After today’s State Opening of Parliament, many MPs will also have to battle to find a seat to debate the Queen’s Speech. This is a historic problem for the Commons, as our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, discusses…
Mr Dennis Skinner, the fabled member for Bolsover, found himself on the day the House first sat after the election in a tussle with the SNP over his favoured seat. Though the dispute (the ‘War of Skinner’s seat’) seems to have been resolved (we will find out today), it’s an interesting example of a familiar issue in a chamber where there have never been enough seats to go around. There’s a parallel in the situation of the naval surgeon, MP from 1812 to 1855 and reformer and radical Joseph Hume. Hume’s unwearying calls for government economy and inquiries into waste, delivered from his habitual seat, just to the left…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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