There's this document called the Constitution. Now, in Article II, Section II of the Constitution it says: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. President Obama had some fairly radical appointments he wanted to make. One of them was Richard Courdray, ...

Traditionally, kids entertainment groups have made just 10% of their income from broadcast commissions, with the balance generated by DVD and merchandise sales. Many companies have been squeezed by the global decline in DVD sales, while increasingly broadcasters expect to pay nothing for children’s television shows commissioned from outside rights holders. While Entertainment One has

Counting the true cost of the arts cuts is the headline on a Guardian article by Mark Brown. It starts (emphasis added): A very good thing, the Lost Arts website, was launched on Thursday in Westminster with the aim of of recording all the organisations, initiatives, projects, commissions, tours and more that will be lost due to cuts in public spending on the arts. It will also keep a running tota...

Police could be given "military-style" short-term commissions, bringing an end to the the "guaranteed" right to a job for life, MPs hear.

Quangos – Quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations – occupy a strange place in the British political landscape. They tend to proliferate because governments can’t resist seeing new commissions for this or advisory panels for that as essential, while rarely deciding that existing bodies have outlived their usefulness. Yet, the term “quango” inhabits the same dis...

"They didn't tame us, they didn't break us and they won't domesticate us," was the famous phrase of the Spanish trade union leader Marcelino Camacho, on his final release from jail in 1976. Camacho's courage and commitment made him the undisputed leader of the Comisiones Obreras (Workers' Commissions), the movement that became the main opposition to the dictatorship of Gen...

The Colonel on the latest Saudi/US arms deal. Somehow I think this is as much to do with "commissions" passed around in the royal family/courtier crowd. 5% of 90 billion plus will go a long way. By contrast, Zardari in...

A broadly consensual week, though with a harbinger of a row to come, and that rare beast, an SNP-Labour link-up. Anyway. Wednesday saw no votes taken: the Business and Bureau motions were waved through, as were the William Simpson's Home (Transfer of Property etc.) (Scotland) Bill and the Scottish Parliamentary Commissions and Commissioners etc. Bill and its two amendments. And to complete pr...

Welcome to the nineteenth in a series of posts going through the full coalition agreement section by section. You can read the full coalition document here. Although when talking about other parts of the agreement I’ve sometimes being quite critical about the parking of issues with commissions or reviews, the commission on long-term care is a good move.

Over the Bank Holiday, I thought I’d check exactly what Labour’s manifesto says about getting a House of Lords where at least a majority of its members are elected. After 13 years in power with repeated commissions,  studies and votes on the matter, not to mention senior Labour figures proclaiming their commitment to having at