-
Recent Posts
- Parliamentary Private Secretaries and the payroll vote under Boris Johnson
- Watching from the wings: the role of the PM’s PPS in a socially distanced House of Commons chamber
- An increasingly costly resource: are special advisers value for money?
- Can the Independent Group of MPs survive?
- How did the Government end up in contempt of Parliament?
Archives
- October 2020
- July 2020
- April 2020
- March 2019
- December 2018
- October 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- July 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
Tags
- Attlee
- Blair
- Brexit
- Cabinet
- Cameron
- Civil Service
- Conservatives
- Constitution
- Corbyn
- devolution
- elections
- empire
- essay prize
- EU referendum
- Europe
- European Parliament
- Executive
- gender inequality
- general election
- Intelligence
- Intelligence and Security Committee
- Johnson
- judicial review
- local government
- May
- monarchy
- NATO
- nuclear weapons
- Parliament
- payroll vote
- PMQs
- Police & Crime Commissioners
- Political Parties
- Poll
- PPS
- Press
- Privy Council
- religion
- Scotland
- Special Advisers
- textbook review
- Thatcher
- The media
- UKIP
- Whips
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The seemingly inexorable rise of the special political adviser
This post first appeared on the Democratic Audit blog in December 2018. Every year since 2010, usually at around this time of year, the Government publishes a list of special advisers and their salaries. The latest data release, which took … Continue reading
The pastoral role of the Party Whips
This post first appeared on the PSA Parliaments Group blog on 7 November 2018. In a recent interview in The Sunday Times, the Conservative MP, Andrew Griffiths, discussed the circumstances which led him to send a series of sexually explicit … Continue reading
In praise of the PM’s Parliamentary Private Secretary
I have become transfixed by Prime Minister’s Questions, but not by the weekly joust between the PM and the Leader of the Opposition. I am fascinated, instead, by what is going on just over the Prime Minister’s right shoulder. The MP sitting just behind … Continue reading
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
Choosing a politics textbook
Choosing a textbook for your first year politics course can be a daunting prospect, as much for those delivering the course as for students embarking on a degree in politics. As I write this a pile of no less than eight different politics text books … Continue reading