Policy, power and elections — non-partisan coverage of how decisions get made.
Devised in 1978 as a temporary Treasury convenience, the Barnett formula still converts changes in English departmental spending into…
The Recall of MPs Act 2015 lets 10% of constituents unseat an MP after a conviction or lengthy suspension, and four of the first five…
Election costings documents are exercises in framing as much as arithmetic, and a short list of standard tricks covers most of what the…
The Lords is indefensible on paper and quietly useful in practice, and every reform plan collapses on the same question: a more legitimate…
The permanent civil service serves any elected government impartially, and the friction between ministers and officials is a designed…
Individual registration, verified against DWP records and refreshed by an annual canvass, ended household sign-ups but left millions of…
A by-election is triggered by death, resignation, recall or disqualification, and its outsized political weight comes from being the only…
Special advisers are temporary civil servants appointed personally by ministers, exempt from impartiality rules, roughly a hundred strong…
The ministerial code sets rules on honesty, interests and conduct for ministers, but it is not law, and the only person who can enforce it…
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