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When does dissolution take effect?

262 words posted by Simon on 30 May 2024

Today, the UK’s parliament is due to be dissolved, meaning that we cease to have members of parliament (MPs), because there’s nothing for them to be a member of. But when, exactly, does this happen? It’s taken more reading up than seems sensible, but I think I now know.

If the Prime Minister had decided to just let the parliament expire, it would have been automatically dissolved ‘at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.’

I’m not completely sure of the meaning in law of ‘the beginning of the day’—I assume it’s effectively midnight, but perhaps the intention is the beginning of the parliamentary day? In which case, I’m not sure whether that would mean immediately after the close of the previous day’s session (which could run past midnight), or the morning after. But we needn’t detain ourselves on this point, as the Prime Minister asked the King to dissolve parliament early, which is done through royal proclamation.

You might think that a royal proclamation would come into force at the moment it is signed by the monarch, or perhaps the moment the seal is affixed, or perhaps some moment when it’s read out in parliament, but you’d be wrong.

Under the Crown Office Act 1877, a royal proclamation takes effect from the moment it is published in The Gazette. In recent years, there seems to have been a convention that proclamations are published online at midday, so it seems likely that we’ll have no MPs from this afternoon.

This post was filed under: News and Comment, Politics, Parliament.

Weekend read: Pointless ceremony

171 words posted by Simon on 6 June 2014

Palace of Westminster

Earlier this week, I enjoyed the State Opening of Parliament. I’m not sure why I enjoy it. Perhaps it’s the idea that it’s an (almost) annual ceremony that’s remained (almost) the same throughout my life; perhaps it’s because it’s a vestige of tradition that still have something to say in the modern world; perhaps it’s something else entirely. I actually sat and wondered about this as I watched.

But then I had an unusual experience – a single article changed my view. While I don’t agree with all its poinst, The Economist’s well-argued article points out that the State Opening is a fixed point for which announcements have to be found and made. Having railed against this sort of thing in many other spheres of life (from local government to the Apple product schedule), this article made me realise that this – for all the pageantry – was as insidious as the rest of them.

This article means that I’ll never view that ceremony in quite the same way again.

The picture at the top of this post is one I took last year, showing the Palace of Westminster with all the ugly black security barriers removed. Doesn't it look lovely? It seems such a shame that we can't have it this way all the time.

This post was filed under: Weekend Reads, Parliament, The Economist.

Thomas Docherty MP on Big Ben collapsing

62 words posted by Simon on 22 January 2012

The House of Commons authorities would be surprised if the clock tower fell into the Thames any time soon. It may well be raised with the Speaker on Monday. Given that Big Ben is situated over the Speaker’s apartments, he may have a view on it.

Thomas Docherty, a Labour MP on the Commons administration committee, according to this Sunday Times article.

This post was filed under: Diary Style Notes, Politics, Quotes, Architecture, Big Ben, London, Parliament, Politics, Thomas Docherty.