Does the House of Commons need to change to reflect a more fragmented politics? On 19 January, join @elliechowns.bsky.social, @courtenayilbert.bsky.social and @louisevthompson.bsky.social to discuss smaller parties in the Commons at our free, online event. Sign up 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo....

It will be interesting to see how this case fits into the comparative explanations for why reforms to reduce assembly size are introduced, e.g. Jacobs and Otjes (2015) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

So because everything can be a ~ teachable moment ~ if you're nerdy enough, let's learn about Speaker Denison's rule-- a convention established in the nineteenth by (you guessed it) a Speaker of the Commons called John Denison.

✏️ Jessica Benton Cooney from Inter Pares writes about the fantastic Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments, developed by PSA Parliaments stalwart @estrangeirada.bsky.social & Juliet Ollard (International Parliament Engagement Network). 📖 Read it here: bit.ly/48mNlPW

🙏 Thank you so much from the PSA Parliaments committee to everyone who contributed and attended! 🎉 Introducing you to our soon-to-be Co-Convenor @rickwhitaker.bsky.social… 🫡 That’s us all signing off for 2025! 🤠 See you in the New Year! #PSAParl25

🎉 We were delighted to announce at the conference that our very own Lauren Martin passed her PhD viva!! A huge congratulations to Dr Martin! 📸 Here she is with her external examiner—the wonderful @estrangeirada.bsky.social!

@psa-parliaments.bsky.social thank you to the convenors of the group, especially a big shout-out to @gracecooper1.bsky.social for organising both the venue and the events over the two days!

Our Parliaments Specialist Group's annual conference has come to a close! Thank you to all that came and everyone who contributed to the discussions during the panels and the events.

✨ @juliennavarro.bsky.social from @univcatholille.bsky.social is wrapping up our conference with his presentation on the electoral payoff for parliamentary performance in France 🇫🇷 #PSAParl25

🗣️ Alex Prior is now speaking to his paper on theatricality and visibility in the @houseofcommons.parliament.uk #PSAParl25

➡️ @ewanrobo.bsky.social from @uoe-sps.bsky.social is now presenting his paper on stakeholder patterns in committees of the Spanish and Catalan parliaments 💥 Ewan works within the SPARK project: www.project-spark.net #PSAParl25

🗣️ Our final panel is up now looking at Knowledge and Legislative Performance in parliaments 🤔 @marcgeddes.uk from @uoe-sps.bsky.social is up first, critically reviewing parliaments and the role of knowledge #PSAParl25

🗣️ Our panel on Legislative Processes and Scrutiny is being rounded up by @jackliddall16.bsky.social from @cam.ac.uk with his research on scrutiny of intergovernmental relations in the UK 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #PSAParl25

✨Our fourth paper on this panel, delivered by Methmini Wijesinghe, explores legislative scrutiny processes in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 #PSAParl25

🗣️ Kubra Aslan from @york.ac.uk speaks to her research on opposition obstruction in Turkey 🇹🇷 #PSAParl25

✨Now @lisajames.bsky.social from @ucl.ac.uk and @conunitucl.bsky.social is updating us on her research into Conservative governments and @houseoflords.parliament.uk defeats/compromise 🗳️ #PSAParl25

🎉 Follow along with our third panel on Legislative Process and Scrutiny! ➡️ First up is @parlcharlie.bsky.social telling us about Senate public bills in Canada 🇨🇦 #PSAParl25

👏 Congrats to Eliza, one of our Undergraduate Essay Prize winners from @uoe-sps.bsky.social! Put forward for the prize by @marcgeddes.uk ! #PSAParl25

❓Now the Q & A session for our Historical and Procedural Perspectives panelists❓ Moderated by our Co-Convenor @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social #PSAParl25

🗣️ Our next presentation comes from Hoi Yu Ng who is looking at the impact of live broadcasting on parliamentary speeches, focusing on Singapore 🇸🇬📹 #PSAParl25

➡️ Now Nimako Kuffour Anning from the Parliament of Ghana is presenting on the symbolic significance of the dispatch box 🇬🇭 #PSAParl25

👨‍🏫 Now Tom Fleming from @conunitucl.bsky.social and @ucl.ac.uk is exploring procedure committees in the @houseofcommons.parliament.uk from 1854 #PSAParl25

🗣️ Our next panel on Historical and Procedural Perspectives starts with a presentation from @drjamesstrong.bsky.social of @qmul.bsky.social looking at the @ukparliament.parliament.uk as a war-making institution 🇬🇧 #PSAParl25

❓Now to the Q & A session for our Gender and Representation panelists❓ 🙋‍♀️ Our Co-Convenor @dianastirbu.bsky.social is moderating #PSAParl25

🗣️ And now a paper by Ekaterina Kolpinskaya of @exeter.ac.uk on disability inclusion of MPs and peers in @ukparliament.parliament.uk @houseofcommons.parliament.uk @houseoflords.parliament.uk. #PSAParl25

✨Our very own @gracecooper1.bsky.social of @york.ac.uk is now presenting on the processes of political advocacy for refugees in @ukparliament.parliament.uk committees ✨ #PSAParl25

➡️ Next up is @sanwalkharl.bsky.social exploring the impact of gender quotas on women’s participation in politics in Pakistan 🇵🇰 #PSAParl25

Erven Lauw of the @uniofstandrews.bsky.social kicks off our first panel on Gender and Representation! ➡️ Looking at the symbolic impact of women in politics #PSAParl25

We are getting ready to kick off our annual PSA Parliaments conference! Thank you @gracecooper1.bsky.social for organising! Amazing venue at King’s Manor at the University of York! #PSAParl25

NEW BLOG: Assessing the House of Commons Backbench Business Committee 15 years on Unit Director Meg Russell and Hannah Kelly argue changes are needed to get back to the Wright Committee’s vision of it helping facilitate a more responsive and independent House of Commons.

🚨 New research in the @politicalquarterly.bsky.social from Dr @louisevthompson.bsky.social @uompols.bsky.social shows the House of Commons still works like it’s the 1950s — shutting smaller parties out and leaving millions of voters unheard. www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/o... @manchester.ac.uk

In Business Questions today, Jesse Norman said: 'since taking office last year, the present Prime Minister has increasingly misused his first engagements question'. @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social and Tom Fleming have crunched the numbers to find that Keir Starmer does use PMQs differently. Read more 👇

✏️ Franklin De Vrieze has written another interesting blog—this time he explores parliaments and financial governance! Read more here: psaparliaments.org/2025/10/27/w...

📑 Read @parlcharlie.bsky.social's fascinating new blog post all about remarks that get removed from Hansard! Read all about it here: psaparliaments.org/2025/10/20/u... @ukparliament.parliament.uk @hansardsociety.bsky.social

📘 Delighted that my first peer-reviewed article has been published @bjpir.bsky.social 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧 It explores the accountability of intergovernmental policymaking between Scotland, Wales and UK. 🔓 Open access: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... 🙏 Thanks @psa-parliaments.bsky.social for all the support!

New data for legislative scholars! Committee Membership Dataset with @bcastanho.bsky.social, @dmpullan.bsky.social and Firuze Taner: Committee assignments for all MPs (Wikidata IDs!) in 14 countries Harmonized roles/policy areas Data: doi.org/10.7802/2940 Working paper: tinyurl.com/vf54r78p ⬇️

ON THE BLOG: Prime Minister's Question Period in the Canadian House of Commons: Lessons in parliamentary reform @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social explains how Canada's experiment with a Prime Minister's Question Period procedure between 2017 and 2025 worked and how it differed from the traditional model.

🚨 Job Opportunity! 🚨 Applications are now open for a new 2.5-year postdoc at @edinburghpir.bsky.social to examine how parliaments gather, analyse and use different types of knowledge - see the full job listing here: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

📣 Inter Pares and the International Parliament Engagement Network have created some fantastic Citizen Engagement Guides for Parliaments! 🗳️ 📚Check them out here with 🔗 below #PublicEngagement #Democracy #Parliament

Very happy to be back on the Parliament Matters podcast, discussing the latest developments on the assisted dying bill with @ruthfox.bsky.social & @matthewengland.bsky.social. Thank you for having me! Listen to the episode here: pod.link/1714627828/e...

It was great to talk about all things PMQs with @ruthfox.bsky.social and @darcyxtip.bsky.social on @hansardsociety.bsky.social Parliament Matters! We discuss why France and Canada have experimented with PMQs, and why it may be time to retire the ‘engagements’ question. youtu.be/OtpApR3fNQE?...

Bloomsbury Set hangout. Nice venue for the Birkbeck / Birmingham / @psa-parliaments.bsky.social sponsored workshop on what is a parliament.

📣 International Parliamentary Engagement Network is launching a world map of parliamentary public engagement! 🗓️ 25 September 2025, 4-6pm in Westminster, London. 💫 Email [email protected] by 17th September for details and to sign up!

📣The Call for Papers for PSA26 in Oxford is also now open 📣 Submissions are via ExOrdo: psa26.exordo.com/login ❗️The deadline for submissions is 17 October❗️

🎉 PSA Parliaments Annual Conference on 28 Nov @york.ac.uk 🎉 📣 Call for Papers is now live! Submit your abstract here: bit.ly/4o879gP ✏️Our ECR methods workshop will also take place on 27 Nov! Apply here: bit.ly/3J4uQXk 💻 Check out our website for more details: psaparliaments.org/annual-confe...

Some reflections on this from a comparative perspective: constitution-unit.com/2023/09/06/i...

Changing adversarial behaviour at PMQs is a collective action problem. MPs and parties criticise it, but continue to engage in it because confrontation draws attention to PMQs and is the way it has worked for a long time. Meaningful change would require all parties agreeing to stop engaging in this.

I’m really pleased that the @psa-parliaments.bsky.social conference will be at @uoypolitics.bsky.social this November! If you work in the field of parliaments or legislative studies please consider applying More details on the website: psaparliaments.org/annual-confe...

ON THE BLOG: Commons procedure: why does it matter & how does it change? Formal rules, combined with conventions & precedents, provide a framework for parliamentary action. Hannah Kelly, Lisa James & Meg Russell explain why it matters, how it evolves & what future changes have been proposed

What is a parliament? This workshop aims to start a fresh conversation on this classic question in legislative studies. ⏰ You have two more days (deadline Friday 4 July) to submit a brief paper proposal. Sign up details below ⬇️