On consensus-building

Kady's post on the composition and chairing of committees notes that there's some risk the Cons could try to use their majority to rewrite the rules. But it's worth pointing out that there doesn't look to be much precedent for that step in recent decades.

One of the first orders of business for any Parliament is the approval of committee composition and mandates. And in every single post-election Parliament since 1994 (which of course also involved a new majority government), those issues have been seen as a matter of negotiation and consensus rather than partisan strongarming - such that each of the motions has been passed with unanimous consent. See the relevant journal dates from 1994, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2008.

And indeed all MPs - whether party members or not - presumably need to have been at least be willing to accept the process used to set the rules in order to develop that record of unanimous consent.

Of course, we can't ignore the possibility that the Cons might try to either sneak some changes into the Standing Orders with the other parties' acquiescence, or thumb their nose at the apparent convention in order to impose their will on a vote. But it's well worth noting that there doesn't seem to be much precedent for either of those courses of action. And I'd have to figure the Cons would be careful about suddenly tearing up procedures and customs which have been the subject of all-MP consensus for at least the last couple of decades - including during their previous terms in office.