Is political opposition in Parliament dead?

This was the title of a Drive Time programme recently featured on a radio station called Voice of Islam and I was invited to contribute to the item. The programme was billed as follows:

“We spoke about the role of the opposition in Parliament and whether it was as effective as it could be. The first caller, Roger Darlington, who had worked for the Opposition in the 1970s spoke about his experiences and generally said that opposition worked both in and outside Parliament to check the Government quiet effectively.

We also spoke to Professor Finlayson who explained the different ways debate could be construed, and that in some ways Parliament did still offer room for debate of the argumentative kind. He went on to give examples of when a speech in Parliament had been particularly powerful.

In covering how opposition forces could work outside Parliament to bring about change, Professor Usherwood explained how different Eurosceptics had got on the Brexit bandwagon for a short period of time to change the direction of British politics. However, they now lacked direction.

A member of the public, Hamish Chapman, reflected on the course of the discussion with some scepticism. He suggested that politicians needed to be taught how to debate if the public were to take them seriously.”

If you want to listen to the podcast – my interview is from 12-23 minutes – you can access it here.


 




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