Westminster Watch

Westminster village begins to recover its equilibrium after the EU vote, grappling with the machinery of change and arrangements to scrutinise Brexit policy  

In 1886 the Liberal politician, Joseph Chamberlain is reported to have said: ‘In politics, there is no use in looking beyond the next fortnight.’  

In the second of this two-part finance guide for the self-employed Bar, the Young Barristers’ Committee looks at payment term  

Part 1 of this finance guide discussed payment terms, working with your clerks, and the steps you should take to ensure that your work is correctly billed (Counsel, July 2016, p 20).  

As the nation readies itself to vote on Europe, Mark Hatcher considers the diminishing trust in the political class and steadying influence of the select committee  

I am writing this column six days before the EU referendum – such is the publisher’s immutable deadline.  

Mark Hatcher distils for the Bar another busy month in Westminster – Super Thursday and a One-Nation-themed Queen’s Speech.  

The UK’s ‘Super Thursday’ results on 6 May provided the first significant verdicts on the UK political situation since last year’s General Election. The outcome was a disaster for Labour. 

Is the business of government grinding to a halt as we face up to a spate of elections and the EU referendum and is legislation being pushed through without sufficient scrutiny? asks Mark Hatcher  

With the imminent election on 5 May of the Mayor of London and members of the London Assembly, local government elections in England, elections to the National Assembly for Wales and voting for Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales, the political classes are gorging on a feast of campaigning and political activity.  

Whether the Inners or Outers win the day, the long-standing internecine fighting over Europe will not go away, writes Mark Hatcher  

In less than three months’ time the British people will decide whether to remain in or out of the European Union.  

Mark Hatcher looks at the latest court closure announcement and Labour’s access to justice commission  

Spare a thought for civil servants who are toiling away even harder to make up for headcount reductions in Government departments.  

Mark Hatcher reflects on Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘rule-breaking’ reshuffle, its impact on democracy and significance for the Bar  

One of the most respected constitutional lawyers of the 20th century, Sir Ivor Jennings observed in his magisterial Cabinet Government: ‘If there be no Opposition, there is no democracy. “Her Majesty’s Opposition” is no idle phrase. Her Majesty needs an Opposition as well as a Government.’ 

Mark Hatcher examines the issues facing those in Westminster at the start of the new year  

Few MPs returning to Westminster after the Christmas recess will have been able to predict how the last year would have ended: a majority Conservative Government, an Opposition that is in disarray in the parliamentary party with a frontbench openly at odds with its leader, the decimation of the Liberal Democrats in the Commons, 54 seats occupied by Scottish Nationalists, the collapse of Labour in Scotland with just one seat north of the border at Westminster and one held by the Conservatives and four million votes for UKIP at last May’s election. 

Mark Hatcher reports on the launch by the Opposition of its Review of Legal Aid and on the debate surrounding the progress of a UK Bill of Rights  

‘If we want a rights-based society with equal access to justice, we have to pay for it,’ said Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour Party’s Legal Aid Summit last month.