The Week Ahead

Parliament finally returns on Monday. There will be statements on troop numbers in Iraq and the Comprehensive Spending Review. The Commons is due to debate the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill (Second Reading). Unless a General Election is announced the next month will be spent completing action on a number of outstanding bills.

The main business for the week ahead can be found at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmwib/wb070728/ahead.htm

Congress wil not sit on Monday, as Columbus Day is being celebrated. The Senate will not sit at all during the week, but the House returns on Tuesday. 19 bills are due for consideration under the suspensions procedures. The following will be considered later in the week (and will subject to a rule)

H.R. 2895 - National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 (Rep. Frank – Financial Services)
H.R. 3056 Tax Collection Responsibility Act of 2007 (Rep. Rangel – Ways and Means)
H.R. 2095 - Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 (Rep. Oberstar – Transportation and Infrastructure)

Awaiting Announcements

Conference season has finished, as the Tories have packed up and left Blackpool. Parliament is due to return on Monday. There is a busy schedule of bills to complete. The state of progress can be seen on a chart on the Leader of the House of Commons' website

http://www.leaderofthehouseofcommons.gov.uk/output/Page1436.asp

The general rule is that bills fall if they are not passed by both Houses by the end of the session, with the exception of bills that have been agreed for 'carry-over' (see Standing Order 80A - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmstords/416/41604.htm#a90). The session is due to end a few days before the opening of the new session, scheduled this year for November 6th.

Unless of course a General Election is called!

According to the House of Commons website "The (General Election) timetable runs for eighteen days starting with the dissolution of the old Parliament and the issue of writs on day 0 and ends on day 17, polling day. For the purposes of the timetable, weekends and public holidays are disregarded."

If November 1st is to be election day then Day 0 will be Tuesday 9th October! (By tradition polling day is a Thursday - but who knows if Gordon Brown will surprise us with a different election day)

So we await the next few days with interest.

If Gordon calls a General Election....

Speculation continues that we are just days away from the Prime Minister calling a General Election. Of course all these rumours may be an attempt to unsettle the already unsettled Tory Party - or there may be some substance in them.

If an election is called Washminster will cover it!

The first step will be the Prime Minister's trip to see the Queen. Strictly, it is her Parliament and she decides when to dismiss MPs and request returning officers to advise her who the new representatives for each constituency (= district) are. By convention the Queen will accept the Prime Minister's advice.

Parliament needs to be dissolved - it does not need to meet in order for this to happen (this was the case in the second election of 1974) - but most observers expect Parliament to return on Monday - and if an election announcement is made, to act on essential business before the dissolution.

While I normally work at Westminster three days a week, I will stay in the Midlands during the election period. I live in one of the key marginals - Rugby. The constituency is significantly different from the current 'Rugby and Kenilworth' constituency which has been in its current form since 1997.

The MP from 1997 to 2005 was Andy King - a long term resident of the constituency, who had served for many years on behalf of Rugby people on Rugby Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council. Had the re-districting taken place before the 2005 election he would have held the seat (An independent analysis of the election suggests that on the new boundaries he would have had a 2,397 majority)

Andy King has been selected by the Local Labour Party to stand at the forthcoming General Election. His website is http://www.andyking4rugby.co.uk/ and already has two facegroup books set up by his supporters

Andy King - Rugby's Future http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5156483414

Andy King for Rugby http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18501427976

Rugby is very much "Middle England" - it's geographically as close to the centre as it is possible to be; is a major rail and road junction (M1/M6) and is highly marginal. It'll make an interesting place to observe during a General Election!

[the picture is of the clock tower in the centre of the town)

The New Supreme Court Term

The first Monday in October is the first day in the new term of the Supreme Court. The coming year promises to be interesting. Some of the cases and issues will be -

Boumediene v. Bush - Guantanamo detainees

U.S. v. Williams - 'virtual' child pornography

Baze v. Rees - lethal injections (capital punishment)

Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party - primary election rules

Indiana Democratic Party v Rokita - photo ID for voters

Details of the briefs can be found at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/home.html

The following have some interesting background

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2007/09/30/pkg.scotus.cnn

National Review:http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTM3ZmRmZmM2ZWQ5NzFlZTE3YWEyMTk2NzAyOGRjYTg=

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7021922.stm

The Court's calendar (showing when the Court is hearing arguments) is available at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/07termcourtcalendar.pdf

New Year

Today is the first day of Fiscal Year 2008 (FY 08) [sometimes refered to as FY 07/08]. The fiscal year has begun in the USA on 1st October since 1976, when Congress pushed back the date from July 1st - to give it more time to complete congressional budget; authorization and appropropriation processes (it doesn't seem to have worked!!!)

In the UK the Government's financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March. The personal tax year runs a few days behind - beginning on 6th April. This odd date is a result of the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1752. March 25th (Lady Day) was the first day of the ecclesiastical year. This date was adopted as the start of the fiscal year, but when the Gregorian calendar was introduced 11 days were "lost" - so the start date was pushed back. A further lost day in 1800 led to the present date which is now fixed.