Megs time as Unit Director has covered: 1 constitutionally significant referendum, 4 general elections, 1 unlawful prorogation of Parliament, a hard to quantlify amount of Prime Ministers (6? but there's time for one more) and an epic number of cups of tea.
What an incredible shift!
Very exciting Unit news!
Three excellent things have just happened:
1) the Rycroft Review of pol finance has been published
2) govt is implementing key changes with immediate effect
3) those changes got cross-party support in the Commons.
Careful scrutiny of the detail will now be essential.
www.gov.uk/government/p...
NEW BLOG: The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill and filibustering in the House of Lords
@lisajames.bsky.social looks at how delay tactics work in the Lords, and what peers could do to stop individuals using procedure to block bills.
Today's event has started!
Join @jessblair.bsky.social, @lauramcallister30.bsky.social and @paulsilk.bsky.social to discuss how the 2026 Senedd election will change Welsh politics, including its possible makeup, new voting system and expansion.
Watch 👇
Great piece Alice!
Good luck telling the guy/gal managing a wedding dancefloor that it's not a real job.
Oh Paula, this is awful. Others have said PAL and the hospital complaints system. But if there was ever a thing I would want to talk through with a professional so I could work out where to put my emotions this would be it.
Yeah I started listening to this a lot in 2024. No reason.
It's a banger though.
This is pernicious, but also just so incredibly boring and lazy
2026 is going to be a huge year for the Constitution Unit. We can't wait to have a new colleague to share cake and politics nerdery with (liking for tea desirable but not essential).
One of the many housing disasters in London in the 00's was the huge boom of conversation of houses into flats. Yeah we got some extra provision for singles and couples but we lost loads of family homes without any replacements. Most of the conversions are crap too!
Watch our event live on YouTube!
1/ Whatever you think of digital ID, the process matters.
And in 2025, this is still how we make big public policy. 👇
This made me wonder about RTW checks on MPs themselves. Are they done day 1 at the Commons? Or is it part of the process of standing as a candidate? Or both?
🚨 Right now, governments across the world are grappling with ailing trust just as bold net zero action is needed.
⌛ In the UK, our experience shows strong public support for net zero remains - but that support needs to be met with real engagement if we’re to hit our 2030 targets.
🧵👇
I wrote something for Rapper’s Delight’s 45th anniversary but got distracted and didn’t publish it until a few months back, so here it is again if you missed it… rentparty.substack.com/p/chapter-24...
The Constitution Unit. How should the UK’s parliaments scrutinise international agreements? 24 September 2025, 1:00pm–2:00pm. Arabella Lang (Head of Public Law at the Law Society and Visiting Fellow at the University of Essex). Lord (Peter) Goldsmith KC (Chair of the International Agreements Committee and former Attorney General). Clare Adamson MSP (SNP MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, and Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee). Chair: Lisa James (Senior Research Fellow at the Constitution Unit).
What role should parliament have in scrutinising international agreements with countries like Mauritius, the US and India?
On 24 Sept, join @arabellalaw.bsky.social, @clareadamsonmsp.bsky.social and Lord (Peter) Goldsmith to discuss just this at our free, online event.
Sign up 👉 buff.ly/T2ZL4WO
The latest edition of our regular constitutional review is now available!
Monitor 90 describes this government's constitutional reform scorecard as 'mixed'. It says that much remains to be done and progress in some areas has been disappointing.
Read it 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution....
The ouroboros problem exists for all the LLMs.
We have new opinion polling on House of Lords reform!
There is overwhelming public support to go beyond the government's current plans to remove hereditary peers (due to be debated in the Lords on Wednesday), including to limit prime ministerial appointments and cap the chamber's size.
A thread 👇
NEW BLOG: Labour and the constitution: (almost) one year on
Ahead of our annual conference, which starts next week and features a keynote speech by Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, @lisajames.bsky.social analyses government progress so far against the commitments in its manifesto
We’re hiring!
A 3-year Postdoc (starting Oct 2025) on an ERC/UKRI-funded project on access to justice and international human rights courts.
PhD in Law or Political Science with quantitative methods experience required.
Deadline: 4th July.
Interviews: Week of 21st July.
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Re-upping my advice about how to write a good title and abstract for an academic paper, appropriately called:
"How to Write a Title and Abstract"
Feel free to share this thread, which will focus on titles.
#EconSky #AcademicSky
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
We have a fantastic line-up of politicians for our conference this year: the Labour Minister for the Constitution giving the keynote, the Conservative Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office Spokesperson, six other cross-party MPs and two peers!
