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All Episodes

Parliament Matters — 144 episodes

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Title
1

What now? The local election fallout hits Westminster

2

Keir Starmer’s week of parliamentary torture over Mandelson appointment

3

Dynamic alignment and Henry VIII powers: What will the Government’s EU reset mean for Parliament?

4

Will key Government bills pass by the end of the parliamentary Session?

5

Who really decides Immigration Rules: Parliament or the Home Secretary?

6

Jury trials under threat? The Courts and Tribunals Bill explained

7

Is the assisted dying bill being filibustered?

8

Starmer, Iran, and Parliament’s role in war powers

9

Mandelson, Andrew and Epstein: Should there be parliamentary committee of inquiry?

10

The forgotten pioneer: Who was Margaret Bondfield, Britain’s first female Cabinet Minister?

11

What happens when you lose the party whip?

12

A Humble Address: How MPs confronted the Mandelson scandal

13

Why MPs can’t just quit: The curious case of the Chiltern Hundreds

14

Assisted dying bill: How could the Parliament Act be used?

15

Should MPs Who Switch Parties Be Forced to Face a By-Election?

16

Who really sets MPs’ pay – And why you might be wrong about it

17

Kemi’s pre-emptive strike on Robert Jenrick

18

Growing the Greens: Parliament, polling and Zack Polanski

19

Are UK elections under threat?

20

The King and Parliament: The relationship between politics and the royals

21

Is being Prime Minister an impossible job?

22

What's coming up over the Christmas/New Year recess

23

Choosing a new Lord Speaker

24

Where are the Reform UK peers?

25

2024: The year our party system finally broke?

26

101 resolutions and a Finance Bill. How the Budget becomes law

27

Is the House of Lords going slow on the assisted dying bill?

28

The assisted dying bill: A conversation with its sponsor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton

29

Do petitions work? Inside the Commons Committee that actually decides

30

Parliament, the Monarch & the birth of party politics — How did it happen?

31

Why did Nigel Farage’s Ten Minute Rule Bill fail?

32

Parliament vs. Prince Andrew

33

Parliament’s spying scandal: Why was the China case dropped?

34

Former Prime Ministers: The role of Parliament in life after No 10

35

What are the Usual Channels? A short history of Westminster whipping

36

Assisted dying bill: Peers give the bill a Second Reading, but progress is paused for committee evidence

37

Assisted dying bill: The bill makes its debut in the House of Lords

38

Is Parliament at the root of the country’s problems?

39

Prime Minister’s Questions: Westminster’s weekly gladiatorial combat

40

Assisted dying bill: Understanding the legislative process in the House of Lords

41

The day the King marched on Parliament: King Charles I, five MPs and the road to civil war

42

Parliament gagged by super-injunction?

43

One year on: How is Parliament performing?

44

Labour’s welfare meltdown

45

What Westminster gets wrong about the NHS

46

MPs back assisted dying bill in historic vote

47

Assisted dying bill: What happened at Report Stage - Day two

48

Indefensible? How Government told Parliament about the Strategic Defence Review

49

Will Parliament get its teeth into Keir Starmer's trade deals?

50

Assisted dying bill: What happened at Report Stage - Day one

51

Spooks, the Ombudsman and the Royal Albert Hall

52

Assisted dying bill – special series #11: A conversation with Kim Leadbeater MP

53

Meet Parliament's human rights watchdog

54

Assisted dying bill - special series #10: Understanding Report Stage

55

Should Parliament roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump?

56

Whipping Yarns: A Chief Whip's tale

57

The sentencing guidelines row: A product of poor law-making?

58

Assisted dying bill - special series #9: Inside the Public Bill Committee

59

Spring Statement: House of Commons tensions grow over the economy

60

Assisted dying bill - special series #8: Inside the Public Bill Committee

61

Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement: The fallout at Westminster

62

Assisted dying bill - special series #7: Inside the Public Bill Committee

63

Planning and infrastructure: Should Parliament take more control?

64

Assisted dying bill - special series #6: Lessons from New Zealand

65

Net Zero and National Security: How can Parliament hold the Government to account?

66

Assisted dying bill - special series #5: Inside the Public Bill Committee

67

International aid cuts: What is Parliament's role?

68

Why is it so difficult to reform parliaments?

69

Assisted dying bill - special series #4: Inside the Public Bill Committee

70

A WhatsApp purge in Parliament?

71

Assisted dying bill - special series #3: Understanding the amendment process

72

Assisted dying bill - special series #2: How the Bill was drafted

73

Welfare cap breached by £8.6 billion: Do MPs care?

74

A withering select committee takedown

75

Assisted Dying Bill: Special Series #1

76

Should Parliament, rather than Ministers, oversee public inquiries?

77

The ‘Musk Factor’: Is the world's richest man driving Parliament's agenda?

78

Whipping yarns: A rebel whip’s tale

79

Whipping yarns: An SNP Whip’s tale

80

Whipping Yarns: A Liberal Democrat whip’s tale

81

Parliament’s role in a failed state

82

Will Parliament pay a price for promises to WASPI women?

83

Licence to scrutinise: Spooks, hereditary peers and assisted dying

84

Football governance, fair elections, and fantasy reforms Parliament Matters goes live!

85

How a British student has schooled the US Congress

86

Assisted Dying Bill passes Second Reading: What next?

87

What's the point of petitioning Parliament?

88

The Assisted Dying Bill: Is More Parliamentary Time Needed?

89

The Official Opposition: How to be effective in Parliament

90

How will Donald Trump’s return reverberate in the UK Parliament?

91

Urgent Questions: Answering your questions about how Parliament works

92

The Budget: Why aren’t MPs told first?

93

Budget rules explained and parliamentary etiquette tips

94

The end of hereditary peers in the House of Lords?

95

Electing party leaders: who should decide?

96

Select Committee chair elections: who won and can they work together?

97

Inside the Private Members’ Bill ballot: 20 MPs win the legislative lottery

98

Inside the hidden world of law-making.

99

£22 billion financial 'black hole': What is Parliament's role?

100

Labour tightens its grip on Parliament

101

What has Keir Starmer got in common with Robert Redford?

102

New arrivals, absent friends and time-honoured ceremonies

103

Who will be the stars of the new Parliament?

104

Supermajority vs. micro-opposition: Parliament after the general election?

105

Will the parties reform Westminster?

106

Democratic decision-making in health emergencies: Learning the lessons of the Covid pandemic

107

General election called: What now for Parliament?

108

Democracy is in danger, warns Theresa May

109

Is the Conservative Party falling apart?

110

Post Office Horizon scandal: what is Parliament doing about it?

111

Is AI set to destroy trust in elections? Tackling misinformation in politics & Parliament

112

Rwanda Bill becomes law: but what was really going on behind the scenes in Parliament?

113

Tobacco and Vapes Bill: free vote blows smoke in Rishi Sunak's eyes

114

William Wragg's honeytrap crisis and is Speaker Hoyle under threat?

115

Defending free speech from SLAPPs

116

Another Rwanda roadblock

117

Unheard: the parliamentary snubbing of Diane Abbott

118

The Budget: is the democratic deficit as bad as the financial deficit?

119

The Foreign Affairs Committee: commentator or influencer?

120

The Commons Speaker survives (for now), Liz Truss takes on the ‘Deep State’, plus how do we detoxify politics?

121

The decline and fall of the political interview

122

Commons chaos: Can the Speaker survive a monumental misjudgement?

123

Urgent Questions: PMQs, whipping, Sinn Fein MPs, access to security passes, hospitality facilities in Parliament and much more!

124

Gaffes and grace at PMQs

125

A potty-mouthed Parliament?

126

What if they gave a coup and nobody came? The Tory leadership soap opera continued

127

War powers, Rwanda ‘mayhem’ and Ian Dunt on the state of Westminster

128

The inside story: Parliament and the Post Office Horizon scandal

129

Election alert and the year ahead in Parliament: Why are so many election rules being changed?

130

Parliament Matters Explains: How does Parliament make laws?

131

Michael Crick & Tomorrow’s MPs: The latest news on parliamentary candidate selections

132

Parliament Matters Explains: What do MPs actually do?

133

Is Parliament a decaying organism? Lord Lisvane on our crumbling constitution

134

‘These guys like to be written about’: The art of parliamentary sketchwriting, with Rob Hutton

135

High drama or damp squib?… And what’s happening with pairing?

136

Westenders: The battle for the heart and soul of the Conservative Party

137

Special feature: The genesis of PARLY, with Tony Grew

138

Legislative bodging: No way to run a chip shop!

139

Parliament’s ‘Wastefinder General’ on the ‘Big Nasties’

140

Total reshuffle, emergency legislation and Parliament’s ‘Golden Ticket’

141

Urgent Questions #1

142

All change on the Committee corridor and regulating the conduct and standards of MPs

143

The King’s Speech, State Opening and the 1922 Committee

144

Introducing: Parliament Matters - The Hansard Society's new podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy