House points
* Speaker Bercow has relaxed the Commons convention that new MPs can't table questions to ministers, take part in committees (not that that's an immediate issue) or do pretty much anything else, until they've made their maiden speech. Given that there are a couple of hundred newcomers, a lot of MPs would otherwise have been effectively paralysed for months.
* It's not just new MPs who are having to find their way in the weird world of Westminster - so are a new generation of bag carriers, the researchers and assistants who lurk in the backrooms. One source of guidance for these unsung toilers in the political engine room is the excellent , at which can be found a series of "altguides" penned by veteran bag carrier Dean Trench. These include missives on how to keep one's employer out of trouble at the party conference and some very useful thoughts on containing a politician's new found enthusiasm for the internet - that last one rejoices in the title "where angels fear to tread".
Alas, it seems the redoubtable Mr Trench is no more. His .
* And his is not the only demise I have to report. Despite the delicate balance of power in the new Commons, the respected which, throughout the Blair-Brown years, analysed rebellions against the government, has posted its last report.
Westminster nerds came to depend on its reliable and sometimes very funny deconstructions of who had gone through which voting lobby. Alas, the research funding body the ESRC has declined to continue to pay for it, although it is difficult to think of more important, perception-changing, conventional wisdom-challenging piece of academic political research, well, ever.
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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