scholarly journals Copy of Sir Alexander Johnston's Evidence relating to the Mackenzie Collection, extracted from the “Minutes of Evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company, Feb. 14 to July 27, 1832.”

1835 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. xxx-xxxiii
Author(s):  
Alexander Johnston
Keyword(s):  
East India Company ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Select Committee

scholarly journals Identity inferences: Implicatures, implications and extended interpretations

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 424-445
Author(s):  
Billy Clark
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
Communicative Acts ◽  
Language Varieties ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
And Performance

This article considers how ideas from relevance-theoretic pragmatics can be applied in understanding the construction of identity in interaction, while presupposing that consideration of ideas about identity can make a significant contribution to pragmatic theories. While previous work on pragmatics has focused on the construction and performance of identity, this has not been much discussed in work from a relevance-theoretic perspective. For illustration, the article refers mainly to a video recording of a UK House of Commons Select Committee session on drug addiction. While the video provides considerable relevant data about identity construction, the article does not develop a detailed analysis of the video or the extracts it focuses on. Instead, it uses them to argue for the usefulness of relevance-theoretic ideas in understanding identity and impression management. The ideas focused on are that communication can be stronger or weaker (i.e. it can be more or less clear that particular assumptions are being intentionally communicated), that there is no clear cut-off point between very weakly communicated implicatures and non-communicated implications, that interpretation generally involves going beyond what the communicator intended to derive the addressee’s own conclusions, that the effects of communicative interaction include more than the derivation of new assumptions and that adjustments to ‘cognitive environments’ (the sets of assumptions which are accessible to individuals at particular times) can continue after interactions take place. These ideas can be useful in a number of areas including in understanding identity in general, literary identities, attitudes to language varieties, the production of communicative acts and the teaching of spoken and written communication.

Decimal Numeration and Decimal Coinage

1854 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-236
Author(s):  
William Thomas Thomson
Keyword(s):  
House Of Commons ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Decimal Numeration

The Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the subject of “Decimal Coinage,” of 1st August 1853, sets entirely at rest any doubt or question as to the great advantages and facilities which would be afforded by the adoption of a system of decimal numeration and decimal coinage.That the change will accordingly be made, I feel confident; and as the basis of the new arrangement, as well as the method of carrying it out, are of vast importance to the public at large, and in business generally, I have considered it a fit subject of deliberation for this Institute. It may be said that we should have taken an earlier and more prominent part in originating and promoting a change of system, of the importance of which we had individually, I may safely assume, been long convinced; but I am inclined to think that we have wisely reserved our opinions, and that they will be more valuable in the present stage of the discussion (now that the Report of the Select Committee, and the evidence taken before them, has been published), than they would have been earlier in the day.

Remarks on Trawling

1895 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
M'Intosh
Keyword(s):  
House Of Commons ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
Blue Book

Fully ten years having elapsed since the Report on Trawling on the eastern shores was presented to the Trawling Commission (composed of the late Earl of Dalhousie, chairman; Right Hon. Edward Marjoribanks, M.P., now Lord Tweedmouth; Prof. Huxley; Mr. W. S. Caine, M.P.; and Mr., now Sir, T. F. Brady), it appears to be desirable to review the statements contained therein in the light of the information which the impetus given by the Commission has produced. Moreover this examination of results is all the more nececssary, since last year another important body—viz. the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Fisheries, presided over by Mr. Majoribanks, M.P.—issued a new blue-book containing the finding of the Committee, and a mass of evidence.

Select Committees: Understanding and Regulating the Emergence of the ‘Topical Inquiry’

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 879-902
Author(s):  
Craig Prescott
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
Opportunity To Respond ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Private Corporations ◽  
Accountability Gap

Abstract Reforms to departmental select committees have enhanced their authority and independence within the House of Commons. Some committees have used this enhanced profile to investigate the actions of specific individuals or private corporations or organisations. Typically, this is in response to media reports that allege some form of wrongdoing. As the standing orders of the House of Commons empower committees to scrutinise government departments and agencies, this is a departure from established practices. This article examines the emergence of these ‘topical inquiries’, determining the features that indicate their value. In particular, topical inquiries that fill an ‘accountability gap’ are the most valuable. An accountability gap arises when other forms of scrutiny or accountability are merely performative or have failed. When conducting a topical inquiry, committees are underpinned by parliamentary privilege, meaning that those subject to criticism have little opportunity to respond regardless of any reputational, commercial or other damage caused. Consequently, if thought a desirable function of Parliament, then topical inquiries require enhanced processes to ensure procedural fairness and to address potential human rights concerns. This would require amending the standing orders specifying topical inquiries as a type of inquiry that a select committee could pursue, complying with this enhanced process.

Parliamentary privilege and the broadcasting of Parliament

Legal Studies ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Leopold
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
The State ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
The Absolute

After years of debate, and pages of parliamentary reports, the House of Commons has agreed in principle to allow the televising of its proceedings, both in the Chamber and in Select Committee hearings.’ The purpose of this article is to consider the application of parliamentary privilege to the broadcasting of Parliament by radio or television. The issue of parliamentary privilege arises because of the absolute privilege’ of freedom of speech for Members, which enables them in the course of ‘proceedings in Parliament’ to say or do something which, had it been said or done elsewhere, could have given rise to civil or criminal liability by the person concerned. Absolute privilege exists because it is of outstanding public importance that Members should be able to speak their minds, and this outweighs any consequential harm that may be suffered by an individual or the State. Examples of the use of the protection of absolute privilege are the making of a statement that appears to be defamatory, and the oral commission of one of a variety of criminal offences.

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