Archive for 'commons'
MPs to lose Communications Allowance
Among the Kelly Report's recommendations for reforming MPs' expenses and allowances is the abolition of the £10,000 annual Communications Allowance. And quite right too. The report states: 8.20 The Committee believes that effective engagement between an MP and his or her constituents is of the utmost importance, particularly in the wake of recent events. The [...] read on »
BBC's Democracy Live site goes, er, live
On the day the BBC launches its Democracy Live website comes news that MPs speaking in the Commons chamber are 'to be discouraged' from reading out text stored on an electronic device. No, seriously. But hey, back to Democracy Live. There's a lot to like about it. The front page 'video wall' owes a lot [...] read on »
No awards for MPs' websites this year
Bad news for anyone who's just put a massive amount of work into an innovative, cutting-edge website for an MP. (Ahem.) I've received confirmation from the British Computer Society - oops, sorry, 'BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT' - that their annual awards recognising the best websites by Members of Parliament aren't quite as [...] read on »
Parliament's Twitter backchannel
From Cabinet Office questions and PMQs today... and that's before the debate on Segways tonight. So we're to assume that the nation's MPs were catching up on some serious geek time over the Christmas break then? (Background pic from uk_parliament at Flickr) read on »
MPs condemn lack of usage data
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee published its latest report on 'Government on the Internet: Progress in delivering information and services online' a few weeks back. Much of it was pretty predictable: we know we don't have an exact figure for the number of websites, we know we aren't always brilliant on accessibility, and [...] read on »
Commons flame war
I draw your attention to Early Day Motion no 1037, lodged yesterday by Peter Kilfoyle MP and signed by more than 50 MP colleagues: at the current count, 51 Labour and 1 LibDem (Lembit, before you ask). That this House deplores the innuendo of the blog of Nick Robinson, the BBC's lobby correspondent; calls upon [...] read on »