I put together a short briefing with David Torrance on state visits to the UK. Found out a few interesting nuggets while researching it Also includes a spreadsheet of all state visits since 1952 including addresses to Parliament commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Extending a session does bring issues, such as needing to add extra Opposition Days and days for consideration of Private Members’ Bills, which are fixed at 20 and 13 per session, respectively. Though the Government isn’t obliged to do so. All 13 PMB days have been used this session.

NEW: The government has announced that this session of parliament will last until spring 2026. Among other things, that means that the assisted dying bill has another 7-8 months to complete its passage through the Lords, increasingly the likelihood of it becoming law.

The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee published its first report of the session today on the ‘Israel-Palestine conflict’. One of their recommendations is that the UK Government “should now recognise the state of Palestine” (though it divided on this issue) committees.parliament.uk/publications...

The US State Department has not published its annual country human rights reports which are usually put out in Spring. The FCDO have not published their annual human rights report in two years. I would just like me some good up to date official sources for this stuff.

My Reception year teacher was still using ITA in 1989! And it caused me difficulties reading as I’d already learned to read using the normal alphabet before I started school. Thankfully, a new headteacher came in and made her stop using it www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Realised that the only cold drinks in my fridge currently are non-alcoholic beers. Would feel rather wrong to drink them whilst working during the middle of the day however…

We published a briefing on Iran’s nuclear programme and the ongoing Israeli-Iranian military strikes commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

EU-UK agreement on Gibraltar reached (at political level, full legal text to come) www.gov.uk/government/n...

Think this is the first time I’ve gone to a Chatham House event with protestors outside. Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s effective Prime Minister, is speaking at 11

Defence Secretary will make a statement to the House of Commons on the Strategic Defence Review around 3.30 pm First opportunity for parliamentary scrutiny Our FAQ’s briefing gives the background and links to several others that give the context commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

I published a briefing on Friday on the latest military confrontation between India & Pakistan over Kashmir. It also looks at the origins of the Kashmir dispute, international reaction to the current crisis, and analysis of how it escalated commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

You wait months for a trade deal then two come along at once…. Urgent Question on US-UK trade agreement scheduled then withdrawn- now we have a government statement on “trade negotiations”, suggesting agreement, at least in principle, has been reached

My only advice on the ongoing India-Pakistan military crisis is to take any claims by either military to the media with a large shovel of salt at first.

Those wanting to know more about the newly announced India-UK trade agreement may want to tune into Douglas Alexander’s urgent statement to the House of Commons, which should start around 4.15/4.30.

Is there a more appreciated meal than a McDonalds after post-work drinks?

Today, the House of Lords International Agreements Committee published some evidence on treaty scrutiny that I jointly wrote with @hhesterm.bsky.social committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide... (Short 🧵)

Ahead of the recall of parliament my colleague Ilze has published a briefing on the UK steel industry. Impressive work commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Next month (19 May) the UK will host a first 'EU-UK Summit', a major moment in UK government's desired 're-set' to relations For background, @stefanofella.bsky.social has produced a very useful research briefing for House of Commons Library researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CB...

Published a briefing yesterday on Myanmar’s civil war, including the effects of the March earthquake commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

They’re letting Barry Keoghan have another go at a Merseyside accent?

The Government's new legislation to change guidelines on sentencing: the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill, will have its second reading on 22 April, and all other Commons' stages on 30 April.

A bit late to this, but I note that the Government announced yesterday that the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme will go live on 1 July, and Iran and Russia, will be added to the enhanced tier, but not China. www.gov.uk/government/s...

1) NEW REPORT 🚨 'Reform of Stormont: Options for Discussion' was published by the @conunitucl.bsky.social today! Co-authored by @alanrenwick.bsky.social, @alanwhysall.bsky.social, and myself. It is free to read here: www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution...

In the context of the strategic defence review which we expect to be published soon, I've published a new briefing on the UK's tilt to the Indo-Pacific, its original ambitions & developments since including under the new Labour government commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

The uncorrected transcript of the PM's Commons statement and questions after is now up hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025... There's also an press release from Downing Street www.gov.uk/government/n...

A plug for some Commons Library briefings that might be helpful regarding the announcements today on defence & aid spending 1) a briefing looking at the reduction in UK aid spending to 0.5% of GNI, and what this has meant for aid spending commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Lots to think about in the Prime Minister’s statement just now. The announcement of a new national security strategy to be published in June is big. This will bring together the Strategic Defence Review & other “relevant reviews”. Presume this will include the China audit currently taking place

on.ft.com/3EG3xR4 Who will defend Europe?

2024 FULL YEAR UK TRADE DATA from ONS is out today Goods exports fell 5.1% 2023-2024, while imports declined 0.5%, reflecting weakness in manufacturing In contrast, services exports rose 3.4% Y-o-Y & services imports grew 3.3%, reflecting robust services output A thread...

May have to add “I’m not the junior senator for Utah” soon to my bio as starting to get more tags into posts 😝

Loved Georgina's first book - Bad Data: How Governments, Politicians and the Rest of Us Get Misled by Numbers. Looking forward to reading this one!

Work has been busy so I've been a bit quiet on here. Looks like a new influx of joiners/followers - welcome all. Follow for insights on the UK Parliament, and on international affairs/defence. I focus- if you can call it that when it's such huge swathe of the globe - on Asia & the Americas.

Hilary Benn has commissioned an independent review into the functioning of the Windsor Framework, led by former NI SoS Lord Murphy. The review was required after the consent vote in December only passed with a simple majority in the NI Assembly questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

Interesting post on Westminster Hall debates, useful material for the Modernisation Committee perhaps. Interesting to hear thoughts about the future of these debates

I missed this yesterday- Olly Robbins has been made Permanent Secretary at the FCDO www.gov.uk/government/n...

Has anyone heard anything about when the FCDO's annual human rights and democracy report is going to come out? Normally published in the summer but has been released in November/December in some years. Last one was published in July 2023. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Not the Financial Times. Is it just me that detests the term "lawmaker" for Member of Parliament/Representative etc?

Well, I’ve just learned what prorogue is in French. Au revoir Monsieur Trudeau

Of the top 50 favourite French personalities of 2024, only two are politicians…Marine Le Pen (11th place, up from 61st in 2023) and Jordan Bardella (10th, up from 30th) @ifop.bsky.social poll

Taiwan scholars: I'm updating my History and Politics of Modern China UG syllabus before term start and would like to beef up the readings on Taiwan a bit. Would love recommendations, both for more introductory texts and for more recent research.

I guess one silver lining of being quite ill and alone is I had little guilt in getting a massive amount of gelato delivered to my flat. It also helped my throat (and spirit).

You may notice that I only have a jawline on one side here- last night after a few weeks of illness my face/neck started to swell up & ache like crazy. What a lovely late Christmas present. 2024 has been the best 🙄

For the first time the responsibility for the family Christmas lunch rests in my hands (I’ve done it for my other half and friends before, but this feels like an extra level of responsibility) God speed you meaty beauties

My mum and step-dad tried to organise a quiet meal at a local restaurant, except hadn’t been told that tonight they’d put on a Dolly Parton tribute act as some extra entertainment with a deafening sound-system 😝

Trying to carry half the Christmas meal you’ve pre-prepared, all the family’s Christmas gifts and some essentials for a few days via public transport with the added fun of the badly pulled side-muscles from the awful cough you can’t shake, really gets you in that Christmas spirit 😛🎄🤡

NI Assembly approves Democratic Consent Motion for continued application of Articles 5-10 Protocol/Windsor Framework. Vote in favour was a simple majority (48 v 36), so next opportunity to vote will be 2028. aims.niassembly.gov.uk/plenary/deta...

The green benches are also present. Love a bit of bicameral action.

The red benches are now officially present on Bluesky