What Westminster Gets Wrong

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics, Government

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

MPs are increasingly held in contempt by the public. How can Parliament improve its standing? Dr Hannah White, deputy director of the Institute for Government and author of Held in Contempt, joins Ros Taylor to discuss what’s wrong with the House of Commons, and how Westminster can repair its reputation in the wake of recent scandals. “It only dawned on me over the decade I worked there how Parliament wasn’t a normal workplace.” “There’s a small minority of MPs who don’t treat staff well, and there are no consequences for that.” “Most people don’t have much idea of the difference between Parliament and Government.” “The Prime Minister’s main job was to tell the country the rules, if he didn’t understand them he should’ve sorted that out.” “Society has changed a lot, but the Palace of Westminster hasn’t.” https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast Presented by Ros Taylor. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold, Jelena Sofronijevic and Alex Rees. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Jade Bailey. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
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0:55.3	look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker daily I'm Ros Taylor. It's a sound you hear pretty much every week at
1:14.3	Prime Minister's question time. Our representatives shouting and harrying each other.
1:18.6	The public don't really appreciate it but is part of the great tradition of adversarial parliamentary debate.
1:28.8	So what can you do, right? Someone who does want to improve the way MPs conduct themselves is Hannah White, who leads the Institute for Government's work on Parliament and is the author of Held in contempt.
1:40.0	What's wrong with the House of Commons?
1:42.0	Welcome to the bunker, Hannah.
1:44.0	Thanks very much indeed.
1:46.0	Thanks for having me. When you first went to work at the House of Parliament,
1:49.0	were you disturbed by the culture there?
1:51.0	I think I actually wasn't, and maybe that's more disturbing. It was my first proper
	...

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