Rich Greenhill

But the chamber of the House of Commons never was and never could be a place to be an effective legislator and thinker. It's not really what it can be for. It's for (and has been since the at least the late C18th) the presentation of a case to the public, not for the creative discussion of them.

Correct. It leads to some honestly rather weird juxtapositions

With few exceptions (eg the plot of Macbeth and the character of Jeeves), all Shakespeare and Wodehouse plots and characters are forgettable or contrived, which only underlines how astonishingly brilliant their language has to be to make them the greatest playwright and comic novelist in English.

I got very curious about this. You can trace Shearer's unit (21 CCS) and you can see what looks like the echo of his little blaze of fame: in Sept 1916 you get visits from various grandees including ... the editor of the BMJ, who presumably came to see for himself.

Today was the day! Relive how back in 2012 @sil.kryogenix.org told my computer to delete my home directory in a tweet, and it obeyed: dracos.co.uk/wrote/tweet2...

1/ “It’s helping us plan activities, stay informed, and upskill colleagues. Such a valuable email I look forward to each week!”

That’s what one reader working in the charity sector said about our Parliament Matters Bulletin.

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Research re polarisation by Tadeas Cely via @ianleslie.bsky.social www.ian-leslie.com/p/successful...

RULES FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY BAN ON LIARS AND DIRTY FACES Strict rules, which have been approved by the Hertfordshire County Council, are to be imposed by the Hyde Institute Library, Barnet Vale. LIBRARY USERS iN FUTURE MUST NOT: Enter the library if their faces are offensively dirty. Fall asleep on the tables. Eat their lunches whilst reading papers, books, &c Smoke in the building. Leave their business cards behind. Make themselves a nuisance. Kick or damage the furniture. Bring dogs within the portals. Tell lies to the librarian. Enter when they are in an inebriated con- dition. If they have small-pox.

Hertfordshire County Council rules for library use, 1930

Revealed: How the No 10 grid strangles effective communication A government ‘playlist’ of campaigns could cut through more powerfully than an old-style grid of worthy policy nuggets

The death of the media grid: @peterhyman.bsky.social peterhyman21.substack.com/p/revealed-h...

National Security and Human Rights - David Anderson QC Lawyer London UK Impact of European human rights law on UK national security, from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the likely effects on our national security of continued adherence to the ECHR

Immigration accounts for only around 1.5% of the Strasbourg caselaw. I argue here that it has had, on balance, a positive influence on UK national security. www.daqc.co.uk/2024/11/28/n...

In all the endless discussions of LLMs, there’s a point that is, on one level, obvious, but that I feel does not get sufficiently foregrounded: LLMs are transforming material that people have put up on the internet.

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Parliament Matters: A podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy Join two of the UK’s leading parliamentary experts, Mark D’Arcy and Ruth Fox, as they guide you through the often mysterious ways our politicians do business and explore the running controversies…

🎧 PODCAST - Former Prime Ministers: The role of Parliament in life after No 10

We talk to @expremiers.bsky.social about his new book on Margaret Thatcher's time after No 10, and about how other ex-PMs have spent their parliamentary afterlife.

Listen below🔽

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National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe

The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...

Rambling handwritten story by a 10 year-old about saving the world.

Teacher's comment admiring the ambition but adding "Too much happens too quickly here." B for effort.

Sorting out son's old school exercise books.

"Too much happens too quickly here."

2/ A policy with huge legislative, financial & social implications was unveiled as if Parliament’s consent were a given — before it was announced to MPs, before scrutiny.

@commonsspeaker.parliament.uk must be having conniptions in Chorley.

Treaty scrutiny: addressing the accountability gap In this guest blog, Lord Goldsmith KC, Chair of the House of Lords International Agreements Committee (IAC), sets out the findings of the Committee’s latest report urging reform of Parliament's…

BLOG | Treaty scrutiny: addressing the accountability gap

In this guest blog, chair of @HLIntAgreements Lord Goldsmith KC outlines the Committee’s new report calling for stronger parliamentary oversight of treaties.

Read the blog post below 🔽

www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blog/treaty-...

🎙️ NEW: Peers back the #AssistedDying Bill at 2nd Reading...then hit pause.

A new Lords select committee will now gather evidence before clause-by-clause scrutiny.

Catch up with the latest twists and turns on Parliament Matters
🎧👉 buff.ly/LzmXBO8

Assisted dying bill: What will happen at Second Reading on Friday 19 September? The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill - the Bill to legalise assisted dying - has passed through the House of Commons and now reached the House of Lords. A rare two-day Second Reading debate…

BLOG | What will happen at this Friday's assisted dying bill debate?

With the Second Reading debate resuming this Friday, we explain the motions and amendments on which the House of Lords will vote, and how these may impact later stages.

Read below 🔽

www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blog/assiste...

A very British fudge On September 10, 2022, Penny Mordaunt presided over the King’s Accession Council. Since then, there has been some confusion regarding the nature of her role. Was she Lord President or merely Acting…

Many of us saw Penny Mordaunt preside over the Accession Council. But was she actually Lord President? This post unpacks the constitutional ambiguity behind her role, and why it matters. venerablepuzzle.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/a...

Reading Keegan's excellent book "The Face of Battle." One of the most striking parts is when he talks about how, in general, it's hard to get people to kill each other, even in a combat setting. Especially true in the modern regular soldier era where looting and kidnapping are illegal.

🎙️ NEW: 200 Peers. 2 days of debate. Political chess.

The Second Reading isn’t the end—it’s just the opening move.

Former Clerk of the Parliaments Sir David Beamish joins us to decode the drama behind the Assisted Dying Bill’s marathon Lords debate.

🎧 buff.ly/Iu1dPEu

Photo of entries from the Crown Office's Docquet Book from September 1966.

Before the computer age, Docquet Book entries were made with pen and paper. Here's an example from 1966, courtesy of CrownOfficeFOIDs. 6/6

Page 1 of a 2-page summons sent on behalf of the Clerk of the Privy Council notifying members of Tony Blair's Cabinet that Queen Elizabeth II will hold a meeting of the Privy Council on Saturday, 9 June 2001 at 6 pm for the purpose of swearing-in new Ministers after the General Election.

Page 2 of a 2-page summons sent on behalf of the Clerk of the Privy Council notifying members of Tony Blair's Cabinet that Queen Elizabeth II will hold a meeting of the Privy Council on Saturday, 9 June 2001 at 6 pm for the purpose of swearing-in new Ministers after the General Election.

Summons to a meeting of the Privy Council for the purpose of swearing-in new Ministers. [PREM 49/2130].

The assisted dying bill: A guide to the legislative process in the House of Lords Having passed through the House of Commons, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill - the Bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales - must now go through its legislative stages in the…

🚨 NEW BRIEFING: The assisted dying bill – The House of Lords legislative process

We explain how the Lords will consider the Bill:
⚖️ Constitutional issues
🚫 Five ways peers could say no
🗓️ Timing & debates
📜 Each stage of the Bill

Read more 🔽
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Several of my neighbors voted for Trump. If I said to them "he's deploying troops to US cities & unleashing polio & measles on the country & deporting people to foreign gulags & allowing millions of people to die of AIDS in Africa and raking in billions in crypto pay offs" they'd think *I* was nuts.

180th Anniversary of Town Council Elections This month marks the anniversary of a completely new system of local elections being implemented throughout England and Wales. One hundred and eighty years ago, almost 180 boroughs in England and W…

#OnThisDay 1835 the Commons discussed amendments proposed by the House of Lords to the municipal corporations bill. This measure introduced a new system of town councils in England & Wales, as our editor Philip Salmon explains here: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/1...

New ministers face a packed week in Parliament.

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Thrilled to have been able to identify today a copy of a 15th century papal bull used as binding waste, and thereby establish a terminus post quem for an Old West Frisian text on the verso!

#Paleography #BookHistory