Official’s worries over fixed term parliaments bill

Dr Malcolm Jack is the Clerk of House of Commons … when he speaks the earth here quakes and people pay attention.

He’s about to do just that in front of the Constitutional Affairs Committee where he is going to say that the Coalition’s Fixed Term Parliaments Bill leaves dissolutions dangerously open to judicial review.

Putting the dissolution process in statute is the risk, he’s expected to explain to the Committee. It used to be something that just happened.

Under the Bill it would require thresholds and formulae to be passed. “Exclusive cognisance of Parliament” is his less than catchy buzzword – but to Opposition MPs what he’s saying is that a dissolution if judicially reviewed could tip the country into chaos and so he is (in Labour MPs’ eyes) – criticising this Bill as badly or hastily drafted.