Tag: Marc Geddes
Book Review | Dramas at Westminster: Select Committees and the Quest for Accountability by Marc Geddes
In Dramas at Westminster: Select Committees and the Quest for Accountability, Marc Geddes aims to open up everyday life along the committee corridors of the Palace of Westminster to examine how the UK Parliament performs the role of scrutiny. The book tells us a great deal about the public and hidden power of select committees at a time when scrutiny is more vital than it has ever been, writes Ben Worthy.
A Conservative majority means parliamentary scrutiny is in danger of being weakened
Marc Geddes considers the potential impact the recent Conservative victory may have upon parliamentary scrutiny. The size of the majority, the current government’s agenda for legislative reform and the changes to select committee membership may all have a detrimental effect on parliament’s ability to scrutinise government effectively.
Why can’t some parliamentary select committees get female witnesses?
In their nearly eponymous 1995 hit, Reverend Black Grape, I’m a Celebrity runners-up and Bargain Hunt cheats, Black Grape, asked ‘Can I get a witness?’ In 2019, why is it that some select committees seemingly find it difficult to get female witnesses to give evidence at their sessions? Marc Geddes, Mark Goodwin, Stephen Holden Bates and Steve McKay find that some of the answer may well be found in the gendered make-up of the committees themselves.
The Remainers who now chair select committees will harry the government over Brexit
The new cohort of select committee chairs will be scrutinising the work of a weakened government, write Mark Goodwin, Stephen Bates and Marc Geddes. Nine of the 28 are women, reflecting the advantage female MPs enjoy when they stand for committee elections. The current line-up also includes some well-known figures who have clashed with their party […]
Appointments to public bodies are fraught with issues regarding executive control, politicisation and ministerial accountability
The recent row triggered by the decision of Michael Gove to not re-appoint the Labour Peer Baroness Morgan to a second term as the Chair of Ofsted has been subject to severe criticism, with many observers suggesting that it marks the latest instalment in a systematic purge of non-Conservative figures who head public bodies. In assessing the politics […]
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