Confessions of A Recovering MP
Confessions of A Recovering MP

Author: Nick de Bois

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2018-01-09

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1785903411

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Shortlisted for the Political Books Awards 'Best Parliamentary Memoir 2018' You are not an executive who can make and enforce decisions. You are a legislator who votes on making laws. You are not a counsellor, a housing officer, benefits clerk, bank or trading standards officer, but you are often expected to provide a new home, sort out benefits, provide a loan or settle a dispute about a computer game bought for little Jimmy that doesn't work. You are, in fact, a 21stcentury Member of Parliament representing about 125,000 good folk from your constituency by taking your seat in probably the finest parliament in the world (despite what you may read or hear in the media). You are elected by a simple majority from roughly 50,000 people who mark their 'X' by your name at a general election, hoping that you will be able to make a difference somehow. Then, when as a new MP, you walk through the Members Lobby filled with a vision of how you will leave your mark on this place and this nation, what you are almost certainly unaware of is that your constituents, your government, the press and the very institution of the Palace of Westminster have other plans for you.

Parliament Buildings
Parliament Buildings

Author: Sophia Psarra

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2023-10-30

Total Pages: 534

ISBN-13: 1800085346

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As political polarisation undermines confidence in the shared values and established constitutional orders of many nations, it is imperative that we explore how parliaments are to stay relevant and accessible to the citizens whom they serve. The rise of modern democracies is thought to have found physical expression in the staged unity of the parliamentary seating plan. However, the built forms alone cannot give sufficient testimony to the exercise of power in political life. Parliament Buildings brings together architecture, history, art history, history of political thought, sociology, behavioural psychology, anthropology and political science to raise a host of challenging questions. How do parliament buildings give physical form to norms and practices, to behaviours, rituals, identities and imaginaries? How are their spatial forms influenced by the political cultures they accommodate? What kinds of histories, politics and morphologies do the diverse European parliaments share, and how do their political trajectories intersect? This volume offers an eclectic exploration of the complex nexus between architecture and politics in Europe. Including contributions from architects who have designed or remodelled four parliament buildings in Europe, it provides the first comparative, multi-disciplinary study of parliament buildings across Europe and across history. Praise for Parliament Buildings ‘In its totality, this is an invaluable book, both as a comprehensive review of the wider implications of architecture and building in culture and society, and as a specific resource in the understanding of one highly specialised, but profoundly significant building type.’ Dean Hawkes, Cardiff University and University of Cambridge ‘Symbols of history and of hope, theatres of struggle, cradles of consensus: parliamentary buildings, as these diverse essays show, both reflect our democracies and can help them function better.’ David Anderson, House of Lords ‘Parliament Buildings is a brilliant interdisciplinary exploration of a fascinating topic. Theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich and historically informed, it demonstrates the multiple ways in which politics and the built environment intersect, and sheds light on the symbolic and material practices central to contemporary representative politics.’ Duncan Bell, University of Cambridge

The 1922 Committee
The 1922 Committee

Author: Philip Norton

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1526173298

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The Conservative Private Members (1922) Committee is an important but elusive force in British politics. Despite becoming almost a household name during the leadership crises of 2022, it remains little understood beyond the corridors of Westminster. Established in 1923 by a group of Conservative MPs elected the year before, the Committee offers backbenchers an opportunity to discuss their views and coordinate independently of the frontbench. Over time it has become the kingmaker of the Conservative Party, overseeing leadership elections and confidence votes such as that faced by Boris Johnson over ‘partygate’. How did the Committee come together? How is it structured and how much power does it really wield? These are among the questions the book considers. Providing unprecedented insights into this long-standing institution, it is essential reading for anyone who cares about the integrity of our political system.

John Bercow
John Bercow

Author: Sebastian Whale

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 1785905813

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Divisive, controversial, atypical - few others embody the fraught nature of British politics today quite like John Bercow. A man who is revered by his one-time political opponents and chastised by his former bedfellows. A politician who has traversed the deep chasm between the Conservative right and the liberal left. A Speaker some see as a great moderniser and others, a constitutional arsonist. With Brexit left unresolved, Bercow is determined to ensure that he, the 157th person to occupy the Speaker's Chair, has left an indelible imprint on the history books. From suffering at the hands of bullies to standing up for backbenchers in the Commons, this is the story of John Simon Bercow, the son of a taxi driver from North London, and one of the most fascinating characters to grace the corridors of the Palace of Westminster.

Fatal Ambition
Fatal Ambition

Author: Nick de Bois

Publisher:

Published: 2021-09-03

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9781739930806

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This former political insider delivers a page-turning political conspiracy thriller that delves right to the heart of the UK establishment. "A realistic contemporary thriller that has you gripped from the first page. A well written, deftly crafted novel set in the chaos of Westminster just after the departure of Boris Johnson, by someone who knows parliament and government from the inside. " John Rentoul - The Independent "It's a turbo-charged rollercoaster ride through the corridors of power. Betrayal, murder, sex and intrigue. This book has got it all." Mike Graham - Presente, talkRADIO Success The Prime Minister is on borrowed time. Scandal His successor lies in wait. Secrecy But who else has their eyes on the prize? The suicide of a cabinet ministers brother, unable to face the fallout of an illegal finance deal gone bad that he had organised sets in trail a series of events that reach into the very heart of government, inside No 10 Downing Street itself and threatening the very survival of the government at a crucial time for the United Kingdom Secretary of State James Cleaver's shock and grief at the death of his brother is quickly overcome by the more urgent matter of making sure that no one can follow the fraudulent money trail that he is fully implicated in, and he's relying on Karen, Chief of Staff to the already doomed Prime Minister and seeming kingmaker, with whom he's having an affair. Together they plot James's accession to the top job, but there is a price to pay, over turning the decision of the British people to leave the European Union and seek once again "ever closer union" with Brussels. For the top job this is a betrayal James Cleaver is prepared to countenance only because his squalid financial arrangements will stay buried that way. Nothing must stop him fulfilling his ambition. But following the sudden death of her close friend and Downing Street political aide, journalist Beth Anderson is determined to find out who killed him and why and the finger of blame points to Cleaver, but even she will end up compromised as she realises she is up against more than even one of the most ruthlessly ambitious politicians ever to stalk the corridors of power. Not everything is as it seems and the future of the government and the fate of the United Kingdom depends on who will win in this jostle of fatal ambition? The man who's devoted his life to take the prize - or the woman set out to destroy him. What begins as a betrayal, leaves many victims in its wake . . . Written by former MP Nick de Bois who's been there first hand at the highest levels of government and in the heart of the establishment, this story asks not just Who is really pulling the strings? But Who is really in charge?

Given for You
Given for You

Author: Keith A. Mathison

Publisher: P & R Publishing

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780875521862

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Is the Lord's Supper, a time of communion with our Lord and with his people, a high point in our lives? What thought do we give to biblical teaching on this sacrament? In Given for You Keith Mathison seeks to encourage prayerful reflection and discussion about this now neglected sacrament. He introduces, explains, and defends a particular understanding of the Lord's Supper--a Reformed understanding...The doctrine of the Lord's Supper presented and defended by John Calvin is the biblical doctrine, the basic doctrine of the sixteenth-century Reformed churches, and the doctrine that should be proclaimed in Reformed churches today. In a final chapter on practical issues, Mathison addresses the frequency of communion, the elements to be used, and the practice of paedo-communion.

Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays
Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays

Author: Paul Kingsnorth

Publisher: Graywolf Press

Published: 2017-08-01

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1555979726

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A provocative and urgent essay collection that asks how we can live with hope in “an age of ecocide” Paul Kingsnorth was once an activist—an ardent environmentalist. He fought against rampant development and the depredations of a corporate world that seemed hell-bent on ignoring a looming climate crisis in its relentless pursuit of profit. But as the environmental movement began to focus on “sustainability” rather than the defense of wild places for their own sake and as global conditions worsened, he grew disenchanted with the movement that he once embraced. He gave up what he saw as the false hope that residents of the First World would ever make the kind of sacrifices that might avert the severe consequences of climate change. Full of grief and fury as well as passionate, lyrical evocations of nature and the wild, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist gathers the wave-making essays that have charted the change in Kingsnorth’s thinking. In them he articulates a new vision that he calls “dark ecology,” which stands firmly in opposition to the belief that technology can save us, and he argues for a renewed balance between the human and nonhuman worlds. This iconoclastic, fearless, and ultimately hopeful book, which includes the much-discussed “Uncivilization” manifesto, asks hard questions about how we’ve lived and how we should live.

The Glasgow Effect
The Glasgow Effect

Author: Ellie Harrison

Publisher: Luath Press Ltd

Published: 2019-11-01

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 1912387646

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How would your career, social life, family ties, carbon footprint and mental health be affected if you could not leave the city where you live? Artist Ellie Harrison sparked a fast-and-furious debate about class, capitalism, art, education and much more, when news of her year-long project The Glasgow Effect went viral at the start of 2016. Named after the term used to describe Glasgow's mysteriously poor public health and funded to the tune of £15,000 by Creative Scotland, this controversial 'durational performance' centred on a simple proposition – that the artist would refuse to travel beyond Glasgow's city limits, or use any vehicles except her bike, for a whole calendar year.