Comments on: 3 Principles we are asking Speaker candidates to endorse: You can help right now

By: Chris Rivers

Chris Rivers — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:55:28 +0000

RE David 12’s proposals, I would agree with the suggestions made save with four additions:
1. Security is an important proviso.
2. A self-catering apartment would be required and not just a travelodge room. Where the accommodation is shared by two MPs and also possibly their children, the flat space needs to reflect that.
3. There should also be the flexibility that MPs that become ministers (who by nature of their government work are required to have London as their main address) may not have chosen to have a second ‘place of residence’ in London and that flexility to make that later option seems necessary. The Lab, Con and LD party leaders also need to reside in London.
4. Some food/subsistence/’hospitality’ allowance remains necessary. I suggest £50-100pw is sufficient. MPs do have to talk to others, so whilst they should set up normal provisions at home for their own use and at their own expense, a hospitality allowance is OK.

By: Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:05:00 +0000

I’ve been told by the Hansard Society that their hustings for Speaker candidates will be filmed and broadcast on BBC Parliament.

The broadcast time has not yet appeared on the schedules, and the Hansard Society have told me they don’t know when it will be broadcast yet either.

By: Richard Taylor

Richard Taylor — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:42:36 +0000

The Hansard Society are holding a hustings for the candidates for Speaker on Monday the 15th June. Public questions are invited, with a deadline of the end of Thursday the 11th of June:

http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/hansard_in_the_media/archive/2009/06/02/submit-your-questions-to-the-hansard-society-speaker-hustings.aspx

I’m not sure if members of the public will be able to see any answers; I can’t see any published plans for a webcast.

By: Martin Budden

Martin Budden — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:31:17 +0000

The issue of Parliamentary Copyright also needs to be addressed. The copyright terms need to be relaxed so that anyone can reproduce any Parliamentary documents (including for commercial purposes) without charge. That is something like a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license should be used.

By: Fardijah Freedman

Fardijah Freedman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:57:15 +0000

I fully agree with your correspondent no.16,about having a housing unit for MPs from out of London to stay in.Maybe there could be visitor units for hire for visiting families and friends short-term?

By: Duncan Tribute

Duncan Tribute — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:24:45 +0000

As regards accommodating out of town MPs when in London, it would have been sensible to have acquired a part of the old GLC County Hall building, (now broken down into various hotel units), for provision of permanent serviced apartments assigned for Members’ use. Failing that, surely we have a prison ship or two spare that could be moved up and moored alongside the Houses of Parliament, to provide accommodation for out of town MPs.

By: Michael Parker

Michael Parker — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:33:47 +0000

@13 I agree they are for Parliament as a whole, but despite thinking that it does, the lower house does not control the upper house. As Tom, understandably, doesn’t want to change this text, maybe a solution would be for MySociety to ask the Lord Speaker to endorse a similar text at the same time?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:28:14 +0000

Good work – I hope this actually happens…
Some comments on the email you unearthed (their text bold, if formatting works on this system. Same comment added more legibly to flickr).

Re: a permanent historical identifier ON THE INTERNET that never changes… we do this already they are called clause and schedule numbers

you: “Mistake: we’re CLEARLY asking for permalinked URLs here”

me: may not be that clear to a non-semantic-web-aware person? Maybe they are thinking of something that shows up on a page (text like “(1)(a)(iv)” perhaps), rather than something directly addressable.

And do clause and schedule numbers provide the necessary version control (eg an amendment that replaces clause (b) with a differently worded one, or deletes clauses 1(a)(ii) – 1(a)(iv)…)? If they do during the committee and later reading stages, is there a rationalising and renumbering so that the final bill is consecutively numbered – in which case, clause numbers are no longer sufficient to permanently identify a bit of a bill.

Re: Explanatory notes could be placed and read right next to the relevant parts of the bill themselves

me: could they be thinking you intend that THEY write and place the notes – and are you suggesting data structures that allow third parties to place notes – on third party sites? You could be at cross purposes? Or are you just suggesting that the notes they write can be rearranged automatically / on demand to a more convenient location for the reader?

… this is something we are ready to do already…

you: “Mistake: No they don’t”

me: they didn’t say they did – they said they were ready to. Weasel words, perhaps, or maybe they are planning to do it or trying to get permission, or working out who should add them. They did mention they wanted to maintain neutrality of interpretation – are they thinking of notes they write?

By: Tym Thomas

Tym Thomas — Fri, 22 May 2009 21:01:15 +0000

“… Their are an abundance of most suitable people in the public domain, who are more than capable of performing better than the last Speaker.”

I have an abundance of firewood more capable than the last speaker.

Tym.

By: REGINALD STEERS

REGINALD STEERS — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:46:44 +0000

As you no doubt appreciate, public faith and confidence in anyone with anything to do with British Politics and their politicians, has for a very long time taken a severe battering.

Only the party which does the best job of, restoring public faith in them, will succeed.

This does not necessarily mean, the Speaker should automatically have a political background. In fact, it is essential, if not downright imperative, that he is not in politics.

Their are an abundance of most suitable people in the public domain, who are more than capable of performing better than the last Speaker. A great candidate would be a (just) retired ‘Regimental Sergeant Major’ Who better to keep MPs in-line and discipline them which step out of line.

Yours ever

Reg Steers