Richard Younger-Ross

VIEW FROM WESTMINSTER Column

Liberal Democrat Richard Younger Ross represented the former constituency of Teignbridge for nine years until his defeat in the new seat of Newton Abbot at the General Election on May 6, 2010, by Conservative Anne Marie Morris. This is an archive of his articles for the Mid-Devon Advertiser series.

There are two ways of getting called to put a question to the Prime Minister, the first is to put your name in a ballot to appear on the order paper, the second is to ‘catch the Speaker’s eye’.
Round about 250 MPs put their name forward every week. The ballot opens at 1pm on a Thursday and remains open for seven days for a question to be put the following Wednesday.
Fifteen names are randomly chosen and they appear on the order paper in the sequence that their name comes out of the bag. Two other people are certain to be called, one is David Cameron who has up to six questions and Nick Clegg has two.
Technically there is a written question and a supplementary.

READ RICHARD YOUNGER-ROSS IN FULL IN OUR ONLINE EDITION