Debate:
- MPs expressing their views to try and influence policy
- Held at the end of day on current events and government action
- Emergency debates that require ‘urgent attention’ can be held but the speaker and MPs must approve it. There were 4 in 2010-2015 and 4 in 2015-2016
- Most are poorly attended, at the time of crisis they provide drama
- Debates have increased since the introduced of Grand Committee, Select Committee, BBBC
- BBBC allows backbenchers to shape parliamentary timetable, pitches ideas from select committees an e-petition. Government mostly ignores the motions passed e.g laws votes
- e-petitions that have more than 100k signatures are debated e.g fuel prices.
Recruitment
Of Ministers:
- Communication Skills: Effective communicated is important, however, TV rather than Parliament is a key area where this is shown
- Experience: 227 new MPs in 2010, 98 new in 2017. People with managerial, leaders and organisation. 1 in 5 work in politics before they become an MP. A career in politics who haven’t done much outside of politics widens the gap between voters and MPs.
- Conformity: Loyal MPs have better prospects in the ministerial office than rebels. However, the strengthening of select committees offers a few career role.
Representation:
- Delegate Model: An individual authorised to act on behalf of others who are bound by clear instructions. Unlikely to be a consensus among voters. Views of the majority would be hard to issue
- Trustee Model: Individuals who have the formal responsibility for the interests of another once elected they are free to decide on how to vote. Strong most elite view because the MPs claim they know everything
- Constituency Model: Expected to protect and advance the collective interest of the constituency. Regular surgeries mean individual issue has been raised in the Commons. 35% of people are happy with the way the MP does their job
- Party Representation: Not elected for personal beliefs but parties. Have to strike balance between representing the party and the local constituency.
- Descriptive Representation: Occurs when the legislative mirrors the society it represents. Parliaments should represent the country. The UK has focused on women, women MPs have risen since then reaching 208 in 2017. But still, only 32% of the Commons is female when 51% of the country is the female.
Increasing
The Amount Of Women:
- All Women Shortlists: Introduced in 1997 from Labour, it was essentially a gender quota which required a constituency party to select women as parliamentary candidate. This boosted the number of women in Parliament. Equality guarantee.
- Priority List: Constituency required to draw up shortlists of which at least half of the people are women. Was dropped after it did not work but the culture was there and the number is slowly increasing.
Other
Areas:
- Ethnic Diversity: BAME MPs rose from 41 to 52 in 2017 but that is only 8% of Parliament compared to 14% of the population
- Age: Young and older people are underpresented in the Commons, most aged between 35-55. Mhani Black was 20 when she was elected – the youngest MP ever
- Sexual Orientation: 45 of them in 2017, the highest ever
- Education: 29% of the MPs went to a fee paying school compared to 7% of voters, number has been on the decline for years
- Social Class: Manual labour MPs have fallen, business men are Conservatives, public sector workers are Labour