Peek Into The House Of Commons Debates. (parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk)

Member Name: belucky88

Product:	parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk
Date:	23/02/01 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great sourse of information.

Disadvantages: I dont agree with many issues.

I am a real nosey devil who loves to know whats going on around me.
I am not that interested in politics itself but I do log into a site that lets me read the house of commons debates.
"www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co. uk"

I have on occassion used this site to find information about any new laws that might have been passed,for some of the speakers corner catagories.
For instance on the Abortion opinions,there was a mention of live birth abortions,these are performed with the baby still alive inside the mother and the very way that this kind of abortion is performed is horrific.
I wanted to see if it was still lawful in the uk for these type of abortions to still be performed.
By use of this site I was able to locate a house of commons debate on this horrific act.It was debated and made illegal back in october 1988.

Today I have been reading a debate on the 12th of February 2001,about prison conditions.Miss Anne Widdecombe states Her concern over a comment made by the director general of the prison service in which He believes that prisons are intolerable,with appalling conditions.
Most prisons He felt had become hell holes.

If I was part of this debate I would questioning whether prisons cells should infact become luxury flatlets.Complete with Axminster carpeting,maybe a champagne bathroom suite complete with bidet,ah well why not throw in some good wallpaper at £22, a roll just for good measures.Hell holes indeed!!Anyone would think they were there for a free holiday.

Another was a debate on working families tax credit on the 11th of November 1999.
They cheered as they heard how the family tax system will now allow families with a full time worker to achieve a guaranteed income of £200 a week and to earn upto £235 before income tax kicks in.

Now just how far would two hundred pounds get the average family of say two adults and two children per week.
Rent or morgage at l
east £100
Council tax £10
water rates £8
house insurances £10
gas £10
electric £10
Total:£148.00

I am overwhelmed with excitement at the thought that I now have a grand total of £52 to feed and clothe two adults and two children on.
That means the car will have to go,even if you do need it to get to work and no telephone you cant afford it sorry.

It's shopping spree time !!I dont think.

The debaters were some what sad to hear if the oppostion get in next they will scrap family tax altogether.
I wasnt aware of this so I shall not be voting for the opposition.


How about our pensioners ,how do they fare in the November 11th 1999 debate?
The winter cold weather allowance is set at £100 for every pensioner for the rest of this parliament,but I didnt realise that the cold weather payments are only determined on the weather forcast from a certain weather station.
Free television licences for pensioners over the age 75,when quite a lot of them have poor eye sight and probably cant see much of whats on the screen anyway !!
Their intention is to tackle pensioner poverty,they will uprate the minimum income guarantee for pensioners in line with earnings for the rest of their parliament.Making the oldest pensioners better off by £10.35 a week and couples will be £15.90 richer.Wow !
Read on and you will find its a case of in one hand then out of the other.

On February 15th they debated on Defence medical services,a chinook crash,malaria, and Education and employment.

Far East prisoners compensations were debated for the British groups who were held prisoner by the Japanese during the second world war.Where a person who would have been eligible for the scheme has died ,His or Her surviving spouse is entitled to recieve it instead.

Now this is an interesting titbit....
Departmental Expenditure.
Shown here is a list of revised departmental expenditure limi
t transfers to and from other government departments...they include.....
£5,100,000 from the home office for the costs of Asylum.
£800,,000 for the cost of Kosovo refugees.
£289,000 from the cabinet minister for communications cost.
£160,000 to DSS for intercalating students.
£342,000 to MAFF for the B.S.E. inquiry.
£78,000 to the home office for the animal rights index.

There is a search engine facility that allows you search for previous House Of Commons debates back as far as 1988.

You can also read debates on Farmers and Fisheries,Abortions,the child support agencies in fact if you can name it,you can probably find their debate on it.

The good thing about this site is you dont have to sit and listen to that annoying cheering and booing that seems to occur at every debate watched on the television.Thank God.
You can read the debates at your leisure,although some of its boring to one person ,another might find it highly informative.

The whole site is text based,nothing special about the design.
Except a virtual reality tour of Westminster.
This includes.....
Big Ben,the Royal Gallery,the Chamber Of The House Of Lords,the Chamber Of The House Of Commons,A view from the Terrace and the Central Lobby.You can even Zoom in and out and rotate the view from side to side,in fact full 360 degree movement,its makes fasinating viewing.

The site also contains an Index and a home page.
In the index there is a table of contents,lists,columns and the department and subject headings with the names of the members in the common debates.

I have had this site book marked for ages now and when I get the time I like to have a nosey around,for the latest debates and what the outcome of them are.

Summary: