Parliament
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Westminster Week: Straight-ahead
Wednesday
It’s Spring Statement day, but there wasn’t much freshness in the air. The mood in the Chamber was the same. The Prime Minister had little patience for the Opposition’s questioning of education. The Chancellor was defiant in her message.
Thursday
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath backed Project Willow over Unite’s proposal for Grangemouth’s future.
“It evaluated over 300 technologies and identified nine potential technologies. We have £200 million available from the National Wealth Fund to invest.”
It’s busy up north.
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Win: Parliamentary security chief
In an exclusive for ConservativeNewsSite.com, the security chief for the Houses of Parliament has been recovered in Reading, Berkshire.
Parliamentary security chief She was abandoned by the MOD, and British Army, in the field and attempts to recover her have been long and arduous.
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Westminster Week: Wrangling
Wednesday
Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex/Conservatives) said the Chancellor is walking back on her budget, which she said was called a “once in a Parliament reset”. The Prime Minister retorted that his eight months so far after “absolute failure” by the Tories has already improved the situation, so clearly he disagrees.
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Westminster Week: Hard truths
Tuesday
Louise Haigh MP (Sheffield Healey/Labour) raised the issue of corporate accountability. Although its business ranges far and wide, she critiqued ITN for its treatment of two employees in particular.
“It is sickening that across the country women and men will have suffered abuse in their workplace and that, instead of action against the perpetrator, they are the ones who are shamed and silenced, ganged up on by lawyers and sentenced to a lifetime of regret.”
It seems oversights are made, and harms caused, by negligence, and use of legal buyouts.
Thursday
Andrew Snowden MP (Fylde/Conservatives) called Daniel Zeichner MP (Cambridge/Labour) a “Poundland Alastair Campbell”. It’s not a flattering reference, but it doesn’t matter, as long as it floats his boat.
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Westminster Week: Trying times
Monday
Iain Duncan Smith MP (Chingford & Woodford Green/Conservatives) stood up for Ukraine, stating to “split” it would be “mad”. There’s a general feeling in the Commons Ukraine needs to win.
Wednesday
Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Sussex/Conservatives)said President Zelenskyy is “keeping a cool head under very difficult circumstances”. I’m not sure she got the memo.
Thursday
Polly Billington MP (East Thanet/Labour) marked this Saturday’s International Women’s Day with the phrase “housing, housing, housing”, telling the Chamber how important it is to the welfare of women.
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Westminster Week: Take cover!
Monday
The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy MP (Tottenham/Labour), praised Ukraine for its “defiant blitz spirit” in a Ministerial Statement. His disdain for the war has been a consistent line. Today he put Putin’s war into a “Tsarist tradition” in Russian imperialism. He said “Ukraine’s security is our security”, but it’s an anxious wait.
Wednesday
Prime Minister’s Questions brought out the gusto that sometimes is Parliamentary politics. Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex/Conservatives) said the increase of defence spending announced yesterday was her idea.
The Prime Minister retorted, saying “she didn’t feature in my thinking at all”. He denied hearing about it, calling it a “desperate search for relevance” for her.
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Westminster Week: Sticking to your guns
Monday
The streets outside Westminster were busy with normal foot traffic and other activity. While the prospect of another farmer’s protest began to show, a much smaller march in favour of an Iranian figure started hours earlier.
Wednesday
It was a combative outing for Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex/Conservatives). She said Sir Keir Starmer MP (Holborn and St Pancras/Labour) doesn’t know his brief.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said she keeps to a script “that doesn’t allow adaptation”, and finds it “tedious”. It’s not just a matter of style but also substance here.
Thursday
Olivia Bailey MP (Reading West and Mid Berkshire/Labour) spoke about her own experience of abuse and shame as an LGBT+ person, saying:
“The best way to honour the LGBT+ people who have, throughout history, fought for our rights, often at great personal cost, is to never be complacent, to link arms as a community and to make it our solemn mission to ensure that Pride is not just our protest against the pernicious effects of shame, but something felt freely by every LGBT person finally allowed to just be who they are.”
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Parliament’s ‘world’ map
The makeup of Parliament is different to our perceptions. In one way it’s because of how the seats are divided up. There are a majority for English MP’s, and a sliding scale for the three remaining regions.
Seats in Parliament It affects the division of interests and power. It may appear that England gets more from its Parliament than Scotland, let’s say. This is due to having over 500 seats. Yet time is still given to the UK’s other parts.
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A Parliament of simple measures
The appearance of Parliament is raised sometimes, but not always as a compliment to its interior or exterior. The issue seems to be its “old fashioned” look, as if wood and benches don’t appeal.
If you look around, many Parliaments are the same. It’s a standard feel that makes it different, or separate, to the many other buildings which try too hard to stand out, and innovate a definition of itself.
The lack of design behind a “plain is Jane” structure in Westminster represents our way of politics. It doesn’t suit a passing type or a fad in design tech, and it’s a functional space due to it.
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Westminster Week: Ordinary business
Monday
A debate about farming isn’t a regular occurrence in the House of Commons, in that it’s also not a frequent issue of debate outside of it, either. It’s a fact we get our food, and though our tables are arrayed with more than just British beef, we’re buying more than ever.
Of course, it’s not as simple as that in market economics, and government policy is also going to have an effect, too. The trouble is who wins and who looses, and it’s on this point the party’s disagree.
Tuesday
The Parliamentary estate is a thoroughfare, and obviously so much is made of it, media make it there, too. The sight of a camera in a corner, or two, is expected on high news days.
The guess is not so much who the broadcaster is, but who’s in trouble from either House. It may a Prime Minister, but he or she are unlikely to stop by for a chat if it sounds more like a post-match analysis.
Wednesday
PMQ’s went ahead without a hitch, meaning the Conservatives had their new leader, and Labour have kept theirs. It’s good to see both spar at the dispatch box, even if it’s difficult to keep up with the politics. It appears from the start it’s going to get personal.
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Forthcoming: ‘Westminster Week’
I will be starting a new series called ‘Westminster Week’ next Friday (October 11), which aims to cover the week in Parliament. It will draw from debates in the House of Commons and cover the basics of what goes on over the four days MP’s use to discuss things.