Talk:Prorogation Act 1867

Problems with this article
Much of this article is highly problematic. It seems to assume that the Prorogation Act 1867 was some sort of power grab on the part of Queen Victoria, but there's no evidence to support that claim. Right now, the article claims that the Act "created more freedom for the Queen to decide how much recess should be given to Parliament in between the times of their meetings," but that fails to take into consideration the fact that, by the 19th century, the Sovereign was required to act on ministerial advice when proroguing Parliament. Therefore, the timing of sessions would have been the responsibility of government ministers, not the monarch.Sesh84 (talk) 16:25, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

The Act's sole purpose was to change the procedure for prorogation, not to alter the circumstances in which it could be done. Under section 2 of the Act, it did not apply to the usual prorogation, to bring a session to an end; but it meant that if Parliament was to be further prorogued thereafter, or (more rarely) if the first meeting of Parliament after a general election was to be postponed, this could be done by royal proclamation without a ceremony in the House of Lords. The previous procedure is described by the Lord Chancellor in his speech on second reading in the Lords on 18 July 1867 .194.60.38.60 (talk) 14:58, 15 August 2016 (UTC)


 * This appears to be the only section on this Talk page. The article began in 2008 and, until 2012, said little, but made useful connecting links. Then in May 2013 a series of revisions was made (barely literate but well meant), provoking the first comment above, (Sesh84) and the addition of the top tag to the article.. Given that the text of the act itself is linked, including the long title, the May 2013 should be removed as OR without RS, and beyond rescue by copy editing or rewrite. I will go ahead and first, remove the sections "The Prorogation Act of 1867", "Cause" and "Effect", and next copy edit the retained text. Further improving edits would be welcomed. Qexigator (talk) 22:09, 21 September 2016 (UTC)