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All Episodes

Parliament Matters — 158 episodes

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Title
1

Andy Burnham’s rewired state: Can Parliament provide the circuit breaker?

2

Joanna Cherry: The SNP, Westminster, and a decade of political battles

3

Unparliamentary: Colourful tales from the Canadian Parliament

4

Labour’s last chance saloon? Burnham’s new Cabinet faces familiar parliamentary problems

5

How do we protect politicians in a dangerous age?

6

Nigel Farage leaves Parliament: What now happens to the standards investigation?

7

New PM, new Clerk of the House of Commons: A new chapter at Westminster?

8

The Burnham question: A new approach to whipping Westminster?

9

Andy Burnham’s March on Westminster: How Could He Become Prime Minister?

10

Brexit, 10 years on: Parliament and the democratic crisis

11

The Cabinet Manual: Why Britain's constitutional "highway code" needs updating

12

The £5m question: Who funds our politicians?

13

Is the Government censoring the Mandelson Papers?

14

Labour’s leadership tangle: What does it mean for Parliament?

15

What now? The local election fallout hits Westminster

16

Keir Starmer’s week of parliamentary torture over Mandelson appointment

17

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

18

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

19

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

20

Jury trials under threat? The Courts and Tribunals Bill explained

21

Is the assisted dying bill being filibustered?

22

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

23

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

24

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

25

What happens when you lose the party whip?

26

A Humble Address: How MPs confronted the Mandelson scandal

27

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

28

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

29

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

30

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

31

Kemi’s pre-emptive strike on Robert Jenrick

32

Growing the Greens: Parliament, polling and Zack Polanski

33

Are UK elections under threat?

34

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

35

Is being Prime Minister an impossible job?

36

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

37

Choosing a new Lord Speaker

38

Where are the Reform UK peers?

39

2024: The year our party system finally broke?

40

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

41

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

42

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

43

Do petitions work? Inside the Commons Committee that actually decides

44

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

45

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

46

Parliament vs. Prince Andrew

47

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

48

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

49

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

50

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

51

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

52

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

53

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

54

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

55

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

56

Parliament gagged by super-injunction?

57

One year on: How is Parliament performing?

58

Labour’s welfare meltdown

59

What Westminster gets wrong about the NHS

60

MPs back assisted dying bill in historic vote

61

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

62

Indefensible? How Government told Parliament about the Strategic Defence Review

63

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

64

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

65

Spooks, the Ombudsman and the Royal Albert Hall

66

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

67

Meet Parliament's human rights watchdog

68

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

69

Should Parliament roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump?

70

Whipping Yarns: A Chief Whip's tale

71

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

72

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

73

Spring Statement: House of Commons tensions grow over the economy

74

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

75

Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement: The fallout at Westminster

76

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

77

Planning and infrastructure: Should Parliament take more control?

78

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

79

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

80

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

81

International aid cuts: What is Parliament's role?

82

Why is it so difficult to reform parliaments?

83

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

84

A WhatsApp purge in Parliament?

85

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

86

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

87

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

88

A withering select committee takedown

89

Assisted Dying Bill: Special Series #1

90

Should Parliament, rather than Ministers, oversee public inquiries?

91

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

92

Whipping yarns: A rebel whip’s tale

93

Whipping yarns: An SNP Whip’s tale

94

Whipping Yarns: A Liberal Democrat whip’s tale

95

Parliament’s role in a failed state

96

Will Parliament pay a price for promises to WASPI women?

97

Licence to scrutinise: Spooks, hereditary peers and assisted dying

98

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

99

How a British student has schooled the US Congress

100

Assisted Dying Bill passes Second Reading: What next?

101

What's the point of petitioning Parliament?

102

The Assisted Dying Bill: Is More Parliamentary Time Needed?

103

The Official Opposition: How to be effective in Parliament

104

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

105

Urgent Questions: Answering your questions about how Parliament works

106

The Budget: Why aren’t MPs told first?

107

Budget rules explained and parliamentary etiquette tips

108

The end of hereditary peers in the House of Lords?

109

Electing party leaders: who should decide?

110

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

111

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

112

Inside the hidden world of law-making.

113

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

114

Labour tightens its grip on Parliament

115

What has Keir Starmer got in common with Robert Redford?

116

New arrivals, absent friends and time-honoured ceremonies

117

Who will be the stars of the new Parliament?

118

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

119

Will the parties reform Westminster?

120

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

121

General election called: What now for Parliament?

122

Democracy is in danger, warns Theresa May

123

Is the Conservative Party falling apart?

124

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

125

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

126

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

127

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

128

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

129

Defending free speech from SLAPPs

130

Another Rwanda roadblock

131

Unheard: the parliamentary snubbing of Diane Abbott

132

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

133

The Foreign Affairs Committee: commentator or influencer?

134

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

135

The decline and fall of the political interview

136

Commons chaos: Can the Speaker survive a monumental misjudgement?

137

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

138

Gaffes and grace at PMQs

139

A potty-mouthed Parliament?

140

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

141

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

142

The inside story: Parliament and the Post Office Horizon scandal

143

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

144

Parliament Matters Explains: How does Parliament make laws?

145

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

146

Parliament Matters Explains: What do MPs actually do?

147

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

148

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

149

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

150

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

151

Special feature: The genesis of PARLY, with Tony Grew

152

Legislative bodging: No way to run a chip shop!

153

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

154

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

155

Urgent Questions #1

156

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

157

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

158

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