It seems, let us say, a little quaint and anachronistic to rule that an MP may not accuse another MP directly of lying: Dawn Butler ejected from Commons for saying Johnson has lied repeatedly. Labour MP accused the prime minister of misleading the Commons and the country over coronavirus.
This dates from the epoch, surely, when 'honourable member' ( Read more... )

This evening to a concert which included Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem (1936), which, besides various Biblical texts and quite a bit of Walt Whitman, includes John Bright's 1855 Angel of Death speech: The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one, as when the first-born ( Read more... )

In response to a call for the government to give parliamentary time to a debate and vote on abortion and the time-limits, Caroline Flint, public health minister, responded by 'saying it was established parliamentary practice that debates on abortion were initiated by backbenchers'. Very true, but only because there is a long parliamentary tradition ( Read more... )