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Mark D'Arcy, Parliamentary correspondent

Mark D'Arcy Parliamentary correspondent

This is where you can come for my take on what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms around Westminster

Week ahead

It's an abbreviated half week in Parliament, next week, with the Commons already off for their Whitsun Recess, and the Lords sitting for just two days.

Peers convene on Monday at 2.30pm. There's the usual half-hour question time - which will cover the government's assessment of night flights at Heathrow from Baroness Kramer (the former MP for Richmond Park, directly under the flight path); Baroness (Joan) Bakewell has a question on care home ownership; Baroness Gardner of Parkes has a question on the cost to the NHS of international health tourism and Baroness Parminter has a question on the idea of a tax on plastic bags.

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Fair hearing

If anyone thought the three people accused of misleading the Culture, Media and Sport Committee during their hacking inquiry would respond by saying "it's a fair cop, guv", they can think again.

The Commons has just voted overwhelmingly to refer the case to its ethics watchdog, the Standards and Privileges Committee. That will allow the accused to put their defence; and the former News International Chairman Les Hinton has already fired off a detailed rebuttal of the Culture Committee's findings in a letter to its chair, John Whittingdale; copied to the Speaker, the chair of the Liaison Committee, Alan Beith, and the chair of Standards and Privileges, Kevin Barron.

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Hacking debate: the next stage

MPs will debate a call to refer the accusations of Contempt of Parliament against the three former News International staff accused of misleading MPs over the phone hacking scandal to the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee.

Speaker Bercow has announced that the motion will be taken "at the beginning of public business" tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd) - which means after question time and any statements to the House.

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Week ahead

It seems as if MPs have only just come back - but at the end of this week they're off again for their Whitsun recess, and they won't be back until 11 June.

But they do manage to start work on one of the bills promised in the Queen's Speech. And the Lords will be staying on into the following week.

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And they're off...

The game's afoot! Today, with great ceremony, the Deputy Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, drew out the names of the 20 MPs who will have the chance to put a private member's bill before the House of Commons.

For those named, particularly the top eight, who're guaranteed a second reading debate on a Friday morning, today marks the start of a parliamentary adventure.

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Wasted youth

Too much, too young? The new shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith has become the latest member of the 2010 Labour intake to clamber into the shadow Cabinet, joining Chuka Umunna, Rachel Reeves and Margaret Curran at the top table.

There's not a vast amount of excitement or angst to be had from Ed Miliband's second reshuffle, but there is the thought that the charge of the 2010 brigade shows that the rules have changed.

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What the '22 elections mean

Is the Tory leadership clamping down on the troops, or are the troops rounding on a mutinous minority?

The outcome of this week's electioneering for places on the executive of the 1922 Committee - the trade union for Tory MPs - matters because of what it will tell us about the collective attitude of the Tory footsloggers to the coalition in which they are enmeshed.

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Week ahead

Parliament is taking a little while to regain momentum after the State Opening ceremony.

Questions to ministers don't resume in the Commons until Tuesday, and there are no debates in Westminster Hall - the Commons parallel chamber. The week will be dominated by themed debates on the bills in the Queen's Speech.

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It's the economy...

So excited were MPs by the fun-filled package of new legislation laid before them yesterday, that debate in the Commons petered out almost a good 20 minutes early - and had been flagging long before, with the Chamber all but deserted.

Not a good sign for the government. This lack of enthusiasm doesn't bode well for the scheduled five days of debate.

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What next for the phone hacking report?

The grand announcement of the Culture Media and Sport Committee's verdict on phone hacking has just dissolved into cross-party bickering.

The committee had been looking into whether its earlier inquiry into phone hacking allegations had been lied to.

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Who's shone?

I had a mischievous suggestion for my colleagues on BBC Parliament, as 80 plus peers lined up for yet another debate on the future of their House; run a tape of one of the many, many previous debates they've had on this subject in the last couple of years - and see if anyone noticed.

High minded public service broadcasters that they are, they refused, of course.

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Week ahead

It's the fag end of the current Parliamentary session - with the 17th Century ceremony to prorogue the current Parliament due to be held at 1.30pm on Tuesday.

Cue much doffing of cocked and tricorn hats, and lots of archaic phrasing, about the Parliament "y-holden in our City of Westminster". Plus the intonation of various formulae in Norman French to signify the royal assent to every law passed in the session.

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Why Lords reform is a gift for Labour

Ed Miliband now has an effective veto on Lords reform. Without Labour support, Nick Clegg's plans to replace the existing House of Lords with an (as yet un-named) mostly-elected chamber will not make it through the Commons, let alone the Lords.

This morning I dashed from the launch of the report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Draft Bill, to the short press conference held by the pro-reformers, at the other end of the Palace of Westminster and then back again, to the rather longer event held by the antis.

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What's on in the week ahead?

The event of the week, next week, is an extraordinary looking Home Affairs Committee session on drugs - featuring Daily Mail columnist Peter Hitchens and (gulp!) bad boy celeb, Russell Brand. Sadly, they won't be giving evidence at the same time.

On a slightly more serious note, that turbulent twosome are followed by what turns out to be a rather well-timed evidence session with Home Secretary Theresa May…theoretically it's on the same subject, drugs, but the chances of the name Abu Qatada not coming up must be vanishingly small. The fun begins on Tuesday at 11am, with Mr Brand, Mr Hitchens is on stage at 12pm, and the home secretary gives evidence from 12.30pm.

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Lords reform triggers intra-coalition mayhem

I don't know how much is high constitutional principle - and how much is the urge to kick Nick Clegg - but next week's unveiling of proposals for Lords reform by a joint committee of MPs and peers looks certain to trigger a new bout of intra-coalition mayhem.

Last night's meeting of the Conservative 1922 Committee, the forum for Tory backbenchers, suggested deep opposition in the rank and file. And when an uber-loyalist like new-intake backbencher Mark Menzies warns he has some concerns (he denies reports he's threatened to quit as a parliamentary aide), you know feelings are running high.

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The price of defection

When a pundit as well connected as Conservative Home's Tim Montgomerie writes in the Times that two Tory MPs are seriously contemplating switching their allegiance to UKIP, the world takes his words pretty seriously. One blogger even published a list of potential defectors.

It is certainly true that a lot of Conservative MPs are deeply unhappy with the coalition's euro-policies; and it is not hard to imagine them considering taking the plunge.

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Early bath?

The fag end of the current parliamentary year could be even shorter than expected. There's a lot of chatter about the possibility that Parliament could be prorogued next Thursday - ending the current two year-long session.

MPs and peers would then reconvene on 9 May for the State Opening and the Queen's Speech. Then they will rise again (that sounds a bit Biblical; I mean they will have another break) on 24 May, for their Whitsun recess, returning on 11 June for nearly a month of continuous legislating until 17 July, when they rise early for the summer, to avoid clashing with the Olympics and the Jubilee festivities.

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Looking ahead

MPs and peers are now off for their Easter break. The Commons returns on 16 April and the Lords a week later.

MPs will immediately sink their teeth into the Finance Bill - the detailed measure implementing the Budget; and the SNP and Plaid Cymru have already stolen a march by putting down an amendment declining to give it a second reading because it fails to address fuel prices.

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The Commons at its best

It's a pity there's been so little newspaper coverage of yesterday's debate on assisted dying - having been quick to condemn the Commons at its worst over party funding on Monday, it's only fair to say this was MPs at their best - thoughtful, nuanced and respectful of differing opinions.

In particular the speeches of MPs like Paul Blomfield and Edward Leigh deployed powerful emotional arguments - Mr Blomfield talked about the suicide of his father; Mr Leigh of the death of his friend and former parliamentary colleague, Piers Merchant - without slipping into the maudlin or the trite.

Funding merry-go-round shows no sign of stopping

As several MPs remarked, yesterday's noisy, fractious and ultimately rather pointless Commons statement on the Sunday Times revelations about Conservative fundraising, showed the House at its worst.

It was a party political slugfest with each side pointing the finger at the other and squawking that whatever they'd done, the other lot were worse.

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About Mark

Mark's career has included stints at LWT's now defunct Weekend World, and the Leicester Mercury.

He has also produced and occasionally presented Radio 4's on The Westminster Hour.

A correspondent for Today in Parliament since 2002.

He also presents BBC Parliament's political book review show, Book talk.

As well as being a politics nerd, he is a cricket fanatic, amateur cook and Bruce Springsteen fan.

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