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Are We Seeing a New Golden Age of Parliament?
Thursday 5 July 2007
A British Academy discussion evening chaired by
Peter Riddell, The Times
Speakers:
Meg Russell, University College London, Philip Norton, University of Hull, Alex Brazier, Hansard Society, and Philip Cowley, University of Nottingham
The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
About this Event
Lamentations about the declining power of the British Parliament are heard in almost every generation. More recently, these fears have been voiced by the influential Power Inquiry, as well as many media commentators. These critics seem to look back to a golden age of parliament but there is little agreement as to when this golden age existed. Since the 1960s, tracing the pattern of backbench voting in the Commons has become a minor academic industry , an activity paralleled by similar work on the Lords. What is remarkable is how little this research, which shows a distinct, if jerky, rise in backbench independence, has penetrated the media and the political world generally.
It is not simply that critics are not aware of how well the backbench record of independent voting in recent years compares with that of fifty years ago. It is that there have been signs of a sea change in backbench behaviour which may do much to balance and check the power of the Executive, compelling a revision of long held stereotypes. The aim is to draw on this research, to focus on recent developments in backbench behaviour and seek to spell out the likely outcomes for government in the UK.
This discussion has been convened by Hugh Berrington, Newcastle University, Philip Cowley, University of Nottingham and Alexandra Kelso, University of Southampton