Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Executive Powers: Hung Parliament

HUNG PARLIAMENT? UK exit poll projects Conservatives win 314 of 650 seats in Parliament, Labour with 266. Theresa May really blew a huge lead there. Almost MEdiaDragonesque!



How a hung parliament totally changes the game for Brexit
The Conversation UK 


Jeremy Corbyn calls for May to resign after hung parliament confirmed

Jeremy Corbyn was just 2,227 votes away from chance to be Prime Minister Independent


Writers From the Right and Left React to Comey’s Testimony NYT

'Alliances are obsolete'



DONALD Trump is fundamentally uninterested in alliances that were previously cherished by the US, including its close relationship with Australia ...



The Sjoerd Koopman Library Postcard Collection includes pictorial and photographic postcards of libraries all over the world. The ALA Archives holds digital copies of approximately 1,000 cards from this collection depicting libraries throughout the United States; several hundred of these are also available as physical objects. Subjects include public libraries, private libraries, academic libraries, library interiors, reading rooms, and bookmobiles. New objects will be added periodically.”


This note sets out situations where there has been no overall control in the House of Commons during the twentieth century. It considers precedents and conventions governing how the monarch might decide which party should form a government in such a situation, and when a request for a dissolution might be granted. It includes references to the Cabinet Office draft chapter of the Cabinet Manual and the evidence taken before the Justice Committee on 24 February 2010. The note also considers how a minority government or coalition might affect the work of Parliament. It looks briefly at the formation of coalition governments in Scotland and Wales. Lastly, it lists some sources of further information on situations of no overall control.
That is the best piece I know on hung Parliaments, prepared by Lucinda Maer for members of Parliament, from the Parliament and Constitution Centre

Parliamentary independence around Australia is under threat as governments retain the power to decide how much funding to allocate to the bodies charged with their oversight, according to a paper recently published by the Victorian Parliamentary Library.
Victoria, however, has seen the strongest “executive creep”, it argues, with parliament treated as a “government department” by the Treasury, told to meet performance requirements and report to the executive on expenditure.

“This imbalance must be reversed if the separation of powers is to perform its constitutional role, and Victoria is to avoid Parliament becoming a flawed branch of democracy,” warns the research paper.
'Executive creep’ threatening parliamentary independence




  • Michael Macklin 'Serving the Senate: The Legacy of Harry Evans' (PDF 108KB)
  • Phil Bowen 'The Parliamentary Budget Office: Supporting Australian Democracy' (PDF 99KB)
  • Paul Strangio, The Australian Prime Ministership: Origins and Evolution (PDF 135KB)
  • Anika Gauja, Party Reform: Where are Australia’s Political Parties Headed in the Future? (PDF 168KB)
  • Tom Frame, Conscription, Conscience and Parliament (PDF 130KB
  • Anne Twomey, Parliament, the Executive and Vice-Regal Reserve Powers: Heading Off Crises in a Closely Tied Parliament (PDF 145KB)
  • Simon Jackman, Populism and Discontent: Comparing the United States and Australia (PDF 355KB)
  • Ivan Powell, The Concept of ‘The Same in Substance’: What Does the Perrett Judgment Mean for Parliamentary Scrutiny? (PDF 141KB)



"Ginsburg earns $204,000 from book of collected writings": The Associated Press has this report.

And Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News reports that "The Supreme Court Justices Reported Millions Of Dollars In Assets In 2016



 ACLU is suing Missouri to stop implementation of Voter ID law. [Election Law Blog]

Fitzgerald Inquiry files reveal inner workings of corrupt web of Qld cops



"In its own low-key way, the civil service is going through one of the more minor acts of the British constitution: the arrival of new ministers to their departments. The entrance of any new minister provokes uncertainty, Whitehall’s least comfortable sensation
Meet the minister: a UK civil servant’s guide to the first day with the new boss