Commons Debate Research Articles

The House of Commons notebook of Pryse Campbell MP, March–April 1756

AbstractThis article reproduces the contents of a small notebook detailing, in a highly abbreviated form, the house of commons debate of 29 March 1756 regarding the use of Hanoverian and Hessian troops to defend Britain from invasion by the French, necessitated by the abysmal state of the home defences. In a separate, very short, section, the notebook details amendments to be made to the Militia Bill, which was enacted in 1757, to reform the militia in England and Wales.

Needles in a haystack: an intersectional analysis of the descriptive, constitutive and substantive representation of minoritised women

Using a data set of 1.1 million speeches drawn from UK House of Commons debates during 1997–2017 and a combination of automated and manual content analysis, this study addresses three interrelated questions. First, to what extent are minoritised women constitutively represented in parliamentary debates? Second, which MPs do so? Third, how do MPs’ race and gender affect how they represent minoritised women? I find that minoritised women are mentioned exceptionally rarely in parliamentary debates. Furthermore, descriptive representatives are not only substantially more likely to mention minoritised women than other MPs, but they also improve the quality of representation by doing so in relation to a wider range of issues. Yet, paradoxically, white men’s descriptive over-representation means that they account for the vast majority of mentions of minoritised women. More broadly, I foreground the distinction between constitutive and substantive representation, highlighting the importance of distinguishing between speaking about and on behalf of.

Forever niche: Why do organically bred vegetable varieties not diffuse?

While organic food increased its market share in conventional food retail, virtually all organic vegetables are still conventionally bred. For decades, organically bred vegetable varieties remained a market niche, despite their socio-ecological benefits. This paper conceptualizes actors and activities around organic breeding as a Technological Innovation System (TIS) and analyzes what prevents these varieties from widely diffusing into conventional supermarkets. Investigated systemic barriers relate to knowledge, market formation, investments, and legitimacy. The study is based on interviews with food retailers and (commons-based) breeding initiatives across Germany. Theoretically, the paper adds an innovation system perspective on the diffusion of organically bred varieties, a blind spot in the emerging seed commons debate. Furthermore, it contributes to sustainability transitions literature by introducing a novel empirical topic and reframing the TIS framework to analyze agri-food innovations. Identifying barriers and vicious cycles might support practitioners and policymakers seeking to diffuse this agri-food niche.

Sexuality, Gender, and the Colonial Violence of Humanitarian Intervention

Abstract Recent discussions of humanitarian intervention in international relations (IR) have often focused on the evolution of norms, and the development and contestation of the responsibility to protect (R2P) framework. While beneficial in tracing this process, most of these studies tend not to incorporate an analysis of colonialism, race, sexuality, or gender. While postcolonial studies of humanitarian intervention have done well to illustrate the relationship between humanitarian intervention and colonial violence, they still tend to neglect the study of sexuality and gender. Exploring how the sexualized, gendered, and racialized dimensions of colonialism can be incorporated into the study of humanitarian intervention, this paper proposes a queer approach. After exploring the valuable contributions of feminist scholarship, it suggests that the queer approaches of Nicola Pratt (“The Queen Boat Case in Egypt: Sexuality, National Security and State Sovereignty,” Review of International Studies 33, no. 1 [2007]: 129–44), Cynthia Weber (Queer International Relations: Sovereignty, Sexuality and the Will to Knowledge. New York, Oxford University Press, 2016), and Laura Shepherd and Laura Sjoberg (“Trans- Bodies in/of War(s): Cisprivilege and Contemporary Security Strategy,” Feminist Review 101, no. 1 [2012]: 5–23) offer some distinct contributions that build upon feminist insights. Applying these to the 2015 House of Commons debate on airstrikes against ISIL, the paper suggests that queer IR can invigorate the study of humanitarian intervention with a framework that unpacks the simultaneously gendered, sexual, and racial dimensions of colonial violence.

Resonance beyond regimes: Migrant’s alternative infrastructuring practices in Athens

In migration studies, there is an increasing interest in understanding how migration processes are shaped by different forms of brokerage and mediation. We relate these debates to the everyday struggles of migrants in the city of Athens. In so doing, we propose a shift from the all-encompassing view on infrastructures, that is, as systematic entities of facilitation/control to the infrastructuring practices of migrants. This implies a focus on how migrants create dynamic social platforms, and how these platforms relate to formal infrastructures and industries. We analyse these infrastructuring practices through a conceptual lens of resonance that is sensitive to the constitutive (how things, people and processes are brought together) as well as travelling capacities of these practices (how the platforms shift to other places). With an ethnographic approach, we create in-depth insights into the ways in which migrants mediate im/mobility in the urban environment of Athens through infrastructuring practices. The paper concludes by reflecting on the promises and limitations of the infrastructuring practices as sites of solidarity. We thereby argue that there are many links to make within the mobile commons debate. At the same time, our findings highlight that the transformative potential of infrastructuring practices does not always go along with a clear claim on solidarity.

‘Designing’ commons: exploring interplays between commons, space and spatial design

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the commons debate engaging with space and spatial design by analysing community-based design processes in two housing commons institutions in Brussels. Based on a literature review and an action research in a Community Land Trust housing project and a public space regeneration project in a housing cooperative, I argue that spatial designers can play an important role in commoning by empowering people to act outside dominant planning discourses and by spatially articulating the social, cultural and environmental role of dwelling space. However, there is need for public support and flexibility in the institutional frameworks of spatial design execution to create room for such engagement.

The Subjugation of Pacifism in UK Parliamentary Discourse: Analysing the 2015 Debate on Bombing Syria

ABSTRACTThis article shows how pacifism is discursively constituted within politics. Employing Critical Discourse Analysis, it demonstrates how official narratives worked to depoliticise pacifism during the 2015 House of Commons debate on taking military action against ISIS in Syria. It argues that the current rejection of pacifism within politics rests upon a flawed narrative and considers the interests that are served by this. Overall, this article calls for pacifism to be de-subjugated and considers the profound political implication this would have.

Assisted dying: MPs call for inquiry into ban's effects.

The government should launch a wide ranging investigation or inquiry to gather evidence on the effects of the current laws on assisted dying, in anticipation of possible new laws to change the approach. This call came during a passionate debate on assisted dying held on Thursday 4 July in the House of Commons, during which many MPs argued for and against a change in the current law, many citing personal experiences. A debate on the motion that “this House has considered the functioning of the existing law relating to assisted dying” was the first major Commons debate on assisted dying since 2015 and was prompted by the case of Ann and Geoffrey Whaley. Geoffrey Whaley, aged 80, who had motor neurone disease, died at Dignitas in Switzerland on 7 February this year. He and his wife were reported to local authorities and investigated by police and social …

Changes in pastoralist commons management and their implications in Karamoja (Uganda)

This article analyzes the progression from traditional to current pastoralist practices and the contemporary diversification of livelihoods of the Jie group of the Karimojong in the Kotido district in Karamoja (Uganda). the focus is on changes of land use, framed by the commons debate. We identify factors that have forced the Karimojong to abandon their traditional mobile pastoral lifestyle and to adopt new income-generating activities, including charcoal production and brick-making, which may have detrimental effects on local forest and soil cover. These have included repeated enclosure of common grazing lands by colonial and post-colonial governments. We conducted empirical research (interviews and focus group discussions) in 2012. They confirm the superiority of traditional pastoralist practices (in terms of safeguarding sustained productivity of pastures) compared to the current situation. An important factor leading to current unsustainable pastoralist practice involved the mass acquisition of firearms by the Karimojong in the 1970s and 1980s, violent cattle raiding and subsequent unequal disarmament and establishment of army-controlled cattle herding. This radical enclosure of the commons by the government, linked to impoverishment of a large part of the population in terms of cattle numbers, has necessitated the emergence of new, potentially environmentally detrimental livelihoods for the Jie. However, the escalation of the firearm crisis cannot be seen in isolation from a century of commons enclosure by governments, curtailing traditional practices and leading to insecurity and impoverishment of the Karimojong. The situation is exacerbated by current policies of the Ugandan government, geared to agricultural sedentarization, which may be unsustainable given the local natural and climatic conditions.

“What Is the Point of Parliamentary Debate?” Deliberation, Oratory, Opposition and Spectacle in the British House of Commons

This article seeks to open up debate about Parliamentary debate by exploring the history of ideas about Parliamentary debate and rhetoric through the lens of four core concepts: deliberation, oratory, opposition and spectacle. These are not the names of singular ideas let alone schools of thought; they are conceptual fields each of which gives a particular shape to ways of conceiving, criticizing and defending Commons debate. In mapping this topos – identifying historical debates and practices alongside contemporary arguments found in political theory, political science and Rhetoric – I show that our thinking and arguing about the Commons is part of a contested and ongoing history more complex than we acknowledge. I argue that Parliamentary Debate has a number of purposes and that our thinking about it, and evaluation of it, should not be contained within the frame of “deliberation” but should also take account of the political value and importance of oratory, opposition and spectacle.

Does your MP back fair pay?

An online petition demanding the government scrap the pay cap for Agenda for Change (AfC) staff garnered well over 100,000 signatures and forced a Commons debate on 30 January (news, 1 February).

Indian Residential Schools as Seen Through House of Commons Debates, 1876-1951

Indian Residential Schools as Seen Through House of Commons Debates, 1876-1951

UK parliamentary debate analysis: bombing ISIL in Syria

This paper examines the arguments presented for and against the UK government’s motion for the UK to intervene militarily in Syria in the House of Commons debate on ISIL in Syria that took place on 2 December 2015. It considers what the most common arguments were in favour of and in opposition to the motion as well as which arguments were given the most emphasis, in order to understand the prime justifications given that led to the decision to approve the motion. It suggests that due to the shadow of the 2003 Iraq war, politicians in the debate placed a considerable emphasis on the legal justification for military intervention. It argues that the focus on the national security of the UK and its allies in this particular debate seems to contrast with previous military interventions where humanitarian motives were more widely stated. This paper calls for further comparative research of parliamentary debates in order to track such changes in the rhetoric used by UK politicians to defend their support for military intervention.

Union urges pharmacists to contact MPs ahead of Commons debate on pharmacy funding cuts

Union urges pharmacists to contact MPs ahead of Commons debate on pharmacy funding cuts

‘IF ONE MEMBER OF THE FAMILY IS DISABLED THE FAMILY AS A WHOLE IS DISABLED’: THALIDOMIDE CHILDREN AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE FAMILY CARER IN BRITAIN, C.1957–1978

In the early 1960s children were born with birth defects as a result of expectant mothers taking prescription drug thalidomide during pregnancy. This article examines the activities of the Society for the Aid of Thalidomide Children the media scrutiny of the thalidomide scandal, and the dedicated House of Commons debate of 1972 to provide new insight into the relationship between the family, normality, and disability in 1960s and 1970s Britain. The thalidomide tragedy was pivotal in the establishment of the Family Fund in 1973, which was, significantly, made available to the families of all severely congenitally-handicapped children. I argue that the thalidomide case was instrumental in raising awareness of the role of families in the care of disabled children. Thalidomide triggered debates on, research of, and interest in families with handicapped children before the role of the family carer had itself been formally acknowledged.

Telling it like it is or just telling a good story?

According to recent research, there has been a marked shift in television new journalism from a fact-based to a more interpretive style, through editing techniques such as de-contextualization and re-contextualization. The aim of this study was to investigate whether such techniques might be identified in British news bulletins, broadcast during the parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009. Audio-visual clips utilized by more than one television channel were identified, in order to analyze the interpretation of identical audio-visual content across different news bulletins. In addition, clips taken from House of Commons debates were checked against Hansard (the written record of all parliamentary proceedings). Specific editing techniques identified were: contextualization before and after an utterance; interpolation; and the creation of imaginary dialogues. News bulletins were conceptualized as a form of narrative, with politicians as actors, political journalists as narrators, and clips from different political events edited into the overall framework of an interpretive storyline.

Ministerial Responsiveness in Westminster Systems: Institutional Choices and House of Commons Debate, 1832–1915

In Westminster systems, governments enjoy strong agenda‐setting powers but are accountable to an inquisitorial opposition. This article provides insights into the origins of this arrangement from the British House of Commons, drawing primarily on a new data set of a half million parliamentary speeches. We show that, according to a novel measure we develop, government ministers became more responsive to opposition members of parliament in the same period that the government's agenda power was most conclusively strengthened—roughly, the two decades culminating in Balfour's “railway timetable” of 1902. We argue that this increase in responsiveness helps to explain why opposition members of parliament acceded to reductions in their procedural power. We thus highlight a link between government strength and opposition scrutiny in the historical development of the Westminster system.

Rhetoric of a troubled industry: the case of the Dundee jute industry during the inter-war period

This study examines the rhetorical strategies deployed by supporters of the Dundee jute industry (DJI) during the legislative debate surrounding British trade policy of the inter–war period. It conducts a content analysis of the House of Commons debate on 2 February, 1938 on a motion entitled 'Importations from Overseas'. This debate highlights the position and the rhetorical strategies of the jute industry through its parliamentary surrogates. Analysis suggests that rhetorical strategies challenged policy, while avoiding a direct or explicit challenge to the dominant institutional logic of free trade. This study also furthers our understanding of government–industry relations in the jute industry during the inter–war period.

Saving Ulster from Sodomy and Hysteria: Sex, Politics and Performance

On 6 June 2008, Iris Robinson – then DUP MP and MLA for Strangford – responded to the homophobic assault of a local man on Stephen Nolan's BBC Radio Ulster show. She claimed she believed homosexuality was an ‘abomination’, and that it made her feel ‘sick’ and ‘nauseous’. She offered to refer homosexuals to a psychiatrist she knew who was practising a form of reparative therapy gaining popularity at the time. Shortly after, the politician addressed a Commons debate on sex offenders, conflating homosexuality with child abuse. While the DUP's condemnatory stance on homosexuality has always been public, on this occasion heated debates, public protest, political and artistic responses followed. This article seeks to explore some of these events, tracing a connection between reactions to Iris's comments about homosexuality and the subsequent exposure of her extra-marital affair, including accusations of money laundering, which combined to pressure the Assembly to crisis. Focusing on the operation of gender and sexual dynamics within a variety of public, cultural performances (on streets and across the media), I argue that an intimate link between the performative life of the (male) sodomite and the (female) hysteric can be observed during this time, in a manner that reveals the centrality of gender and sexual power dynamics to the maintenance of social and political stability in the North. In addition, the article strives to examine the connection between these cultural events and their strategic treatment within more formal theatre and performance practices and settings.

UK Parliament’s Praise Becomes Fainter

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. The Future Role of the Commonwealth, First Report, Session 1995–96, of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, 27 March 1996. 2. Statement by Commonwealth Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Commonwealth Secretariat, 3 April 1996. 3. House of Commons debate, 27 June 1996, Vol. 280 cc479–519. 4. The Role and the Future of the Commonwealth, Fourth Report, Session 2012–13, of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, HC 114, 15 November 2012, pp. 3-11. 5. Ibid., p. 3. 6. Ibid., p. 50. 7. Written Evidence from The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 26 January 2012.