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PMQs & the art of advocacy

04 June 2020 / John Cooper KC
Issue: 7889 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Watching Johnson v Starmer at the dispatch box is fascinating, says John Cooper QC

Many of you will have noted a distinct change in style as to the way Boris Johnson (pictured left) is questioned at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) and it is fair to say that every person brings their own approach to this important opportunity, designed to extract information, clarity and transparency in respect of the Prime Minister’s conduct of affairs.

The concept of asking the Prime Minister questions in the House of Commons was first introduced in 1881 under the office of William Gladstone as Prime Minister, and in 1961 the process was updated with questions to the PM being taken for two fixed periods on a Tuesday and Thursday with the very first question addressed to Harold Macmillan by Labour’s Fenner Brockway, who began on the 18 July 1961 with: ‘May I express our appreciation of this new arrangement for answering questions and hope that it will be convenient for the Prime Minister as

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
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In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
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