For those interested in how often MPs vote against their own party, the website revolts.co.uk is back in action. There was a break because of the period of funding coming to an end, but the site, run primarily by Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart, has resumed service. It has proved invaluable over the years to…
The parties have begun what amounts to a long election campaign. There has to be an election before early June at the latest. The assumption is that the election will be on 6 May. That means that the number of parliamentary legislative days between now and dissolution is limited. However, within the Palace the legislative…
At the beginning of each year, I table a question to find out how many items of post were received in the Palace of Westminster in the preceding year. The answer to this year’s question produced some interesting figures, certainly compared with last year’s. In 2008, a total of 4,135,144 items of post were received…
I’m posting the quiz slightly ahead of time again this week. I am in the middle of two days of intense interviewing for Thouron Scholarships, so it is a choice between posting the quiz this evening or tomorrow night. I thought I would make use of the Thouron scholarship as the basis for one of the…
The Constitution Committee took evidence yesterday as part of its current inquiry into referendums. We heard from Peter Facey, of Unlock Democracy, and Peter Kellner, of YouGov, and then from Stuart Weir, of the Democratic Audit, and Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, who is undertaking a study of deliberative democracy. What was interesting, and unexpected,…
