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Who are the Lib Dem spads?
No comments on Who are the Lib Dem spads?Back in July I came across this blog post from UCL’s Constitution Unit that was critical of the level of transparency around the numbers of government special advisers: ‘Return to the dark: the continuing lack of transparency over spads‘ It seems that the last official publication of the names of special advisers and their salaries was on the 19 October 2012. This despite the fact that at least ten new spads have started working for…
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Thoughts on the mass membership of political parties
I’ve been thinking a fair bit lately about the role that membership of a political party plays in the democratic process. I found that this article by Andrew Rawnsley from last month helped me to crystallise my thinking, as much for what it doesn’t say as for what it does: The numbers that add up to trouble for all political parties Here Rawnsley is astute in recognising that the underlying cause of many recent political…
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Random Thoughts: A catch up for the rest of June 2013
In this edition we have a birthday chimp, a couple of Russells, and a lot of Boyle. Another unscheduled gap in blogging and a fair bit to catch up on. Although we are (to my surprise) well in to July, here is a catch for June. This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 19 June…
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Video: Lecture by Lord O’Donnell on Building a Better Government
Former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell is spending some time as a visiting professor at the department of political science of University College London. This video is of his inaugural lecture in that post. Anyone interested the direction of public policy and the way that decisions are made in government will find it useful watching. In it he looks at what he sees as being the barriers to effective public policy and argues that to overcome them policy makers…
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Random Thoughts for 18th June 2013
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 10th June 2013 and 18th June 2013: A personal guide to the 13 most essential political podcasts | Stephen Tall Stephen gives a comprehensive guide to the podcast listening choices available for politicos. I regularly listen to a subset of these. The one addition I would make —…
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John Bercow lecture on Parliamentary reform at the University of Bedfordshire
This year the University of Bedfordshire has begun a series of public policy lectures with prominent invited speakers. I presume that driving this is the influence of the newish vice chancellor former Labour MP and government minister Bill Rammell. Last month the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, spoke about parliamentary reform. He talked about how the House of Commons had seen a revival in recent years and highlighted the importance of the…
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Voting in the Unlock Democracy Council elections
One of my tasks this morning has been filling out my ballot paper for the elections to the governing council of Unlock Democracy. This is not as easy an experience as it should be. Some months ago I received an offer to join Unlock Democracy free for a year. I have a keen interest in issues of constitutional reform and have been impressed by some of the campaigning work the organisation has done, for example…
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Speaker Bercow backs Select Committee amendments proposal
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the polite parliamentary row between two Liberal Democrat MPs, Sir Alan Beith and David Heath, over proposals to give select committees the power to table amendments to legislation in their own name. This suggestion, which would strengthen the powers of backbenchers, was supported by Sir Alan but opposed, on behalf of the Government, by David Heath. At that time Government opposition was strong enough to stop the…
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Unlock Democracy’s submission on House of Lords reform
I blogged a few weeks ago about the submission I made, via Unlock Democracy, to the consultation on the draft House of Lords reform bill. You can read what I said here. An email from Unlock Democracy tells me that my thoughts, along with those of over 4,000 other people, have been submitted to the joint committee considering this matter in a document 5,409 pages long! They have sent a shorter document that set out…
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Taking part in the House of Lords reform consultation
The official public consultation from the Joint Committee of the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill runs until 12 October and this week I have submitted my views to it. I used the simple to use process provided by Unlock Democracy that helps you to respond to the consultation. You can do the same and submit your views on Lords Reform online here This is what I said; Those who make the laws that govern…
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The Digital Economy Bill #debill
I spent a lot of yesterday evening watching the debate on the Digital Economy Bill on BBC Parliament. It was a rather depressing experience. A badly written, and quite possibly unworkable, piece of legislation with serious implications for the development of the UK’s online culture and economy, and for our civil liberties, was rammed through the House of Commons without proper scrutiny. There were some bright spots. I don’t make a habit of praising Labour…
