How-To: Motions and Statements

Before the drudgery of daily work begins, Members may convene in the Chamber to discuss any manner of motion that is brought before the House. Likewise, this is the opportunity for Ministers of the Crown to address the House.
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Barclay A.A. Stanley
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How-To: Motions and Statements

Post by Barclay A.A. Stanley »

Motions

Motions and Ministerial Statements is the place for motion debates, debates on a particular question in the form of a single sentence starting with “That this House”, expressing the opinion of the House. Motions are numbered M-1, M-2, M-3, and so on and so forth.

Anyone can raise a motion debate, with a few restrictions, but if you cross the line (and that seldom happens), we’ll close debate. A straightforward restriction is that motions should be of the form “that this House…” (for example: “That this House believes the Secretary of State for Silly Affairs should stand on his head.”) Another restriction is that, in principle, motions are for backbenchers and opposition frontbenchers. Cabinet Ministers may not move motions.

Motion debates can be moved to express the opinion of the House on any issue, be it related to a scenario, just a backbencher’s pet issue, or in relation to a certain government action. Even if the issue isn’t particularly prominent, feel free to make a motion and start debating it! To move a motion, just create a thread, titled “M-(number): (topic of motion)”, with the first post containing the motion. It is also advisable to post a speech either in the same post or in the post after. As soon as the thread is made, debate is open: there is no need to wait for the Speaker saying it is open; if it’s posted and the topic is not locked, it’s open and you can start debating right away! Also, although we will close debates that, after the minimum amount of time of 4 days has passed, have died down, there is no limit on how long debate will last.

Sending motions to a vote
Of course, it would be a waste of the House’s time to have a division on motions made by everyone and their grandmother. For that reason, only the Leader of the House (or the Prime Minister) may move a motion to division, with the only exception being the Shadow Leader of the House or Leader of the Opposition on an opposition day using their weekly opposition day quota of 2 motions per week. To move a motion to division, the Leader of the House has two options to post in bold for our convenience, each with different consequences:

“Mr Speaker, Time will be allocated for division on this matter”: by moving that time be allocated, you let the House know the Government wishes the motion voted on, but not right away. Once debate has died down, the motion will be moved to division by the Speaker.

“Mr Speaker, I pray this motion advance to division” or “Mr Speaker, I pray the House do now divide on this matter” or something the like: seeing as moving this is more explicit, the Leader of the House announces that there is to be a division, and right now. As soon as the Speaker sees this motion by the House Leader, debate will be closed and the House will divide. This motion can only be made after 4 days of debate have passed to prevent the Government from stifling debate by immediately sending motions to a vote.

Killing motions
Conversely, the Government can also decide when motions are not to be voted upon. Of course, they can do this by leaving the motion alone and letting it die on the floor of the House, but the government can also explicitly kill a motion.

To do this, the Leader of the House (or Prime Minister, and only the real House Leader) has to announce “Mr Speaker, time will not be allocated for division of this matter.” If this announcement is made, debate will be closed after 4 days of debate from the start, or if these days have already elapsed, immediately upon the motion being registered by the Speaker.

Unanimous Consent
If it is plain that a motion will be passed by the House anyway, the Leader of the House can move as follows: "Mr Speaker, I pray this motion be adopted by the unanimous consent of the House." In such a case, the Speaker will give members objecting to the motion 24 hours to cry "Nay!" (just post it). If that does not happen, the motion is deemed adopted. If it does, debate will continue.

No confidence
A special case is a motion of no confidence, the motion “That this House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government” or something the like. For such a motion, different rules apply as to sending it to a vote. Of course, if the Government House Leader were allowed to choose when this motion was voted upon, time would not be allocated and the Government could never fail to obtain confidence. To make a motion of no confidence, the opposition has to use an opposition day, or it will not be valid. After 4 days of debate, a motion of no confidence will move to division automatically. If a motion of no confidence fails, the opposition cannot move another for 2 weeks. Anyway, it is best used sparingly.

The Queen’s Speech
At the opening of each parliamentary year, the Government has to write a Queen’s Speech detailing their agenda in the usual format of “My Government will do this, My Government will do that, and so on and so forth”. This speech, when sent to the AVs, will be debated in this forum as well, but special rules apply: before anyone else can speak, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have to respond, and they have to do so within 48 hours from the speech being posted, or they will just rise, thank the Queen, and sit down, which will be very bad for their party. After the two speeches have been posted, debate is open for 5 days.
Ministerial Statements

Ministerial Statements are brief statements made to Parliament, and functionally to the public via the Press, on issues of Government concern. Any member of the Ministry may make a Ministerial Statement.

Ministerial Statements are briefly debated--not more than 4 days after the initial statement is made--but differ from other debates in that there is no vote at the end of the debate. A Minister wishing to have a longer debate on an issue is advised to schedule a Topical Debate with the Speaker (read: Barclay) on the subject rather than using the format of a Ministerial Statement.

Any player may reply to a Ministerial Statement or otherwise participate in the discussion, including other Ministers of the Crown.

When a Minister has an update for the House on the same subject as a previous Ministerial Statement, it should be given in a new thread rather than as a reply to an existing statement, even if the existing statement's debate has not expired.
Lt. Col. Sir Barclay A.A. Stanley, Rtd., KBE
Member of Parliament for Macclesfield

Armed with nothing but a pint of gin, Sir Barclay went to battle against the forces of Communism, Socialism, and Liberalism.
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