Tag Archives: Parliament

Who governs? Knowing your Secretary of State from your Parliamentary Private Secretary

If one were to ask a random selection of the public on any high street in the UK, who they think runs the country, while the answers would be varied and perhaps laced with a healthy dose of scepticism about … Continue reading

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Why Labour’s defeat on the Windrush motion was a victory for Parliament

This post first appeared on the blog of the Political Studies Association Specialist Group on Parliaments. It was a follow-up to my earlier post about Labour’s use of an obscure piece of parliamentary procedure to force the government to release it’s Brexit … Continue reading

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Government transparency and the appointment of Parliamentary Private Secretaries

I have written in previous posts about the rise of the so-called payroll vote, those MPs holding government jobs who would need to resign their position if they wish to vote against the government. Although the number of paid Ministerial … Continue reading

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How an arcane piece of parliamentary procedure may force the government to release its Brexit impact assessment studies

An opposition day debate last Wednesday saw the Labour Party deploy an obscure piece of parliamentary procedure which may force the government into releasing its Brexit impact studies. By means of a little-known procedure called a motion for a return, … Continue reading

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Parliamentary Private Secretaries and the irresistible rise in the payroll vote

The role of unpaid Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS) and the impact of these appointments on the size the payroll vote has been something of a preoccupation of this blog. I first wrote about the payroll vote in a post in 2013, … Continue reading

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