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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 21h

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 · 21h

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 · 21h

It is RELENTLESS. Godspeed 🫡

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

It’s a great question- I think there is definitely a trend for MPs being person of first/last resort for constituents, partly due to resource problems in local govt etc, but also partly because our system of govt is confusing and it’s not always clear who to contact about what!

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

That’s really interesting! Yes, definitely issues with data sharing. But I think your point about possibly identifying emerging issues is a great one

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

I think there’s a really crucial point in that- about what we expect our MPs to do and what we elect them to do. Those things don’t always align (and not everybody agrees on them anyway!)

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

With respect, you’re wrong. Constituency business is fundamentally parliamentary business because an MP’s job is to represent their constituents in parliament. This is a factual post about parliamentary business that contains nothing about party politics or policies. Hence, Commons green.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

It’s constituency business, which is absolutely parliamentary business. Hence why it’s Commons green.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

To be fair that green is the colour of the House of Commons

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Reposted by Alice Lilly

Ben Stanley @benstanley.eu · 1d

Truly we live in the most Trump-brained timeline. Maybe, just maybe the Nobel Prize committee gave María Corina Machado the peace prize on her own merits, rather than so as not to give Trump the award while making it impossible for him to criticise their choice.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 1d

Really interesting- and, I think, welcome- to see MPs sharing this kind of data about casework.

Casework is largely invisible (other than to the constituents it helps!) compared to what MPs do in the Commons chamber but is a huge part of MPs’ workload, and it’s really hard to get robust data on it

Dr Beccy Cooper MP @drbeccycoopermp.bsky.social · 1d

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Reposted by Alice Lilly

James Elder @jameselder.bsky.social · 2d

TIL from a talk at @gladlib.bsky.social by @satisfactory20.bsky.social that almost all MPs' and Peers' offices in the Palace of Westminster weren't designed as such by Charles Barry.

They were originally living quarters for the large residential staff of maids, cooks etc.

Only converted later.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

I feel it says quite a lot that this was a stat contained in the House of Commons' 2024/25 annual report 'year at a glance' section.

(Worth saying that the election meant that some additional maintenance work could take place but that is still... a lot of maintenance work)

Text box stating: 61k pieces of maintenance work completed

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

This is excellent (as ever) by @davidallengreen.bsky.social

dag @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 2d

NEW

Law versus politics

Both the UK and the US face a choice between unchecked executive power or a balanced constitution

By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

This is the crucial choice facing those both in the United Kingdom and the United States. What is to be the relationship between those with political power and the force of law?

In the United States it would seem that, at a federal level, both Congress and the Supreme Court are content to nod along with excessive use of presidential power. It is only the individual states themselves and the lower courts that are seeking to hold that executive power to account.

While in the United Kingdom there are louder political demands for the government to be free from the constraints placed by international law and supposedly activist judges. The implicit call is that ministers and officials should be able to do as they like to the rest of us without any possibility of a court ever saying otherwise.

What will happen in this contest between executive power and legal restraint cannot be predicted. The happy assumption of the Whig interpretation of history may not be well-grounded. From a liberal perspective things are not only getting worse, but could get a lot worse. The illiberals know what they are doing and they are doing it well.

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

Am I going to have to write an explainer on this

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 2d

Once got a Tweet quoted in a newspaper article about Hot Podium Guy (one for the veterans of UK politics over the last decade or so, there).

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Alice Lilly

Sam Macrory @sammacrory.bsky.social · 3d

And here's a new @instituteforgovernment.org.uk explainer by @jillongovt.bsky.social on how stamp duty works (and whether Kemi Badenoch's plan to abolish it is sensible..)

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/st...

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Reposted by Alice Lilly

Thomas Pope @tompope.bsky.social · 3d

My instant reaction to Badenoch's stamp duty announcement for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk

Stamp duty is a bad tax. But abolishing it without a broader reform of property taxes would be a missed opportunity and hard to afford.

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/kemi...

Kemi Badenoch’s promise to abolish stamp duty has ducked tax trade-offs | Institute for Government

Do Kemi Badenoch's stamp duty sums add up?

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk

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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 3d

Secondary legislation / government announcements / primary legislation

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