scrutiny of the executive

Question 1

pmq’s provides ineffective scrutiny

Answer 1

-dramatised: cameron calling gordon brown ‘bottler brown’ for not calling a snap election when he was stronger in the polls

-post party gate sue gray report, keir starmer utterly dominated boris johnson in pmq’s

-sunak made a jibe about ‘the definition of a woman’ whilst brianna ghey’s mother was in parliament, starmer flamed him about this, shows the scrutiny is adversarial rather than policies and proper accoutability

-six q’s to pm, leeader of third biggest opposition get two, and backbenchers either bob or ballot

Question 2

pmq’s provides some effective scrutiny

Answer 2

-tony blair pointing out john major’s internal divisions in the party: ‘weak, weak, weak’, ‘you follow your party, I lead mine’ (cold tony blair moment)

-loto eg starmer has an opportunity to show he is better suited to the job than the incumbent

Question 3

daily questions

Answer 3

each sitting day , a gov department answers questions in the commons, published online on hansard

Question 4

daily questions provides effective scrutiny

Answer 4

number of ‘urgent questions’ has increased to 0.6 per day under sir lindsay hoyle
peaked at 0.88 under bercow

chancellor rishi planned to announce furough extension in media but after an urgent q, he was forced to do it to parliament first

Question 5

daily questions provides ineffective scrutiny

Answer 5

party gate, gov sent michael ellis, attorney general, to field the questions, rather than the party leader

no one watches it so is inconsequential regarding the actual vote

Question 6

debates provide effective scrutiny

Answer 6

(btw this includes opposition day and bbbc)
-representative, e.g. 100k votes of an e petition

emergency debates that were effective;
-backbench: aid dropped below 0.7 per cent 2021

-2023 re gender recognition bill from scotland veto

Question 7

debates provide ineffectvie scrutiny

Answer 7

-not binding
-speaker has too much power

e.g. starmer asked hoyle on the snp’s opposition day to change the motion form ‘immediate cesefire in gaza’ to ‘immediate humanitarian ceasefire’, taking away snp’s day from them, con and snp walkout, labour voted alone (again not binding)

Question 8

motion of no confidence effective

Answer 8

-even if the gov wins it substantially weakens them via public perception, e.g. boris

-has sm power, de facto, forces the gov to step down if they lose

Question 9

motion of no confidence ineffective

Answer 9

-hardly ever win, e.g. last win was callaghan who lost 311-310, such a narrow margin heightens this

-whipping so tough….. may had zero cons vote agaisnt her despite many thinking she was inapt to do brexit, not representative of trustees OR people but rather just whips