iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Politico reports that yesterday the Speaker chose an Urgent Question about English whiskey over one about AI risks. Which is more urgent for government to respond to? 🥃🤖 This is an interesting illustration of why there should be more clarity on how decisions about the “urgency” of UQs are made. 🧵

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Daniel Gover @danielgover.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

After MPs voted against assisted dying legislation today, a new piece from me on the outcome: 'Why did MPs vote to reject the assisted dying bill – and what happens now?' @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/why-did-mps-...

theconversation.com

Why did MPs vote to reject the assisted dying bill – and what happens now?

It’s the end of the road for this particular bill.

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UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Parliament under Andy Burnham: ten things to look out for this autumn Ahead of parliament returning next week, Tom Fleming outlines what parliament-watchers should keep an eye on, from lighter whipping of MPs, to revitalising modernisation, to the next steps of House of Lords reform. Read it 👇️

blogs.ucl.ac.uk

Parliament under Andy Burnham: ten things to look out for this autumn

As Andy Burnham’s new government prepares to face scrutiny from MPs for the first time, Tom Fleming outlines ten key issues and questions facing parliament in the weeks and months ahead.

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Tibor M. Kalman @kalmantibs.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Buskers tribute to Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard in Dublin 🇮🇪 this evening with a collective version of Falling Slowly, which he co-wrote with Markéta Irglová. Glen Hansard, 1970-2026. ❤️‍🩹🕯️🕊️ 📹 Dublin Live

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Ruth Fox @ruthfox.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

🧵The House of Commons administration plans to abolish its world leading parliamentary outreach team. @aileenwalker.bsky.social & @estrangeirada.bsky.social explain why cutting in person public engagement across the UK in favour of digital only engagement is a mistake. Blog 🔗⬇️

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Area Man @areamancm.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Full disclosure: I used to manage this team and I think scrapping it is foolish, short-sighted and frankly contemptuous of the public

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Ruxandra Serban @ruxandrasrbn.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

As the House of Commons rises for recess today, Andy Burnham will be the first PM to take over during recess since Alec Douglas-Home in 1963. To have some initial scrutiny of Burnham’s plans, the Liaison Committee could hold a session with him over the summer. ukandeu.ac.uk/should-andy-...

ukandeu.ac.uk

Should Andy Burnham face the House of Commons before summer recess? - UK in a changing Europe

Ruxandra Serban explains that the gap between Andy Burnham taking office and facing Parliament will be the longest of any incoming Prime Minister in history and considers the questions it raises about...

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Ben Yong @bymyong.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

What is fascinating about the debate over whether the Chancellor can refuse Farage’s resignation is the marginalisation of Parliament on a decision affecting one of its own members. 1/4

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Jayne Kirkham MP writes about why education outreach services matter so much for a constituency such as hers, more than 200 miles away from Parliament. Good to see MPs push back on this decision: www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

politicshome.com

If we cut the parliamentary education service, children will miss out

Proposed cuts to the parliamentary education and outreach team risk reducing access to Parliament and increasing disengagement with politics

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I don't usually post personal stuff here, but my heart is bursting with pride, love and happiness: our eldest son has got married! (and to the most wonderful human being and perfect for him 😊):

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Daniel Gover @danielgover.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

MP top in the PMB ballot is Desmond Swayne. He voted against the assisted dying bill first time around. Second place is Lauren Edwards. She voted it. I make it four supporters in the (crucial) top seven. But will any of them be willing to take on this bill? #assisteddyingbill

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Daniel Gover @danielgover.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

In my latest piece I wrote that supporters of the assisted dying bill face four key challenges. If Lauren Edwards (2nd in the PMB ballot) is willing to reintroduce the bill, they *may* have cleared the first. But three remain. theconversation.com/can-the-assi...

theconversation.com

Can the assisted dying bill be brought back? It’s possible – but supporters face four challenges

There are said to be around 200 MPs who are willing to reintroduce it as a private member’s bill.

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Daniel Gover @danielgover.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

On Thursday, MPs will hold this year's private members' bills ballot. Supporters of the assisted dying bill will hope to bring the bill back - allowing them to override the Lords using the Parliament Acts. But they face 4 challenges. My article ⬇️ theconversation.com/can-the-assi...

theconversation.com

Can the assisted dying bill be brought back? It’s possible – but supporters face four challenges

There are said to be around 200 MPs who are willing to reintroduce it as a private member’s bill.

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Rebecca McKee @rebeccamckee.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

"What next for restoration and renewal of parliament?" Join us on Monday 11 May as we explore how R&R could reimagine an historic landmark for future generations & what the project could mean for parliament, industry and the wider public Link below www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/event/what-n...

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UCL Constitution Unit @conunitucl.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Join the Constitution Unit! We are welcoming British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme applications for September 2027 entry. If you are interested, contact your proposed mentor by 25 May. Applicants must have had their PhD viva between 1 April 2024 and 1 April 2027. Find out more 👇

ucl.ac.uk

Constitution Unit welcomes British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship applications 2026/27

The Constitution Unit is welcoming applicants to the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme for September 2027 entry, with an internal deadline of 25 May 2026.

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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Quiz below. Solution here: psaparliaments.org/2026/04/22/e...

Keir Starmer, in his first eighteen months, has had three. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss had one each. Boris Johnson contrived to have nine, while Theresa May made do with just three, as did David Cameron. Gordon Brown had four, as did Tony Blair. John Major managed with only two, while Margaret Thatcher had five.

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POLIS at Leeds @polisatleeds.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

We were delighted to welcome Frances O’Grady, former General Secretary of the TUC and Labour peer, to deliver the seventh Alice Bacon Lecture on Thursday 12th March. The lecture was hosted by @cdpleeds.bsky.social Read more about the event here ⬇️ essl.leeds.ac.uk/politics/new...

essl.leeds.ac.uk

Alice Bacon Lecture 2026 delivered by Frances O'Grady

On Thursday 12 March, the 2026 Alice Bacon Lecture was delivered by celebrated trade unionist Frances O’Grady, former General Secretary of the TUC and currently a Labour peer in the House of Lords.

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Colm Murphy @colmpm.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Very useful piece by Nick Clarke, Alex Hill and Jonathan Moss on an archive heavily used by historians of modern Britain - and underutilised by scholars of British politics. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

Mass Observing British politics - British Politics

British Politics - The current political moment in Britain is characterised by disaffection, affective polarisation, and populist mobilisation of these (dis)affections. How best to research these...

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Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Another brilliant Alice Bacon lecture organised by @cdpleeds.bsky.social! Super inspiring having the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer introduce a talk from the first female General Secretary of the TUC 🙌 and to have so many of my fab @polisatleeds.bsky.social students in the audience

Rachel Reeves in front of a large black and white photo of Alice Bacon campaigning in Leeds

Frances O'Grady in front of a large black and white photo of Alice Bacon campaigning in Leeds

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Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

An excellent and touching tribute to David Judge, an incredible thinker and scholar but also such a kind, supportive and generous academic. A huge and very sad loss.

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Remembering David Judge (1950 - 2026). I first met David in 1999. He was such an incredible person, we could do with more Davids in academia. Here is something I wrote when I heard the news last week, published by @psa-parliaments.bsky.social: psaparliaments.org/2026/02/17/r...

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Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Thanks to @hansardsociety.bsky.social for inviting me to write about the costed proposals for the Restoration & Renewal of the Palace of Westminster www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blog/restora... 2026 marks 10 years since I started researching R&R, so good to know it'll keep me busy for many, many more

hansardsociety.org.uk

Once again, there is still no alternative: the costed proposals for Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster

The Restoration and Renewal Client Board’s latest report once again confirms what Parliament has known for nearly a decade: the cheapest, quickest and safest way to restore the Palace of Westminster i...

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Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

And here's the costed proposals for Restoration and Renewal. Two options recommended: full decant and EMI+. Full decant will be cheaper and quicker - staying in the Palace during the works will means it takes up to 61 years and costs up to £18.7bn. Full link committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Recommended Options Discounted Options
Full decant EMI + Continued Presence EMI
Total Programme
duration
19–24 years 38–61 years 33–45 years 52–84 years
Total Programme cost
(including optimism
bias and risk but
excluding inflation and
opportunities)
£8.4–11.5bn £11.8–18.7bn £9.7–13.7bn £12.0–19.4bn
Average annual
cost (excluding
opportunities)
£440–490m £310–310m £290–300m £230–230m
Highest annual
cost (including
opportunities)
£600–760m £430–530m £460–620m £360–410m
Total Programme cost
(including optimism
bias and risk and
inflation but excluding
opportunities)
£11.1–15.6bn £19.5–39.2bn £14.4–22bn £23.3–56.3bn
Net present cost £4.2–5.7bn £5.1–6.6bn £4.6–6.4bn £4.5–5.5bn
House of Commons
Chamber decant period
8–10 years For up to two years
to the House of
Lords Chamber
11–15 years to the
House of Lords
Chamber
The Chambers are
not expected to be
decanted.
House of Lords Chamber
decant period
12–15 years 8–13 years 24–33 years
Parliamentary business Delivered with
changes in the
location and
proximity of spaces
and services
which will require
consideration
of new ways
of working.
Delivered with changes in the location and proximity of
spaces and services which will require consideration
of new ways of working.
For areas of continued occupancy there is a risk of later need
for an unplanned decant, including for core parliamentary
business functions (such as the Chambers or services directly
supporting them) if disruption becomes intolerable.

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Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

A very helpful box setting out both why this work is required & the cost of continued delays. As the intro to the report says: "Continuing in the same way is unsustainable, will lead to an expensive managed decline of the Palace of Westminster and will mean increasing safety and operational risks"

Services in the Palace of Westminster are vast: there are over 14 miles of pipework and roughly
250 miles of cabling which support parliamentary business and other functions and activities
across the Palace.
• On average each month sees around 2,900 reactive maintenance jobs raised, approximately
87% of which are repairs completed on an initial visit, together with around 380 minor works.
Between 2021/22 and 2023/24 reactive maintenance tasks increased by 70%. In the
month this report has been drafted, issues in the Palace have included:
– failure of heating to a significant area of the House of Lords;
– significant problems with the sewerage system;
– ongoing loss of toilets in the areas that have reinforced autoclaved aerated
concrete (RAAC) as well as four sets of toilets out of action; and
– water leaks into the Colonnade.
• Since 2016, there have been:
– 36 fire incidents;
– 12 asbestos incidents; and
– 19 stonemasonry incidents.
• Only 12% of the Palace of Westminster’s total floor area currently has step-free access.
• £1.5m is spent per week maintaining and repairing the Palace of Westminster.
• It is estimated that the cost of delaying starting the delivery phase of the Programme
is around £70m per year at current prices in nugatory options development and additional
reactive maintenance costs;
• It is estimated that there would be a further £250m to £350m in the inflationary impact on
construction costs across the whole of the Programme for each year of delay.
• Between 1,500 and 4,000 full time equivalent roles will be needed each year over the lifetime
of construction to deliver the Restoration and Renewal Programme for the Palace of Westminster

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Alexandra Meakin @ameakin.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

This is bleakly comic: six times when Parliament has agreed the need for a major programme of works to the Palace of Westminster, and yet we'll need another vote in 2026 and then a further vote in mid 2030.

Box 1: Key decisions by parliamentarians
The Houses agreed there was a need to do an R&R Programme in:
• 2012 when the House of Commons Commission and the House of Lords House Committee published a
pre-feasibility study on restoration and renewal and concluded that “doing nothing is not an option”
and that a decision on the long-term future of the Palace of Westminster needed to be made soon;
• the 2016 Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster report, which concluded in its report that there
is “… a clear and pressing need to tackle the work required to the Palace of Westminster”;23
• 2018 during debates on the report from the Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster, the Houses
supported full decant as a preferred delivery option;24
• 2019 when the Houses passed the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019;
• 2022 when the Houses agreed a new mandate for the Programme; and
• 2024, when the Client Board published its Strategic Case for the Programme.25

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Graeme Cowie @woodstockjag.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

This morning the Scottish Affairs Committee published a report on the draft Scotland Act 1998 (Modification of Schedule 5) Order 2026. The report makes some important observations about how the UK and Scottish Parliaments scrutinise Scotland Act orders ⤵️ committees.parliament.uk/publications...

committees.parliament.uk

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Great news to start the week - our article in Climate Policy Journal was #5 in views in 2025 - free access below:👇

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Sadly storm Goretti has scuppered my travel plans (🦒🦒🦒aplenty), so I'll be following on Zoom. Sad for not being able to catch up with friends😔, but will follow programme online.

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

A great post by Jessica which gives an insight into each of the eight Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments that we launched last month:👇

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Friendship is going all the way to New Zealand, getting me a mug from the Parliament, keeping it for three years until we finally met in person last Friday and @bymyong.bsky.social was able to give me the mug, to add to my collection of parliamentary cups and mugs 😊 . Thank you Ben 🙏 .

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Thank you for a fab conference! To you for organising it all and all speakers. Lovely to catch up with old and few friends, and to meet some people in person for first time. And for once it was a conference just down the road from me, no giraffes, a quick and easy trip for me😊.

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Congrats Dr Martin! A pleasure to have acted as external examiner of your PhD 😊 (love the photo, and yes, I'm tiny...;)).

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POLIS at Leeds @polisatleeds.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira has been involved in the creation of a pioneering map of the services that parliaments offer across the world on public engagement. Explore the International Parliament Engagement Network's map: shorturl.at/Brx9k Find out more about the project: shorturl.at/lG6S7

ipen-network.org

Mapping public engagement in parliaments across the world – IPEN

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Busy day in parliament yesterday, with highlight of launch of our global map of public engagement services offered by parliaments across the world - which can be accessed now here: ipen-network.org/mapping-publ...

ipen-network.org

Mapping public engagement in parliaments across the world – IPEN

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Department of Government, Essex @uniessexgov.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Happening now! Our colleague, Dr Laura Sudulich, presents 'Mapping Public Engagement in Parliaments Across the World' @ukparliament.parliament.uk, with POST. 🎙️ Chaired by @shane-martin.bsky.social, joined by @estrangeirada.bsky.social, Chair of IPEN #EssexGov #EssexGovImpact #UKParliament #IPEN

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Our Guide on Youth Engagement for parliaments is now available to download - focuses on idea of 'meaningful engagement', avoiding tokenistic and/or elitist engagement, to nurture real opportunities for engagement: www.idea.int/publications...

idea.int

Youth Engagement: Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments

Youth engagement is key for a healthy democracy. Young people are the future generations that will lead our democracies. They are also often amongst the most disengaged people of our societies. It is ...

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

idea.int

Youth Engagement: Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

I know it's not the most exciting of topics, but Crickey, I really am invisible in BlueSky - no reactions other than from the lovely @adefty.bsky.social. It is a good article though, promise😊.

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Cristina Leston-Bandeira @estrangeirada.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

New publication with the fab @sofiaserrasilva.bsky.social - we develop a new typology about the roles of parliamentary staff within public engagement, showing their decisive role in the way parliaments present themselves to/relate with the public. Open access: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

cogitatiopress.com

The Invisible Architects of Public Engagement: Understanding the Different Types of Roles Played by Parliamentary Staff | Article | Politics and Governance

Sofia Serra-Silva, Cristina Leston-Bandeira

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