These days it isn’t just anxious looking MPs and peers, lobbyists, civil servants, journalists and security officials you’ll find wandering near Westminster, says Simon Barrow. Among other unexpected visitors have been Batman, a troupe of clowns, Basil Brush and his foxy friends, a group of zombies and a super-sized duck home

Parliament will be given a chance to vote to open up the finances of quangos and national government today, when it debates strengthening the government's Local Spending Reports.

A public opinion poll by ComRes, commissioned by the religion and society thinktank Ekklesia, has challenged the Archbishop of Canterbury's suggestion that democracy will be damaged by the revelations about MPs expenses

* 78% say independents should stand where MPs have behaved ‘unethically’
* 63% believe British democracy would be strengthened if there were more independent MPs
* 53% say they would ‘seriously consider’ voting for an independent candidate at the next general election

The furore about MP’s expenses has temporarily overshadowed all other political issues, says Simon Barrow. But it is perhaps better seen as a symptom of a much wider disconnect between governors and governed.

Following Obama's advent, there has been debate about whether Britain might one day get a black Prime Minister, says Jonathan Bartley. A better question is whether we will ever be able to make our political system truly representative

Two Christian campaigners from Manchester have handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street at the close of the second week of their fortnight long protest camp in Parliament Square in London over the mistreatment of asylum seekers.

Two Christian campaigners from Manchester have begun a 2-week protest camp outside the Houses of Parliament to call on MPs to help change UK policies that are making refused asylum seekers destitute.

This Sunday two Christian campaigners from Manchester will begin a 2-week protest camp outside the Houses of Parliament to call on MPs to help change UK policies that are making refused asylum seekers destitute.

Backed by Catholic aid agency CAFOD, two indigenous indians from Brazil have arrived in London this week to make an urgent plea to members of parliament for help to save their Amazon forest home.