Urgent Manoeuvres...
Speaker Bercow's enthusiasm for granting urgent questions (almost extinct under his predecessor), which require a minister to come to the Commons to address some great issue of the day, is starting to produce some smart manoeuvring.
Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor urgent question on Wednesday, on the revelations of the Β£61bn emergency loans granted by the taxpayer to two ailing banks at the height of the credit crunch, is a case in point.
After some kerfuffle and a bit of fancy footwork, the result was a full-dress , not merely the answer to a question.
The reason? My spies tell me the Chancellor, Alastair Darling preferred to face the first question from his Conservative shadow, George Osborne, rather than from Vicious Vince, as he's known in the trade.
The thinking was that Mr Osborne, who doubtless expects to be moving into the Treasury in a few months time, would be more cautious and measured, and so the expected onslaught from the Lib Dem prophet would be blunted somewhat if the key issues had already been dealt with by the time he rose to speak.
The point is that ministers are now factoring in the expectation that if something happens, they will be expected to answer in the Commons - and they're making their dispositions accordingly. A small but significant gain for parliamentary accountability.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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