Commons

  • Westminster Week: Risky business

    Tuesday

    With the PM in the crosshairs for his appointment of Peter Mandelson, MP’s discuss the appropriate course of action, laying out an appearance to the Privileges Committee on the table. It may seem a polite way to seek to understand someone’s conduct to those outside, but it counts as a sort of review of performance so far for insiders. This isn’t always convenient, and government media managers would hate having even more work to do at present.

    *

    The PM survives a vote, showing that he’s got some support in there, even if some Labour MP’s and many others just want him out. This is political opportunism. Now he’s shown an ability to dodge a bullet.

    Wednesday

    It’s a tale of two cities. The Leader of the Opposition thinks the Prime Minister has hollowed out the budget for a welfare power grab, and the Prime Minister says she bungled her own response to the Iran conflict, leaving her voters at risk. This is tough stuff.

    Parliament is prorogued.

  • Prime Minister’s Questions

  • 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.