Saturday, May 23, 2009

Half Term Thoughts

Well, here's hoping that the AS on Friday went well, and that paper 2 next week is a further success. There's certainly no shortage of material on parliament to think about, and it is well worth accessing some of the recent news stories to consider again what sort of ideas have been put forward about parliamentary reform. The expenses scandal has turned the ire of a nation on its MPs, but the long-term fall-out will surely be focused on the reform of an institution which needs to provide more stringent accountability to the executive.

One personal insight into the difficulties faced by MPs comes from Andrew MacKay's meeting in his constituency of Bracknell last night. A Lib Dem blogger was there, and provides an account of a difficult meeting for Mr. MacKay, as well as a link to the BBC news video that shows MacKay being heckled by a constituent on camera. Meanwhile, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams comments interestingly on the damage to our democracy of a humiliated parliament. Meanwhile, I'm off for a few days, but will be back from Friday morning to deal with any revision requests etc.

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