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During the pandemic our laws were radically remade by a government which exercised almost unlimited power, according to the human rights barrister, Adam Wagner. In Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why it Matters he decries the lack of parliamentary debate and oversight as restrictions became tighter, and warns against the possiblity of future emergencies following the same political path. But how effective is our parliamentary democracy in scrutinising the government? The Assistant Editor of the Spectator, Isabel Hardman is a seasoned politician-watcher and joins the programme from the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. She fears MPs are failing in their role as effective legislators both because of demands on their time from their constituencies, and because of concern about ruining their chances of joining the executive. The historian Tim Bale studies the fortunes of the Conservative Party, and is looking with interest at the direction the new government is headin