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Reposted by Alice Lilly

Tim Durrant @timdurrant.bsky.social · 22h

The new Ethics and Integrity Commission has launched today, with a shiny new website (outside the gov. uk brand!)

We spoke to its chair, Doug Chalmers, earlier in the year about the new body and its work...

eic.independent-commission.uk

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Reposted by Alice Lilly

Tim Durrant @timdurrant.bsky.social · 1d

We have an updated ministerial code! The new code makes clear that ministers "are expected" to pay back any severance payment if they quickly get a new ministerial job or are found to have broken the rules on post-government jobs

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Ministerial Code

Ministerial Code setting out the standards of conduct expected of ministers and how they discharge their duties.

www.gov.uk

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

I think there's something in that, definitely- but also it isn't always clear who to ask about something, so an MP becomes the figure of first/last resort to ask

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

True! Sadly I don't think that tends to make it into reporting of the numbers, though

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

That's really interesting!

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Reposted by Alice Lilly

Pants, Manchester @fantasticlife.bsky.social · 1d

Yet another new [1] bot account from everyone's favourite library [2]. @madenlaid.bsky.social posts whenever a made statutory instrument is laid before Parliament.

A made then laid statutory instrument being one that is made - signed into law by the minister - *before* being laid before Parliament.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

There's definitely a question about local government capacity. And there is a problem with confusion about what level of govt does what (because it is confusing!) Not everybody is clear on what their MP/central govt does vs what local govt does- but everybody knows they have an MP they can contact

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

That's a good point- and certainly there's something as well about mass email campaigns etc and the workload those can generate.

I suppose on casework as well, it's not just the number of cases but also the complexity of those cases

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

Really interesting idea! I think the thing would be to ensure that the ability is protected of MPs to use their casework as a bit of an early-warning sign-- i.e. the ability for casework to highlight to them that there is a policy problem/to shape their responses to policy debates

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

Baby’s nursery is doing a pumpkin carving competition in a couple of weeks. Thinking of carving a bottle of Calpol

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

OR on a similar theme, you could go and visit all of the bits of Leeds that over the decades have been proposed to be part of tram networks that still don’t exist

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

Ooh this is fun- I would go and visit all the transport projects announced as part of Network North that were not, in fact, in the north

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 1d

What policy themed visitor trail would you do upon retirement? I would pilgrimage to visit the 100 Rishi Sunak outdoor chess sets around the country. I genuinely think it would be one of those fun random things that would take me to places I’d never otherwise go to

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you!

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

Great- thanks, Sam!

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

Brilliant- thank you!

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

Historians! What are the best books about Harold Macmillan (and especially his early political career)?

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3d

Genuine question: does Lecornu now count as a two-term prime minister? Or is it still one term, just one with a… reading week?

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 3d

Breaking News: President Emmanuel Macron of France reappointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister, days after Lecornu resigned.

Macron Reappoints Sébastien Lecornu as France’s Prime Minister

President Emmanuel Macron is trying to steady the political turmoil that has gripped the country and jeopardized the passage of a budget.

nyti.ms

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3d

It is RELENTLESS. Godspeed 🫡

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3d

This is so worth your time and @rebeccamckee.bsky.social is absolutely *the* person to talk to about MPs’ staff and workload

Thomas I-G @thomasig.bsky.social · 3d

There was a great report from @rebeccamckee.bsky.social on this a couple of years ago about the particular pressures and workload of staff of MPs.

It's another aspect of Parliamentary reform which has been left wanting after Labour's election win. constitution-unit.com/2023/10/03/m...

MPs’ staff, the unsung heroes: an examination of who they are and what they do

MPs’ staff have been termed the ‘unsung heroes’ of Westminster, but for a long time, their work – in Westminster and constituencies across the UK – has gone largely unrecognised outside parliament …

constitution-unit.com

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3d

When MPs- and their staff- of all parties, across a range of constituencies- are repeatedly saying there are workload issues we should surely listen to that and have a sensible good-faith debate about it

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3d

It is, surely, in everybody’s best interests that MPs have the resources they need to do their jobs as constituency MPs and scruntineers of government and legislation.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3d

If we can’t even talk in general terms about MPs’ workload- which MPs of all parties agree is v casework- heavy and getting heavier- without a lot of responses being to assume that MPs are not telling the truth/just whinging/ working on the wrong things etc- then I think we’re in a bad place

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 4d

Purple is the colour of the U.K. Parliament as it pertains to the Commons and Lords together. Green is the colour of the Commons. Red is the colour of the Lords.

I think this conversation has strayed quite far from my original- and really very benign!- point so I think I’m going to end it there.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 4d

Respectfully, I do research and write about parliament professionally and have done so for years, so I generally know what I’m talking about.

(And you may wish to check publications by the Commons Library or any Commons select committee)

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 4d

If you think an MP who is elected to serve their constituents simply stating figures on the volume of casework they are dealing with for said constituents is “nothing to do with Parliament” then I don’t really know what else I can say.

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