17:43 UK time, Friday, 2 December 2011
Another week of legislative feast (or force-feeding) in the Lords, and famine in the Commons, peers continue their long march through various government mega-bills, while MPs twiddle their thumbs and while away the hours in general debates, backbench debates and opposition days.
This is pretty much how things will remain until the end of this parliamentary year with only the prospect of the budget and occasional flurries of Lords amendments to divert MPs from their torpor.
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09:53 UK time, Thursday, 1 December 2011
Are we about to see Devolution Mark II? Is Westminster about to hand significant power back to the great cities of England?
Parliament has passed two bills which could reshape our politics in a very important way. The Localism Act will require the 12 biggest cities in England to hold referenda to consider a switch to elected executive Mayors - the result could be a Boris-type figure in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Wakefield . The Police Reform Act will require elections for Police Commissioners for every force in England and Wales, outside London. And suddenly there will be major decision-makers outside Westminster. (Oh, and there's an interesting rumour going around that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is toying with suggesting that the Chair of National Park authorities should also be elected.)
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11:52 UK time, Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Is this getting silly or what?
Hardly a day goes by in the Commons without ex-ministers from the Blair and Brown years condemning Coalition ministers for announcing new policies in the media rather than to the House. They were, of course, members of governments that, er, announced policies in the media rather than to the House on an almost daily basis - and the current ministers they now condemn used to condemn them, just as righteously for doing what they, themselves, do now.
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13:51 UK time, Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Two big issues, the extradition laws and the operations of pub companies look likely to be debated soon in the Commons - after today's session of the Backbench Business Committee.
MPs are clearly learning how to use the new system of backbench debates and, in both these cases, it was clear that the debates were part of a wider strategy to push the particular causes.
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16:15 UK time, Friday, 25 November 2011
With all the legislative heavy lifting being done by Their Lordships, business in the Commons in the forthcoming week seems, mostly, to be designed to keep the Devil from finding work for MPs' idle hands.
The glaring exception is Tuesday's Autumn Statement by the Chancellor - of which more below. Other than that, we have opposition day debates, backbench debates and general debates with the possibility of the odd bunch of Lords' amendments to assorted bills to process. And that will be the pattern until the end of the current Parliamentary year, in April. Still there are some very good committee hearings in prospect.
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10:51 UK time, Friday, 25 November 2011
One of the most impressive things going on in Parliament at the moment is a small all-party group's efforts to create an anti-stalking law for England and Wales, along the lines of legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament.
I've reported on the work of the group a couple of times for Radio 4's Today in Parliament, and there's another instalment on tonight's programme (11.30pm, BBC Radio 4 - available as a podcast here - scroll down towards the bottom of the page). The group is concerned that the law is not effective in preventing people being targeted by individuals who become fixated on them, in campaigns of harassment and violence. Some of the evidence taken from victims, and the families of murdered victims, has been horrific. I was particularly chilled by story told by a woman who was sent a picture of a noose, accompanied by the text message "not long now, my flower." But the litany of intimidation, violence, cyber-stalking, arson and, eventually, murder, combined with the indifference or impotence of the Police and Courts, made a powerful case both for stronger laws and a change of attitude by the authorities.
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11:45 UK time, Thursday, 24 November 2011
Déjà vu all over again in the House of Lords, as peers launched their consideration of yet another controversial mega-bill.
This time it is the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, and it's clear from the speeches in Monday's Second Reading debate that a lot of peers are distinctly unhappy about much of the content. The need to find compromises and soothe concerns will tax even the political skills of the wily Justice Minister, Lord McNally, not least because most of his Liberal Democrat colleagues looked pretty green around the gills about cuts to legal aid, which, critics say, will restrict access to justice.
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14:36 UK time, Friday, 18 November 2011
Refreshed by their short break, MPs and Peers return, teeth agleam, to the fray, next week.
It's rather a slow week in the Commons with general debates, backbench debates and opposition days, rather than heavy duty legislating. The Commons has sent most of its big bills on to the Lords, and will have little in the way of lawmaking to do until amended versions of those bills start being sent back for their perusal (although there are some promising-looking select committee sessions). But over in the Lords, Peers are wrestling with some very big bills indeed.
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11:59 UK time, Wednesday, 16 November 2011
The Government is beginning to think it has created* a monster.
First the Backbench Business Committee began scheduling Commons debates on unwelcome issues like circus animals, and High Speed 2. Then the Speaker made it clear the Government would not automatically be able to put down official amendments to backbench motions. Then came e-petitions - and ministers had to face controversial debates on Hillsborough, and EU referendum and, most recently, fuel duty.
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16:16 UK time, Friday, 11 November 2011
Parliament has a mini half-term this week, with MPs sitting only on Monday and Tuesday, and peers lingering a day longer.
With the continuing drama in Europe there have been some voices (Tory awkward squaddie Peter Bone) suggesting they might have to be recalled to Westminster to debate the latest euro-trauma, but the Leader of the House, Sir George Young, points out that they normally need 48 hours' notice for a recall - so it's likely they'll have to wait until the week after, to discuss whatever events unfold.
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13:27 UK time, Wednesday, 9 November 2011
It's pretty rare to make witnesses to Commons select committees swear to tell the truth, but on Monday a civil servant was required to do so by the Public Accounts Committee. Anthony Inglese, one of the most senior lawyers in the civil service was made to swear an oath on an actual Bible, and warned he must tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, as the PAC probed the tax deals made between HMRC and big companies including Vodaphone and Goldman Sachs.
Later this week James Murdoch appears before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee - with some MPs concerned about evidence heard in the course of their earlier inquiry into phone hacking. What happens if they decide that is indeed the case?
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17:31 UK time, Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Another week, another controversial Commons debate on an e-petition. A petition calling for a debate on immigration and the prospect that, within 20 years, there may be 70 million people living in Britain, was put to the Commons Backbench Business Committee today, by a delegation headed by Labour's Frank Field. The committee doesn't have any debating time to award at the moment, but it is minded to hold the debate on the first available chamber day - likely to be in January.
Another e-petition, on the case of Baba Ahmad, will be discussed during a backbench debate on extradition already scheduled for Westminster Hall on Thursday 24 November.
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15:21 UK time, Friday, 4 November 2011
It may be that this week's biggest excitement comes not from the scheduled business but from statements and urgent questions on the unfolding euro crisis.
The Commons opens for business at 2.30pm on Monday, with an hour of questions to Home Secretary Theresa May and her team. There will then be a statement from the prime minister (at about 3.30pm) on the outcome of the Cannes G20 summit - and whatever whacky developments have occurred in the euro financial crisis, since the last ministerial statement on Thursday. Watch out for questions and, later, points of order to the Speaker, on any move to increase Britain's subscription to the IMF - seen as a possible backdoor method of contributing to the bailout of stricken eurozone countries. If the government doesn't propose a vote Eurosceptic Tories may well try to bring the issue to the floor of the House, and intriguingly, there are suggestions that Labour might oppose the move, as well. Then MPs consider the vast numbers of amendments made by their lordships to the Localism Bill. Both Houses have to approve every bill in the same form before it can become an act - and plenty of controversy remains.
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16:52 UK time, Thursday, 3 November 2011
Even while yesterday's armistice remains in force, (see previous post ) there's plenty more fun to come in the Lords on the Health and Social Care Bill. Wednesday's decision not to force a vote on Baroness Shirley Williams' amendment on the powers of the health secretary has kept the issue in play - with the aim of forging a compromise in behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Many peers are worried about a lack of accountability for £120bn of public spending, and others harbour deep suspicions that the real government agenda is back-door privatisation. Whatever the reason there is now a considerable head of steam behind finding a compromise, and the government clearly calculates that it will not be able to keep its current wording intact - which was why it was prepared to support Lord Mackay's attempt at a compromise wording.
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15:57 UK time, Thursday, 3 November 2011
Nearly a century later than she would have hoped, Viscountess Rhondda has finally entered the House of Lords - in a manner of speaking. A portrait of the suffragette and women's rights activist, has gone on display in the Lords' Royal Gallery - where peers will be able to admire it until Christmas.
Margaret Haig Thomas inherited her title from her father, a Liberal politician and industrialist, in 1918, when women were not allowed to enter the House of Lords.
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16:57 UK time, Wednesday, 2 November 2011
Peace has broken out in the Lords debate on the Health and Social Care Bill - at least for a while. A series of amendments about the key issue of the responsibility of the health secretary for the NHS in England have been shelved while all involved negotiate to try and find a compromise.
Critics - including the Lib Dem Lady (Shirley) Williams, say the bill would shuffle constitutional responsibility for the health service onto an unelected body - the NHS Commissioning Board - a mega quango which would control the health service's budget. Lady Williams' amendment would have restated that the "duty to provide" NHS services lay with the health secretary. That amendment was not moved this afternoon, and neither was the compromise proposal from Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the former Lord Chancellor - which made the health secretary a kind of backstop with ultimate responsibility in the event of an "emergency, failure or breach".
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17:21 UK time, Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Last Monday may have been the Commons' Backbench Business Committee's finest hour so far - with national attention, political turmoil and half a million viewers on BBC Parliament, for its debate on an EU referendum - but it has its troubles.
Today's bidding session for the two slots in the chamber of the Commons available to the committee on the 8th and 15th of November demonstrated the pressures it faces. The Conservative Robert Halfon, backed up by a formidable online petition, wanted a debate on cutting fuel prices. It was, he pointed out, a very big issue - with soaring fuel prices squeezing family budgets and businesses across the land.
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17:42 UK time, Friday, 28 October 2011
After this week's dramas, a rather more humdrum Westminster week is in prospect. One peculiarity is that, while there is a lot of legislative heavy lifting to be done in the Lords, the Commons is mostly dealing with the loose ends and final stages of bills. Which gives MPs time for backbench debates, opposition days and general debates on a variety of subjects, while their lordships are furiously chewing their way through all manner of big, complicated bills, crammed with contentious issues.
(Someone commented on last week's post that it would be a good idea to include more details of timings; I'm happy to oblige, with the caveat that much of the timetable for the main chambers of the Commons and the Lords is subject to disruption by government statements or urgent questions. If the Speaker approves either of these, the timings for subsequent business are pushed back. Normally they are taken immediately after question time.)
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14:56 UK time, Thursday, 27 October 2011
There's a narrative that says all our MPs are mere robots, playthings of the whips and party hacks. Even Monday's huge Conservative rebellion hasn't dispelled this idea - because of the far huger vote in favour of the government's position.
But the whole business of whips and rebels set me to pondering an MP's duties. Uber rebel Douglas Carswell dislikes the term "rebel", since he believes he is doing his duty, by voting his conscience, and is not defying legitimate authority. But whatever term one uses, he and the others had to resolve the classic conflict of loyalties which faces any party politician. Whether it is student funding or the NHS Bill in this Parliament, or the Iraq war in the Blair years, or the Maastricht Treaty under Major, MPs eventually face a conflict between what their leadership want them to do, and their personal beliefs - and sometimes the strong beliefs of their constituents.
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17:17 UK time, Wednesday, 26 October 2011
I'm told the Labour Chief Whip, Rosie Winterton, will make a statement today on the ugly row currently engulfing the Scottish Affairs Select Committee - where SNP member Dr Eilidh Whiteford is accusing the chair, Labour's Ian Davidson, of "inappropriate and unacceptable conduct".
Mr Davidson is accused of threatening to give Dr Whitehead "a doing" if discussions in a private session of the committee were leaked to the media. And although, she says, he approached her afterwards to make clear he was not making a sexual threat, she's boycotting the committee while he remains in the chair. Mr Davidson is not commenting, but other Labour sources dismiss the claim as a smear.
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