Good innovations from Speaker Mallard
Some good innovations to date from Speaker Mallard. The three main ones are:
- Pinging MPs who interject during the asking of a question by deducting a supplementary question from them (if an Opposition MP) or giving an extra one to the Opposition (if a Government MP). This has led to a much quieter House during the asking of questions. You can of course still interject for the answers.
- Allowing an MP asking a supplementary to keep asking further supplementaries without having to seek the call each time. This means rather than have the Speaker constantly in the frame, you just get a back and forward between a Minister and MP.
- Allowing an MP extra supplementaries if a Minister does not give an informative reply (Speaker Carter did this also)
- Dropping Jesus from the Parliamentary Prayer. If there is to be a parliamentary prayer it should be one that all religions can subscribe to, not just one religion.