule, ministers don’t sign EDMs.

Most popular

Winning for this session so far is our own Greg Mulholland’s EDM 57, on getting pub tenants a fair deal from breweries, signed by 166 MPs.

Now this is where I get annoyed, …

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged EDMwatch | 4 Comments

Opinion: Do you love this country?

By David Gray | Fri 6th December 2013 - 12:14 pm

One question asked by the Home Affairs Select Committee to Alan Rusbridger over the Snowden leaks should be of great concern to us all. During the often heated exchanges, Keith Vaz asked:

Do you love this country?

If we were told that in, for example, Russia, a committee of MPs were grilling a newspaper editor over his patriotic credentials, we would rightly condemn it as a worrying level of state pressure on the press. Just what were Vaz’s intentions behind that question? Would it have been held against Rusbridger if he had said ‘no’? We can only speculate. But, whether or …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alan rusbridger, keith vaz and patriotism | 32 Comments

Opinion: how much is that MP really worth?

By Mark Valladares | Fri 15th November 2013 - 9:21 am

Isn’t the free market wonderful? It allows bankers to be paid vast sums of money, yet should never be applied to the public sector. After all, heaven forfend that such people should earn a salary that reflects their market value.

In the midst of the debate about MP’s and their energy bill claims, the general view appeared to be that they earn too much anyway, and that their relative wealth makes them incapable of understanding what real people go through.

But, where is the serious discussion about what represents a realistic salary for a Member of Parliament? The usual cry of, “A …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged pay | 33 Comments

Crockart’s Nuisance Calls Bill to be debated tomorrow as All Party Group recommends action

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 31st October 2013 - 4:45 pm

Mike Crockart’s Private Member’s Bill (or the Communications (Unsolicited telephone calls and texts Bill to give it its proper name) is up for its second reading tomorrow. It’s the only Liberal Democrat measure being discussed. The Bill aims to ensure that people are not bothered by unwanted calls if they don’t want to be. The explanatory notes to the Bill are here.

By amazing coincidence, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Nuisance Calls, of which Mike is co-chair, published its report on the unsolicited marketing industry this morning. It …

Posted in News | Also tagged mike crockart, nuisance calls and private members bills | 13 Comments

Adrian Sanders MP writes…The Government must learn where it went wrong over Syria

By Adrian Sanders | Wed 4th September 2013 - 4:25 pm

The Government’s handling of the Syria crisis continues to raise more questions than it answered. I’m not sure if this is a response to the media coverage of the issue or a general surprise that the process of sanctioning military action would necessarily have to differ from that used ten years ago when invading Iraq.

Focussing on the domestic political situation, it is clear that MPs in general supported a robust response to the use of chemical weapons despite the understandable concerns of the public. The motions failed solely due to Ed Miliband’s rather devious pragmatism; something one doesn’t expect in …

Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged nick clegg and syria | 76 Comments

Lord Tom McNally writes…Liberal Democrats secure best possible deal for collaborative EU justice

By Lord Tom McNally | Mon 15th July 2013 - 6:53 pm

The Commons votes tonight on whether the government should exercise the impenetrably-named ‘EU Justice and Home Affairs mass opt-out’.

While it sounds dry and technical, this decision is hugely significant as EU ‘JHA measures’ have been crucial in securing justice for hundreds of British victims of crime. These instruments have been prominent in the extradition of attempted London bomber Hussain Osman from Italy under a European Arrest Warrant, in coordinating via Eurojust the investigation into the Annecy killings and in Europol’s EU-wide investigation, ‘Operation Veto’, into match-fixing and corruption in sport.

The mass opt-out is not an ingenious new attempt by the …

Posted in News | Also tagged conservatives, Danny Alexander, eu and justice | 8 Comments

Julian Huppert highlights “absolutely hideous” Commons bullying

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 10th July 2013 - 1:26 pm

You would think, wouldn’t you, that when an MP presents a bill on such a serious subject as protecting people from sexual assault, the House of Commons would act in a grown up fashion? After all, the shouting and jeering is all for the pantomime of PMQs, and the rest of the time people behave like cuddly teddy bears, don’t they?

Let me take you back to 21st October 2008, when Willie Rennie introduced his Bill (which eventually became law) enabling driving instructors to be suspended …

Posted in News | Also tagged julian huppert and willie rennie | 13 Comments

A victory for equality: 3 pieces of news about the same sex marriage bill

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 22nd May 2013 - 12:40 pm

I thought it might be useful to do a quick catch-up on various aspects of the parliamentary debate on same sex marriage which took place on Monday and Tuesday.

How did Liberal Democrat MPs vote on the Third Reading?

There were no huge surprises – and given that 11 had voted on an amendment, which was defeated, to give registrars an opt out from marrying same sex couples on religious grounds, the fact that only 4 actually voted against the Third Reading was better than some had expected. Simon Hughes and Tim Farron were two high profile abstainers. They clearly struggled with …

Posted in News | Also tagged julian huppert, lgbt+ lib dems and same sex marriage bill | 13 Comments

EDMwatch #1: animals, VAT on tabloids, Diabetes and Sir Alex Ferguson

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 14th May 2013 - 11:53 am

I thought it might be a good idea to introduce a new feature for the start of the shiny new parliamentary session – a regular look at the Early Day Motions tabled by MPs. These are basically House of Commons petition and are used to raise awareness of an issue. One of the biggest elements of an MP’s postbag or inbox is a pile of requests from supporters of a particular organisation or charity to sign a particular EDM. As a rule, ministers don’t sign EDMs.

You would think, wouldn’t you, that MPs could just sign them with a click of …

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged adrian sanders, EDMwatch, george galloway, john hemming, john leech and malcolm bruce | 8 Comments

Opinion: do Parliament’s laws really need Royal Assent in 2013?

By Antony Hook | Fri 5th April 2013 - 1:21 pm

The country needs to save as much money as it can. Anything we can save will help the government to balance the books.

A small but wasteful activity is the requirement for Acts of Parliament to receive Royal Assent. Many people may believe that a Bill becomes law when it is passed by both Houses of Parliament. But it is a requirement for every Bill to go before the Queen and receive her approval.

Royal Assent is usually granted a few weeks after the Bill is passed by Parliament. …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged royal assent and the queen | 38 Comments

Opinion: Why scrapping Lords Reform is ultimately a disaster for Cameron

By Nick Tyrone | Wed 8th August 2012 - 12:04 pm

Many of the more right-of-centre newspapers are declaring that the government calling time on Lords Reform is a victory for Cameron personally. Iain Martin’s piece summarises this thesis.

I would argue the precise opposite. I think the whole episode has been a disaster for Cameron and damaging to the Conservative party overall, albeit in a minor way, at least when you take the fact that their only even vaguely electable possible leader has been politically debased out of the equation.

A question that has hung around the neck of Cameron since the near miss of the 2010 election is this: would …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david cameron and lords reform | 15 Comments

Opinion: Unelected Lords are against the spirit of the European Convention on Human Rights

By Antony Hook | Wed 8th August 2012 - 9:22 am

For as long as philosophers and political campaigners have asserted that certain rights are basic, universal or inalienable, the right to elect one’s legislators has generally figured in those rights.

England’s 1689 Bill of Rights protected the right to elect Members of Parliament without interference from the Crown. In France the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man guaranteed the right to vote. In America, five separate Articles of the US Bill of Rights protect voting rights and both Houses are elected under the Constitution.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides:

Article 21

(1) Everyone has the right to take part

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged civil liberties, human rights and lords reform | 33 Comments

Paul Tyler writes… Conservative crisis, Labour leaderless

By Paul Tyler | Tue 7th August 2012 - 5:00 pm

It’s a good job I’m not a betting man, having said here in July “my bets are strongly against the Government giving up at this point”. But now we know: David Cameron’s authority within the Conservative Party is so weak that he cannot even persuade his MPs to support an agreed manifesto commitment, and a Bill unanimously supported by his Cabinet. Cameron and Osborne voted for the 80% elected component as long ago as 2003, yet this summer their right-wing backbenchers simply would not accept elections at all.

Unsurprisingly, concern for future of their own constituencies – as boundary changes …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition and lords reform | 42 Comments

Opinion: What the Tory backbench rebellion means for parliament

By Tim Leunig | Tue 7th August 2012 - 1:35 pm

Failing to get reform of the House of Lords through the Commons shows a parliamentary asymmetry. There are enough Tory backbenchers to defeat the government, but not enough Liberal Democrat backbenchers to do so. One party’s backbenchers have de facto veto power, but the other’s do not.

There are three responses to this constitutional oddity.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition agreement, lords reform and parliamentary boundary review | 18 Comments

Lib Dems should back a judge-led inquiry into financial scandal

By Stephen Tall | Wed 4th July 2012 - 10:55 pm

I get why the Tories are opposed to a judge-led inquiry into the scandalous rate-rigging practices employed by Barclays and other banks: their experiences of the Leveson Inquiry show how scandals, even ones that blend across the red/blue parties, have a habit of rebounding on the government of the day.

I get why Labour are in favour of a judge-led inquiry: so complicit were Labour (and Ed Balls in particular) in the catastrophic financial mess of the last few years, of which the banks are just one part, that they are desperate to appear transparent in the hope the inquiry will rebound on the government of the day.

But I don’t get why the Lib Dems are lining up with the Tories to oppose a judge-led inquiry.

Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged banking, bob diamond, featured, finance and leveson inquiry | 58 Comments

Jo Swinson MP says “Let’s Fix Parliament”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th June 2012 - 6:56 pm

Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson has today sent out an e-mail to Liberal Democrat members and supporters asking them to spread the word about the need for Lords Reform on the day the Bill was published. This is what she had to say:

Did you know that only the UK and Lesotho allow people to inherit seats in Parliament? In the 21st century, that’s simply embarrassing, and it has to end.

We can only do this with your help. Today, the Bill for an elected House of Lords has been published. Over the coming weeks I’ll be asking you

…

Posted in News | Also tagged Jo Swinson and lords reform | 13 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 15 January 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 15th January 2010 - 12:25 pm

Welcome, Daily Viewers, to January 15th – and a public engagement special.

A year ago today US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing into New York’s Hudson River. Eyewitness Janis Krums took this famous photo of the plane (right) and immediately shared it with the internet via Twitter, thus proving the website could be used for so much more than telling the world what you had for breakfast. (The only twitpic photo that’s come close since then was of a fox on the London Underground, but I live in hope and carry a camera…)

And as Mark reminds us, today’s a very good day for having your say on MPs’ expenses.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

A vote for ‘None of the above’ is a vote for pusillanimity

Adam Bell at Decline of the Logos: from fence-sitting to barricading the streets.

Enquiries and the state of Brown’s trousers – a historical note

MKNE political information looks at public protest, 1812-style.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Engaging Stories

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged adam bell, eric pickles, janis krums, mps expenses, power2010, tom brake, twitpic and twitter | 1 Comment

So, why can’t you call yourself an MP?

By Mark Pack | Thu 17th December 2009 - 10:26 am

The rules against people calling themselves an MP usually get a flurry of publicity in the run-up to a general election. Indeed, it’s part of the pre-election “Will it be an internet election this time?” tradition to have a story about how “MPs who use face disaster because they’ve called themselves an MP”.

This time round it’s been Twitter, with the story that MPs who have chosen a Twitter username containing “MP” will run into problems as they officially stop being MPs when Parliament is dissolved for a general election. So if they tweet during the campaign as if …

Posted in Election law | Also tagged featured and twitter | 5 Comments

LibLink … Nick Clegg: Don’t waste our time… bring forward real reform

By The Voice | Mon 16th November 2009 - 10:30 am

In today’s Independent, Nick Clegg makes a bold pitch – that Parliament should use the few months it has left before the election to try and actually achieve something to solve the big political issue of the year: restoring the public’s trust in Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:

On Wednesday, all the pomp and ceremony that Parliament can muster will be rolled out for the Queen’s Speech, setting out the Government’s list of new laws for the coming year. But the glitz and glamour will be based on a complete fiction. Parliament will find it difficult to pass any of the

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged mps expenses, nick clegg and queen's speech | 14 Comments

Ros Scott writes… Party President’s report to members, October ‘09

By Baroness Ros Scott | Wed 4th November 2009 - 5:15 pm

October was a month which began for me in India and ended in Cairo. I had been invited to India by the Indian High Commission along with a small delegation of Parliamentarians who are “Liberal Democrat Friends of India”. We were led by Lord John Alderdice through a week’s visit which was split between Delhi and Pune and included a number of meeting and visits to reflect India today, politically, socially and economically.

I was in Cairo for three days to attend the Congress of Liberal International, which is held every 18 months. The Lib Dem delegation is led by the Party President, but all the work is done by the Chair of the International Relations Committee, who is Robert Woodthorpe Brown. It’s a pretty humbling experience to hear from campaigners who risk their life and liberty for working to make democratic change in oppressive regimes, and certainly puts domestic politics into perspective.

In between the two, Parliament resumed after the summer recess, and I’ve been busy in the Lords with voting, select committee work and a few speeches. The expenses issue continues to rumble.

Posted in Op-eds and Party Presidency | Also tagged bedford, chief officers group, dave hodgson, expenses, federal executive, federal policy committee, international relations committee and robert woodthorpe brown | 1 Comment

NEW POLL: How should the Lib Dems increase their number of female MPs?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 21st October 2009 - 7:40 pm

At the Speaker’s Conference yesterday, Nick Clegg delivered a frank assessment of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party, calling it “woefully unrepresentative of modern Britain”. It’s not hard to see why. No ethnic minority MPs, and just nine female MPs among our 63 representatives. Woeful is the word.

The real question is: what to do about it? Nick has previously indicated – and repeated the point in his submission yesterday – that he would consider recommending all-women shortlists be adopted by the party after the next election if he’s unable to point to real progress in improving the Parliamentary party’s representativeness. …

Posted in Voice polls | Also tagged all-women shortlists, equalities and featured | 60 Comments

Nick Clegg – “Parliament houses a shooting gallery but not a creche”

By The Voice | Tue 20th October 2009 - 10:20 pm

Today witnessed the appearance of Nick Clegg (as well as Gordon Brown and David Cameron) in front of the Speaker’s Conference, chaired by the new Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.

The issue this special committee has been asked to look at is: “Consider, and make recommendations for rectifying, the disparity between the representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the House of Commons and their representation in the UK population at large”.

You can watch Nick give his views and answer questions on the Parliament website here (his part begins about 48 …

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged commons speaker, equalities, john bercow and nick clegg | 7 Comments

Why does one Labour MP claim £80k more in expenses than another MP living on the same street?

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th March 2009 - 8:55 am

The two Labour MPs for Luton, Kelvin Hopkins and Margaret Moran live on the same street in Luton. You could argue over whether or not they should be able to claim a second homes allowance. But what’s really rum is that whilst Kelvin Hopkins has claimed £8,894 from the second homes allowance in the last five years, which could be for reasonable occasional costs such as the odd night in a hotel after a very late night at work, his near-neighbour Margaret Moran has claimed nearly ten times as much: £87,206. Is that really right?

Hat tip – Duncan Borrowman.

Posted in News | Also tagged kelvin hopkins and margaret moran | 9 Comments

Op-eds

Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
As a party we must be better defined for the 2029 general election (Chris Bowers)
From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)
We do have a two tier system, Part 2 (Neil Hickman)
A Federal Britain: 3. Fiscal Federalism and a complete constitutional settlement (Iain Donaldson)

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