CrossPartyMusic.com

Welcome to the official Cross Party Music microsite!

Following on from their popular 2005 House Music EP, Revolver is proud to present the debut album from the World's only Parliamentary rock group — once again featuring Kevin Brennan, Ian Cawsey, Greg Knight and Pete Wishart across twelve slices of infectious pop-rock. Continue Reading…

Trying to think of a few interesting Christmas prezzies? We have a good one for you - the Cross Party album! The album doesn't want for much: a loving home, a little shelf space in your music collection and some attention lavished upon it round the dinner / party table. It's almost guaranteed to start some interesting conversations over the festive period…

The best news? The album is available to buy on CD - click here to buy the album from the Revolver store.

And whilst you enjoy a quick tea break, here's a video from the album launch at the House of Commons:

MP4 were honoured at the 4th annual GovNet Awards held in the House of Lords. The band was presented with the ‘Alternative Parliamentary Entertainer Award’ by Lord Foulkes ahead of other shortlisted candidates Lord Ancram and Margaret Beckett.

The group said they were ‘delighted to be honoured’ and they presented the awards chairman Lord Foulkes with a copy of their latest album.
Due to the fact that the House of Lords chamber was in session the band were not able to perform live at the awards but they will be appearing on the Terrace of the House of Commons on New Year’s Eve at The Speaker’s reception, where all proceeds will go to the charity Help a Capital Child.

The band continues to gig and fundraise, to date raising over half a million pounds for charities including Save the Children and Help for Heroes.

Not in a stalkery way, you understand… If you're bored of trawling Hansard to read their contributions to Parliamentary process - don't despair! All the guys are on Twitter:

Ian Cawsey is @iancawsey
Kevin Brennan is @kevinbrennanmp
Greg Knight is @gregknightmp
and Pete Wishart is @petewishart!

They're all pretty active on ye olde Twiteres, go say hello. Alternatively if you do want to follow their activities in the House, you can do so easily, quickly and for free by using the excellent TheyWorkForYou email updates service.

Well, they're still in the Commons! Handily, you can use TheyWorkForYou to receive daily updates of MP4's members in the Commons. Here's a summary of their recent activity:

Greg Knight has been typically busy, most notably proposing and begging of the House a second reading of his Private Members Bill proposing amendments to the Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Act. Whilst the subject is very complex, there are important exceptions where the current Act could be considered cruel or unfair towards an individual. As Greg explains,

"The Bill seeks to amend the law of succession in England and Wales where a person disclaims-that is, rejects-an inheritance or is disqualified from receiving an inheritance by reason of the forfeiture rule."

From the BBC's Democracy Live page for the debate:

MPs have debated Tory MP Greg Knight's Estates of Deceased Persons (Forfeiture Rule and Law of Succession) Bill at second reading.

The bill seeks to amend the law in England and Wales to protect the inheritance rights of children of people who turn down their inheritance or forfeit their rights by unlawfully killing the deceased.

At present, in this instance, inheritance passes to other family members and not to the killer's children.

Introducing the bill on 21 January 2011 Mr Knight said it was not acceptable that grandchildren could be punished for the sins of their parents.

My bill "is not likely to be the talking point of the week in the pub", he remarked, "but it will go some way in making the law fairer".

Last Friday's Today in Parliament covers the subject (including highlights from Mr. Knight's speech), and you can listen to it here: BBC iPlayer: Today in Parliament (21/01/2011) (a listen is highly recommended and provides an excellent summary of the discussion).

Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) and Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) have also both been active in numerous areas since the Coalition took power. Pete Wishart has been contributing in the House towards debates on Counter-Terrorism, the Olympics, the EMA, Copyright and the Internet, the A/V referendums, Higher Education fees and detention centres amongst many topics.

Kevin Brennan has also been participating in debates and oral answers regarding the BSkyB / News Corp merger, the EMA, bank bonuses, long-term custodial sentences, severe winter weather and the European Council.

If you wish to follow their work in detail, TheyWorkForYou allows you to receive email updates whenever they appear in the House of Commons, as well as being able to review in-depth details of their past speeches from Hansard. Simply go to TWFY, search for the MP's name and sign up for email updates (or use the RSS feed). You can also contact the MPs via the web site (and also keep tabs on your own constituency representative…)

Stay tuned for future updates!