Why Does Only One Place in the UK not have an MP?
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- čas přidán 21. 04. 2023
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There is one area in the UK that doesn’t have a voice in the House of Commons. Their representative can’t vote in parliament and they can’t voice their opinions on the floor. How is this allowed in a modern democracy and will it ever change?
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I live in Chorley. Hoyle is a good MP has helped our town in many ways. However it's annoying not having a MP in practice.
Fellow Chorleyite here. I like Hoyle as well, and he used to serve on various Parliamentary committees before he became Speaker. Given his (old) party has been in opposition since 2010, I'd say he probably has more clout now as speaker than he would as a Labour MP.
He can still lobby on behalf of his constituents in Chorley (which is a party-neutral duty of MPs). Although he is politically neutral I expect that other MPs don't want to annoy him, since he is the referee in their debates.
Hoyle has been around for so long I assumed Chorley was a safe Labour seat. But from 79-97 it was held by a Tory. So I suppose Hoyle has done well to keep a healthy majority, even before he was Speaker.
@@rogink true and the Tory MP was called Den Dover , which in my infantile school boy mind always reminds me of Ben Dover , a porn star !
@@rogink On a more serious note the Speaker is not challenged in their constituency at General Elections by their old party ( in Lindsay Hoyle's case Labour ) or by the Conservatives and Lib Dems and I think had he not been Speaker at the time of the 2019 General Election and despite him reportedly being a good MP with a personal vote he might well have lost his seat to the tories . Nearby seats Hyndburn and Burnley went from Labour to the tories .
@@patriarch7237 as a fellow chorleyite as well I also like sir Lindsey Hoyle
When I clicked on this video I assumed you were talking about the speakers seat.
I was correct
Thanks for saving me the time
Thank you for the TLDR of the TLDR.
Same. Not a brit yet I know a lot of weird stuff from there. Weird.
Yeah, I'm South African and it took me a few seconds to realise.
Same
-"Too bloody right"
- Yeah!
- Random passerby to Jay Foreman
now that is one good reference
-Genuine Passerby, 2017
In Canada, we have a somewhat similar system except that the speaker is "elected" each time the house sits. If the incumbent wishes to remain, it's almost always an acclamation vote with no one offering against them. They do vote on bills occasionally, but only in the case of ties.
When the house rises, they go right back to being a "party" MP and run as such in the subsequent election with a full slate of candidates opposing them.
Our speaker also votes on bills in cases of times of ties however the convention is for the speaker to vote to leave the bill in its existing form
The Speaker also votes in case of a tie in the UK, but it's extremely rare. it's happened like twice in the past 30 years, and John Bercow actually gave a decent explanation for why he voted the way he did when it did happen to him.
So fairly similar to Australia.
When The American Congressional House Speaker wanted to vote on abolishing slavery some Representatives went as far as to object because it was so rare but he wanted to be on the right side of history lol.
@@gothicgolem2947 American Speakers vote however they please but it is somewhat rare. They are seen as vote wranglers / campaigners not voters essentially
Now I can't get Jay Foreman's video out of my head.
OOORRDDDEEEERRRR
The speaker still takes on constituent’s casework though. It’s almost better for the constituents in a way because the speaker will pass on requests to the relevant government minister who can get things done faster.
Why can't the speaker be separate from the MP? It makes no sense to me how there can't be an MP for the area, while there is a speaker too.
Get a speaker which isn't an MP, so that they're definitely neutral and wouldn't feel any obligation or bias for their old party, and so all areas have an MP.
People would complain that the speakership is too an important of a position to not be democratically elected. The speaker basically controls the commons, which is the sole authority in the country. If they went rogue, they would arguably have more power than the prime minister. For example, they could just kick the PM out of every meeting in the commons, rendering them unable to pass any law. I don't think people are comfortable with someone having that much control over the democratic system being unelected.
@@MrBrockHeinzthe speaker is voted in by MPs all they have to do is have MPs vote on a neutral person. MPs could table a motion of removing them if required. In the current system you deprive a constituency of representation & testing how well someone can leave their long time alliance.
In America they are both Speaker + Representative & most people forget they have 2 elected titles simultaneously, the only person legally allowed to have 2 major elected political titles in America really to my knowledge
@@MrPsychomonkey Well, the current guy is a Labour MP who was elected by a Tory-majority parliament, not because they wanted to, but because they had to. Under your system, the Tories could vote in any stooge they wanted (as they currently control parliament). In addition, if the current guy goes rogue, the people can just un-elect him. Under your system, there is no way for the people to directly remove him as he wasn't elected by the people in the first place. Instead, they'd have to indirectly threaten the speaker's position by not voting for the ruling party/coalition that voted for the speaker, which is 650 elections the people would have to tactically vote in to get that done. Doesn't it just make more sense to have the 1 election for the people to remove a speaker? Of course, that'd involve making the speaker an MP.
@@MrBrockHeinz Do you not think that's worse of a problem when the speaker isn't neutral?
I think it's important for the speaker to be an MP, but acknowledge the problem of his/her essentially unrepresented constituency. A solution would be to create a "rotten borough" especially for the speaker, say a barely inhabited island like Lindisfarne or Lundy.
When a new speaker is elected, the previous speaker would resign as the member for the special speakers constituency and if the new speaker was the only candidate, there would be no need for a byelection there, while a byelection would be held in the new speakers old constituency so they could have genuine representation in parliament. Everybody wins!
I did think that they should be MP of somewhere else. Like Westminster Palace for example. I believe it's just the Speaker and family for each House that live in the Palace.
Lots of people live on Lindisfarne, and it’s only an island at high tide. How about Rockall? It’s British and utterly remote. Besides the speaker there are two deputy speakers anyway.
@@Joanna-il2ur Well it's almost impossible to even land on Rockall, but I'll compromise and suggest St Kilda instead.
@@Dave_Sisson Perhaps we could bring back Old Sarum!
that would create a constituency that is not accountable by any means, but would have actual mp power if they are not re-elected as speaker
Guys, I have to say, these videos are fantastic. They're to the point, non-bias and informative. I can't think of any other channel, whether it be online or on TVs, that is as good as TLDR.
Lol
They make a lot of mistakes
Non-biased????? You are of course having a laugh with that.
@@davidgreen6490 couldn’t agree more. The whole piece was riddled with opinion
non-biased*
I'm in Australia, we use a similar political system to the UK. I lived in the electorate of the speaker for a good chunk of my voting life. He had to stand against opposition every election. The speakers here are usually chosen from long term blue ribbon seats. The speaker is neutral while sitting but does not lose their part affiliation. It still means the minister cannot bring issues but in theory a least the people have chosen their party, their policies. But if a speaker loses their seat in a shock loss, they do lose the speakership and a new one is appointed. It works for us.
they elect a new one every term. Sometimes it's the same person but sometimes it is not. If the government changes hands then it will certainly be a new one as the lower house votes on the speaker and the governing party want the umpire is on their side. Speaker is a shitty job given to people who have experience but aren't stars and are expected to not have the capacity to go higher in their career. It works because they are elected just like every other MP and still get the casting vote if needed.
For anyone who was wondering the current speaker is from the area of Chorley in Lancashire
I have a few suggestions. 1) As you suggest, the speaker could be replaced in a byelection as soon as they are elected. 2) Or, the speaker is some lawyer or judge that parliament elects periodically. In the US, it isn't required that the speaker be a member of Congress. That is why Donald Trump was nominated to the position in the current Congress. 3) Or they are allowed to be partisan as in the US Congress.
Or introducing a better, more proportional election system.
The Speaker there seems to be more like the Prime Minister in a country like France that also has an elected President.
A partisan speaker would be awful.
that would end utterly horrifyingly, please dont ever have a partisan speaker subject to change
The point of the speaker at present is that they are an MP. That's WHY no main party runs against them; If they lose their seat they lose the speakership. You'd want a 3rd party speaker, possible a non-partisan one from the House of Lords or civil servant role.
Ireland has a similar system where the Speaker of our Parliament (Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann) is automatically reelected, but because we use multi-seat constituencies and PR-STV voting, their constituency still gets to vote, and still has 2-4 representatives (instead of the usual 3-5).
Do one of Isle of Mann, Jersey & Gurnsey, still confuses me,
Also u could kinda count some N.Ireland seats since Sinn Féin abstain from Westminster
In Northern Ireland, the people choose to vote for a candidate who says they won't take their seat, so I think that is a bit different. They could, and some do, vote for a different party such as SDLP if they don't like that policy.
@@katrinabryce yeah but would just make a good video since in a way those voters don't get represented & they vote to not be represented in a way
IoM, Jersey and Guernsey (plus a number of smaller islands) are Crown Dependencies. They are self governing for domestic matters and are not part of the United Kingdom, so none of them sends representatives to Westminster.
@@aranmcdonagh255 We have our own elected representatives who go to local assemblies here. The islands are self governing, manage taxation, education, health, transport etc. Those of us with links to the UK can still vote in UK elections (in the last constituency you lived in before leaving the UK).
Most of the time this is fine, although Brexit still affected these islands (albeit in a more limited way) yet native islanders couldn't take part.
They're all colonies in all but name, self ruling
In Ireland the "convention" is in the written constitution so "speaker" automatically re-elected
Any of the forms of Proportional Representation with multi-member constituencies would immediately solve the problem.
it feels like TLDR went full reaction channel when making the thumbnail
Their only counter arguement is voter fatigue? That's a rather weak counter arguement.
A by election is a no brainer, we have a by election when an mp resigns and taking the job as speaker is essentially resigning.
In Germany every party represented in parliament gets to nominate a deputy speaker (or as it's called "deputy president of the Bundestag"), the biggest party's nominee is "the president of the Bundestag". In reality the speaker and all the deputies take turn in leading the sessions and follow common guidance agreed between them beforehand.
In the UK the two deputy speakers are invariably one Labour and one Conservative. One rarely-noted fact is that the deputy speakers don't vote in divisions,
One strange effect is that since 2017, the House of Common has 640 active members-Speaker and two deputies can't vote, 7 Sinn Fein MPs won't take their seats.
In Ireland this problem isn't as severe because the ceann comhairle (same job as speaker of the house) gets automatically re-elected, and all our constituencies have 3-5 seats anyway
I live in Chorley so Lindsay Hoyle is my local MP. It is worth pointing out that, as a local MP, he's very good. He has often worked in partnership with older people to ensure they have good care outcomes, he is overseeing transformation in services for younger people (though we do lag behind in that) and most prominently of all, his voice arguably swayed the A&E department to remain open under threat of closure a few years ago.
However it is frustrating that we are essentially stuck with him with no chance to change. I genuinely think his seat would've been under threat in 2019 had he not been elected speaker. There's a strong chance that in the next election I will be voting green should they stand a candidate here (nothing against Hoyle - just to send a message to the Labour party).
A change in procedure so that one constituency isn't ignored would be appreciated.
Not keen on the old Mark Brexit-Smith from 2019? 😁
I think this is one of the few times that the Speaker represents what would have been a marginal seat. Bercow represented Buckingham which of course is a safe Tory seat, Michael Martin Glasgow North East and Betty Boothroyd West Bromwich West which were both safe Labour seats at that time and Bernard Weatherill before them represented Croydon North East which was a safe Tory seat when he became Speaker. As a result, I don't think it's mattered too much before which probably explains the lack of interest in changing anything.
Yes, the message will be “hey,I’ve just given the Tories another seat”
@@matthewcarter2481 😂 he might as well changed his name to Mark Self-Sabotage-Smith
At least then it'd be alliterative
Personally I'd just give you a 2nd mp (as used to be common) so that way you still get the normal opportunity to remove your MP.
Though of course except for the matter of choice tge speakers seat gets better representation on local issues as ministers by convention have to meet with the speaker when asked so unlike a backbencher your MP will always have tge ear of government whoever is in power.
Who in here watched at least 1 john bercow vid and immediately thought of speaker seat?
No, there is no agreement or custom to alternate between the parties. It has just happened that way - it was normal for the new Speaker to come from the governing party and the parties alternated in government. Betty Boothroyd's win in 1992 as a Labour MP while the Conservatives were in government was almost unprecedented (although the last two Speakers were both opposition MPs when first elected). NB the three Deputy Speakers also do not vote or speak in Parliament.
And the three Deputy Speakers are currently two Tory MPs and one Labour MP and it falls this way because the Speaker was a Labour MP I think it was the opposite under Bercow . Bercow was a Tory MP before becoming Speaker so his three Deputies were two Labour MPs and one Tory MP . I think the idea is that as they cant vote the loss of votes cancel each other out if that makes sense.
There is actually another location without an MP - Romford.
Romford's MP hasnt turnt up to do the job since April 27th last year.
As a constituent of Romford, having this individual not representing me is both a blessing and a pain. I want to have representation, but our current MP is someone who does not seem to be interested in representing people who do not have the same views as him.
I think the constituents of Uxbridge and South Ruislip who apparently haven't seen the Billy Bunter look alike they voted for since he told them they had done the right and proper thing by voting for their better in 2015. When he does turn up next year to be re-elected there will be a whole lot of people asking him "who the f are you?"
@@neilflood6508 I live in Emerson Park. They were threatening to make him our MP when changing boundaries.
Like, he doesnt even know where Romford is. Genuinely has mislocated it in multiple interviews. Never mind the fact he claims he lives in his Mums house in Romford whilst claiming expenses on his actual "London address" about 15 minutes away in a posher location.
@@Garfie489 I hate the guy intensley but I cannot agree that he does not know where Romford is. He does live in his childhood home as far as I know and is regularly seen around the constituency, mainly for photo ops. He has already been reselected to stand at the next general election. Whilst being born in the Barking & Dagenham borough (the old Rush Green Hospital?) his background is totally in Romford. A friend of my brother was at school with him.
As an aside, your MP lives in Limehouse I believe and has few ties to the constituency, either historically or current. Time to get rid of both of them.
@@neilflood6508 im afraid i am correct in my statement.
He has had multiple interviews over the years from his "constituency office" where he claims he was in Essex at the time.
Romford is not in Essex, so he clearly doesnt know where his constituency is.
I was a bit confused by the title, but I started to chuckle when I realised which MP you were discussing.
An MP does not represent the people of his constituency. He represents the plurality in his constituency that elected him. To represent all voters you need proportional representation.
Back in Brazil, we made the Central Bank (equivalent to the BoE) independent and it was a bad move.
In Norway think they also vote for alternative members of parliament who fill in if the elected representative becomes the PM or a member of the government
You are correct, just confirmed it on the Norwegian parliament website.
Though I'm pretty sure they are just the next person on that party's list, there's no vote specifically for alternative MPs. If the party got more votes then that person would be elected (though technically the person is elected, not the party, so it is f.ex. possible to switch parties and stay in their seat - very rarely happens though).
Same thing happens if a MP is on leave. They are called vararepresentanter, vara for short. Translates to something like deputy representatives.
What a Thumbnail 😂
Anyone who was watching this channel while Bercow presided over Brexit debates figured out the mystery intro pretty quickly - and probably had his distinctive “Orduh!” reverberating in their minds!
In Australia the Speaker changes every term but will usually be from the governing party. Usually a thankless job for someone who is not expected to go any further in their career.
The UK should just move towards a proportional system. You can still have parties draw their Maps from all regions and assign MPs to be representatives for constituencies.
I don't want the parties assignng who my MP is, ***I**** want to assign who my MP is.
This is my home town, when youre at uni, you can kinda choose which seat to do your voting, as you can imagine, we all vote where we are at uni
What do you mean? Can you vite twice in 2 Parliamentary Districts if you live in 2 places in Britiain?
You can only vote once, but you can optionally choose to change your residence to your uni house or not. So you can either keep your old address, travel home and vote there or register to vote in your uni constituency. Basically everyone chooses to change it to the uni constituency though because you have to cast your vote which would mean travelling home anyway. If your uni is in a super safe seat and your home town is marginal though, some people choose to vote at home
This seems more fair than the District of Columbia never having a member of Congress (just saying).
Elenor Holms Norton
I would split up this district in "2" parts!
° 1 City State, with 5 distinct political communities; e.g. "Washington upon Potomac"
^ compare to "State" Bremen; Canton Basel-Stadt
° USA`s Federal District; inhabitants only "The First Family"
I miss Bercow.
ORDEEEEEEEER!
I miss his phrases too like " it's no good the honourable gentlemen chuntering from a sedentary position " or " I couldnt give a flying flamingo what the honourable gentleman thinks " .
The title gave the impression that one location persistently lacked representation, whereas the speaker can be from any electorate.
Might as well have a Civil Servant there.
Problem with changing the system is that *only* MPs may enter the chamber, whilst in session; ergo, you cannot strip MP status from the speaker.
Local representatives in the UK likely only represent a minority of constituents, so most locals are not represented by them. Another way first past the post system leaves people without representation.
MP's represents ALL the constituents in their area, it doesn't matter if you voted for them or not. They do not ask for your political loyalty when you ask them to write letters to government authorities. They do not put you in the bottom of the queue because you did not vote for them.
MP's hold regular surgeries for anyone in their area to have a private meeting and discuss their opinions, problems or issues.Don't think it's legal for MP's to refuse you help based on your voting habits.
@@Diovanlestat if that's true, then why are they from a specific party? Do you really think a conservative or labour mp is going to represent a green party voter?
That would result in major conflict of interest.
So no, they cannot and do not represent all constituents. You are stating unrealistic bullshit.
And if you think talking to them changes that, you are sadly deluded.
@@bzuidgeest If you've got a problem that requires help from an elected representative, it's their job to help you, whether you voted for them or not. And it could help gain votes at the next election too.
@@bzuidgeest You are looking at it from a purely ideology/legislative point of view. But most of the things an MP does in a parliamentary system has nothing to do with ideology. A good MP lobbys the government on behalf of local constituents for more money and executive attention. They help constituents navigate complex local and federal government rules. And because of the nature of their role, they can also use their local popularity to create pressure on local government to solve problems.
@@bzuidgeest I am not deluded, I speak from knowledge, facts and experience. You however know little about our constitutional arrangements and instead depend on your own ignorance, prejudice, emotional (ass)umptions to sound moronic and make a fool of yourself.
One question, in a country like the UK where every vote is secret, how the hell would your local MP know who you voted for?
FACT British MP's represent every person in their area, including none voters and those unable to vote (eg, children) If you lived here, they would also
Represent you even though you seem to be hostile, opinionated and stupid.
Because their MP is the Speaker incase you don't have eight and half minutes to spare.
The speaker convention of the UK is a great asset.
In other Westminister inspired countries like Australia, the speaker can be incredibly political and comes from the majority party in the lower house. Decisions are often made to keep the opposition down, penalise them and insult them ruling it is fine under the rules.
Australian speakers have even been caught up in political fund-raising scandles like choper-gate.
The constitutional change to have a bielection is an interesting one.
Could solve another Austrilian issue where parliamentary majorities can be very slim at times and you effectively lose a vote for putting up the speaker
I love that you used a fly over Accrington hyndburn and not Chorley. Two completely different towns
An other solution would be to have a special kind of by-election after the Speaker is elected. The thus elected MP would have a special status, like "acting MP", "junior MP" or "suppletive MP" for speaker's constituency while the Speaker would remain the official MP for that constituency. So, instead of having an exception with a constituency with no effective MP, there would be a constituency with virtually two MP's... quite quirky, but it would do the job.
Fixing this is very simple. Once someone becomes speaker, their MP seat is invalidated and replaced with a new vote by the population of that constituency. Repeat next time you need a speaker.
Or you could give up constituencies and majority voting like a modern nation and adopt proportional representation where this wouldn't be a significant issue to begin with. But harder to reach with mere evolutionary change.
In the unlikely event there is a tied vote, the speaker does cast the deciding vote. This tends to go by (I believe) the conventions of Speaker Dennison. For example, if a vote is tied and it is around whether a Bill goes into law, the speaker will vote no as convention states it is not the role of the chair to create a majority on a policy issue where no majority otherwise exists. However if it is a vote around sending a bill to committee, they vote yes as it enables more scrutiny. Think budget and confidence motions they vote with the government i think.
An electoral reform with multi-member districts (i.e PR and STV) would allow for a 3 seat district to still have 2 MPs represent them if the speaker is elected from there.
More than one place, the British Overseas Territories and Dependencies are also bound by rules set in the UK but have no representation in the House of Commons and the population between all of those regions is almost a million people
IKR? It's a tragedy, & some people believe they're all independent countries lol.
(They do have *British-Irish Council Organisation* Member-State Status though. That's about it!)
Another thing, it's absolutely absurd that England State gets no representation in Parliament. Absolutely sickening way to run a Country.
Meanwhile in America, Columbia District is desperate for that representation & fights for it while in England State, UK people don't even seem to notice....that they lack a GOVERNOR/1ST MINISTER & STATE PARLIAMENT!
The BOTs generally have complete autonomy over domestic affairs with the UK only having power over Defense and Foreign Affairs, it's quite rare for the UK to make laws for these areas.
@@kirkpeters5344 I brought up BOTs because i have been a resident in one for almost 25 years and have quite a bit of firsthand knowledge regarding them. On paper you may be right but in practice this isn’t true, Parliament has taken action on multiple issues just over the past 25 years that have bound the OTs without them having any input or contributions. The UK government binds their governments to certain fiscal rules again without their input or say and have in some cases suspended their devolved governments and been involved in espionage against their respective local representatives, the very placement of the OTs under the purview of the Foreign office rather than the Home Office displays the at best standoffish relationship between the UK and the OT, when its time for a Royal Tour or to have the royal family stand near some friendly non-white faces the UK will acknowledge and engage with the OTs past that they would rather pretend they were someone else’s problem, the UK now regularly tells a few of the OTs that they are “too rich” to receive aid and benefits despite not being independent and the UK owing them the same responsibility as any other parts of the country.
The Governors appointed to the various OTs are bound to represent the will and desires of the UK and many of them actually retain full power to legislate unilaterally without the involvement of the devolved territorial governments.
The UK has also increasingly regularly intervened in otherwise devolved matters such as relating to criminal law and elections.
@@shonenjumpmagneto England State? No such entity exists. England is a constituent country of the United Kingdom, and like all constituent countries in the United Kingdom it is divided into roughly equally populated constituencies each election one MP, England having by far the most constituencies, more than all the other countries combined. Of course they don't get any special representation in Parliament, not a single cinstituent country does.
Isn't it actually 4, the 3 deputies don't get to vote or speak in the House but they do get to remain in their political party?
True and they dont have the luxury of being unopposed by the other main parties . Labour MP and Deputy Speaker Natascha Engel lost her North East Derbyshire seat to the tories in 2017 and Dame Rosie Winterton almost suffered the same fate in Doncaster Central in 2019 .
The title is incredibly misleading. There is NO part of the UK that doesn't have an MP. The Speaker IS an MP.
The speaker can vote, for example, in the case of a tied vote, but there is a convention that sets out how they should vote in such situation, which as far as I know is universally adhered to.
Effectively any Sinn Fein seat also in Northern Ireland doesn't have an MP because they do not swear an oath to the crown
Thankyou for binging it to me.
Why not just make a simple agreement like "ok, the speaker was in X party so MP from the same party whose constituency is the closest to the speaker's one will take his duties"
Why not have a special election to fill the vacated constituency, as we do for House vacancies in the United States. Then give the Speaker an official, though unpopulated, constituency - a rotten borough.
Or, as noted, remove the Speaker from being an MP. Interestingly, our U.S. Speaker of the House is NOT constitutionally required to be an elected Member of the House. Let Parliament elect any citizen as Speaker.
As for “election fatigue”, it’s a small price to pay for representative democracy.
Besides the Speaker, there are two Deputy Speakers and the same conditions apply.
This title sounds like you think more places shouldn't have an MP
From the Other Side of the Pond ... your Speaker system works much better than ours (Betty Boothroyd vs. Paul Ryan). Why can't the adjoining riding MPs work collectively to assist the Speaker's constituents?
Too bloody right!
my family is from buckingham and we campaigned a lot against this problem when bercow was speaker. It's such a stupid problem to have that could be pretty easily solved, but as with everything in a democracy, a problem that affects such a small part of the population is never going to make enough noise to be changed
Considering this is a channel built by a parliament speaker, John Bercow. It's amazing that it took you guys this long to cover it.
How does this work with the deputy speaker?
I'm from Lubec Maine. They do not have a police station or officers.
No taxation without representation !!!
That is a joke in the USA, which is run by a bunch of corporations that throw money at the government get what they want. Democracy is an illusion in the USA, it's basically an oligarchy.
I didn't know the speakership of the UK parliament had so many conventions. Still, I do prefer a largely neutral speaker in a legislature.
Why doesn’t the UK just make the Speaker position a directly elected non-MP position (so you would run for speaker specifically) or just make the position not held by a MP?
That would solve the representation issue and keep the same system mostly
Having a cabinet member as your mp is no better. Even before the promotion he only spoke in parliment to further his own career.
It's the MP for Clickbaiterton, the home of TLDR News
If a speaker becomes unpopular with his constituents can vote him out by voting for an unpopular third party?
The report should have considered how this same issue is handled in the other Dominions using the Westminster system. In Canada the Speaker does not vote and does not belong to any committees, but they are still a member of the party caucus and elections in their district, called a Riding in Canada, remain ordinary.
Canada’s speaker can only vote in the Commons in case of a tie
Misleading title. This area has an MP. Their MP is the Speaker.
I consider this quirk academic, because through personal experience an MP may help with personal issues but will always defend the party line. Living in a safe seat, this is frustrating. Our elective dictatorship in general is a sham and needs fundamental reform.
If you’re going to bring up the speaker, you have to bring up the 3 deputies as well
Not to mention all the constituencies with an MP who is self-serving and only turns up for awards and photoshoots, voting against matters which would help their own conscients.
Finally he stopped shaking his hands
If you elect someone as an mp and they win it then you have the candidate you liked the most as a place. If they choose to be speaker I assume the person chosen as speaker is the one everyone feels is best for the role so really you should feel happy you voted for a guy who was considered to have the brains and talent to be speaker of the house
No magic points? 🤯🤯🤯🤯
In Canada, a new Speaker in elected for each session and no MP ever runs unopposed in the General Election.
The public had the change to vote in a "working" m.p and chose not too. Maybe one day some areas will use THEIR RIGHT and vote for a different party and send a message to the top 2 in power.
Why not choose the speaker from among outgoing MP's and the current speaker before an election. There can be no claim for election fatigue then.
What about the Deputy Speakers?
So can the speaker of the house only come from the top two parties? I would presume they don't but that seems to be the de facto case. In the Scottish Parliament, the speaker of the house was formerly a Green Party MSP, which is the 4th party (Although, I guess they are in coalition government).
AFAIK the speakership is open to any MP, regardless of their party affiliation. It's just that the voting will normally fall down party lines and the Big 2 will do what they can to keep it between them, rather than allow an outsider be in control of the House.
@@danielseelye6005 I see, thank you!
In a close Parliament there may be an advantage in supporting a third-party Speaker, even if it is your party's "turn," to avoid losing an MP. Generally though, both close Parliaments and Speaker elections are rare and both major parties tend to keep party political considerations out of Speaker elections and just elect the best person for the job, because they are probably going to be stuck with them for the next 10-15 years!
Because the speaker is initially elected.
Pretty sure City of London doesn't have an MP and only a Remembrancer, it weirdly does have an MP now (well sort of) so what's the point of the Remembrancer?
Also, they have a partner MP who represents their constituency for them.
TLDR: it's the speakers seat
Bad title, they're talking about the Speaker.
The Speaker is an MP. He or she just does not vote by convention.
But The Speaker IS an MP. He/She still does casework but doesn't vote.
I live only two minutes away from Chorley in South Ribble and it feels unfair that I get to vote for my MP but they essentially don't.
As brexiters found out, borders have to go somewhere.
Why don't you stand against the Speaker in his constituency at the next General Election?
You would think that the Crown or the government or even a member of the Lords or some committee would champion the speakers constituency.
It could simply be made that the speakers seat has two MPs (not uncommon in the past) and the speaker's seat only comes up for reelection if there is a recall or similar.
That way the speaker remains an MP with his tie breaker but the locals get a real contest.
He'd nominally be an MP still, with all that means but basically otherwise just be a servant of the house.
Them you'd only need a by election when a new MP became speaker and you'd need a second for that seat.
It's a constitutional question but tbh a minor one.
Once the Speaker is elected they should really give up their position as an MP to force a by-election, for their constituents no longer have a voice... under the current system!
This also applies to the deputy speaker(s) I think
Why not making the King to designate a non-elected neutral Speaker that does not belong to any party? The current system is clearly not working
Instead off bi election why don't they just keep the speaker as there MP until the next election and then remove speaker as the MP
What about Uxbridge and South Ruislip?
In New Zealand, we have a different electoral system that includes non Constituency MPs. While the first election under this system was in 1996 a convention has now evolved that any MP of the major party who wants to be Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament does not stand in any constituency but gets a high enough ranking to be elected via the proportional allocation system. Thus every area has at least one representative.
The other thing in New Zealand is that votes are provided by Party Whips, so the Speakers vote can be cast on their behalf. This is probably the result of a bit of skullduggery by the then Prime Minister Jin Bolger who in 1993 had a majority of one (and at that time the Speaker only voted when there was a tie, so the majority would be lost if one of his MPs was Speaker) so he asked an opposition MP to be Speaker. They agreed, thus increasing the majority to two.
I think we should have a specific national election for the speaker, they would have their own seat, and if they resign they give up their seat
It might help improve that aspect of lacking democracy for the speakers constituents as the position currently functions