I continue to be amazed by the House’s thoroughness in compiling its precedents.

On Thursday, MPs will hold this year's private members' bills ballot. Supporters of the assisted dying bill will hope to bring the bill back - allowing them to override the Lords using the Parliament Acts. But they face 4 challenges. My article ⬇️ theconversation.com/can-the-assi...

It's kind of wild to me that the only share buttons Gov.uk offers are for X and Facebook. After *everything*. It's even on Govt press releases excoriating Grok and social media abuse

The motion for the Address can be amended. The Speaker may select up to four amendments for debate and decision. Of these, one amendment may be moved on the penultimate day of the debate, and up to three more on the final day.

A bit easier to scroll: statutes.org.uk/site/the-sta... #LegalHistory

Norman Tebbit featured his venison experiences in his recipe book (he had to hang it in the bathroom?!), and I cannot quite get my head around the idea of Norman Tebbit writing a recipe book. labourlist.org/2009/07/norm...

Happy birthday to Margaret Calvert, designer for much of the UK road signage system. 90 today! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margare...

speaking of State Openings, back in 2022 @pseaward.bsky.social and I tried to find the earliest instance of the "government whip held as a hostage" story, and couldn't trace it earlier than the 70s. A little advance - here it is in 1966.

Labour's processes for changing leader are hopelessly, catastrophically unsuited to government. More than half of all prime ministers since 1945 have taken over between general elections. This is not an unusual procedure. So it really matters when parties screw this system up... 🧵

One wonders how many of these submissions the Prime Minister will be signing in the days to come.

Just going to leave this excellent podcast episode with @robertsaunders.bsky.social here. No particular reason.😂 But worth a listen tonight, because the person in the office is only part of the problem. www.hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliam...

I've had a look here at the investigations into the £5m donation, which includes a best guess at what's going to happen. (It's free. I may put more longer thoughts on here. Let me know if that's of interest. Or if you're substacked-out.) publicsectorlawyer179.substack.com/p/the-farage...

BRIEFING | Assisted dying bill: How could the Parliament Act be used? With a new session next week, there is much speculation about the assisted dying bill's return and the potential use of the Parliament Act. Our new briefing looks at the procedures and challenges involved. 🧵

For all those who don't know how New Zealand got PR by accident.

This is definitely worth a read. Would add a couple of further suggestions: 1. On parly procedure, giving less control of the Order Paper to the executive, so MPs have greater ability to choose what they want to debate 2. Better public education about what MPs do (and what we want them to do!)

This is brilliant.

Specialised Committee on the Implementation of the Windsor Framework meets tomorrow, 7 May 2026, for first meeting this year. Among agenda items, views on extent to which EU Cyber Resilience and AI Acts should be added to Windsor Framework Dynamic alignment commission.europa.eu/document/dow...

Well, I’m at the village fair and the first thing I have seen is this memorial bench to The Prodigy’s Keith Flint (genuinely) in the churchyard. Apparently there has been local controversy. The vicar has vigorously defended it.

Painful but true. "May the Fourth Be With You" was originally a Tory campaign slogan, coined for Margaret Thatcher on election day in May 1979...

For a time I worked in a shared office space. Various companies each had a floor. The gents was on the back stairs, and sound travelled. Once heard someone a couple of floors below on the phone saying "Technically, we haven't laundered any blood diamonds".

If I had to say what I think is the most important thing happening in British politics right now, I’d say it’s the following phenomenon, explained here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvhI... With huge thanks to @yougov.co.uk @martamiori.bsky.social and @itvnews.bsky.social Please share! Thank you!

It is very funny/pleasing to discover that @theyworkforyou.com’s scraping of parliament.uk back in 2004–6 is now a source of the official Parliament record of those times. As the person who has to manually fix Hansard XML most mornings, not so sure about that “modern Hansard format” though ;-)

Hansard’s complete record of parliamentary proceedings is now available online 📚 Browse the official report ➡️ hansard.parliament.uk/commons

Of the 8 Royal Assent-related submissions I received from the MoJ, 5 of them have been emended. Reorderings are the most common type of alteration, but there are also instances of bills being struck out because they didn't pass in time. 2/2

Tynwald Hill - where Isle of Man laws are promulgated on Tynwald Day!

As someone researching and teaching how Parliament operates, and with a decade of working in/for the Commons/MPs beforehand, this is something I worry about. Parliament is an incredible place to be, but getting institutionalised is real. Thanks for putting it so concisely @alexparsons.bsky.social

A great example of mandarinese. “Unusual but not irregular.” “Less than totally candid.” bsky.app/profile/andr...

Fun fact: The Elvis impersonator who was arrested for sending ricin to Obama often recommended my work on Facebook. Fortunately (for me!), he was innocent. A different Elvis impersonator sent the ricin to frame the innocent Elvis impersonator b/c the latter falsely claimed to be a member of Mensa.

"Very" usually works as an intensifier, adding extra force to the adjective it precedes. But sometimes it can have the opposite effect, implying "not completely".

In the latest episode of Parliament Matters, we talk to lobby journalist Tony Grew (aka @PARLYapp) about the PMs political crisis. Listen & subscribe on Apple, Spotify, You Tube or wherever else you get your podcasts: buff.ly/RDm2cVi

Just when you think he cannot get any more Ganesh www.ft.com/content/d599...

This is excellent from the @danielgover QMUL’S expert on the murky world of PMBs. Don’t always agree with him as a former PMB whip for the government - but his authority on the subject is beyond doubt. Very good analysis.

Some ways that judges in England and Wales are using AI – from a speech today by Sir Colin Birss, Chancellor of the High Court www.judiciary.uk/speech-by-th... #legaltech #genAI

Having a full day’s debate on a second-degree amendment* to a motion that the House resolve itself into a 🐄 is truly wonderful.

Gorilla-boxing deserves to enter the canon, now that few people remember Pyrrhus or his victory.

Died #OnThisDay 1837 John Blackburne, Liberal MP for Huddersfield, 1834-7. He had played an important role in the reform of municipal government in 1835. There’s more about this new system of local elections in this blog from our editor Philip Salmon: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/1...

reviewed London Falling, a moving and well-told story that does not really match the marketing. foreignpolicy.com/2026/04/17/p...

Great story. A v good friend was DV'd for the FCO years ago. One question was: "does your wife have expensive tastes?". Answer: "Yes, but she works in banking and earns far more than I do". He passed.

Fortunately the attention span of minors these days is strictly limited to 1:30

🎧 NEW PODCAST Dynamic alignment & Henry VIII powers: What will the Government’s EU reset mean for Parliament? Why has the Ecclesiastical Committee blocked Church of England reforms? Is it wise to prorogue Parliament for two weeks given global tensions? Link in next post👇

There was also a logistical reason why a broad power of secondary legislation was favoured under s2(2) ECA 1972. Dynamic alignment may leave little room for legislative manoeuvring. Parliament may thus have to pass Bills where amendments are difficult/impossible. A bad use of its limited time.

New Commons Library briefing: recent trends on Written parliamentary questions from MPs commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Later today the Procedure Committee is hearing from a Conservative Shadow Minister and the Lib Dem Chief Whip on Written Parliamentary Questions (WPQs). The Hansard Society submitted evidence to this inquiry – here’s what we found 🧵 www.hansardsociety.org.uk/publications...

There’s a lot of confusion right now among journalists and MP about secondary legislation and what a possible EU deal would mean. A quick thread to clear a few things up on votes, Henry VIII powers & parliamentary scrutiny. 🧵 1/ First: what is a “normal parliamentary vote”?

Chess: "the game of 64 squares" www.thetimes.com/article/8af3...

I don't know if this counts but I love the fact that helicopter isn't from "heli" and "copter" but "helico" and "pter". Something satisfyingly odd about that.

This is really good. My experience of driving through secondary legislation in government was that the blockers were (a) availability of legal drafting resource and (b) Ministerial bandwidth to sign off minor amends. /1

Why does so much of Whitehall move so slowly?