For this week’s quiz, I thought I would focus on women in the House. Various attempts were made to enable women to sit in the Lords prior to the 1958 Life Peerages Act. The passage of the Sex Discrimination (Removal) Act 1919 was taken by some as suggesting that women may be eligible for admission to the House. At the time there was a small number of hereditary peeresses and one of them, Viscountess Rhondda, requested a writ of summons. Her application was initially upheld by the Committee of Privileges, but after opposition from some peers it was reconsidered and turned down. A Private Member’s Bill to allow women to sit was variously introduced but failed to achieve passage. It was not until 1958 that women could be offered life peerages and it was the 1963 Peerages Act that allowed women who inherited their titles to sit.
This week’s questions:
1. Who was the first woman Leader of the House of Lords?
2. Which Leader of the House held office while her father was also a member of the House?
3. Of the two women who presently sit as elected hereditary peers, who has served in the House the longest?
4. Which female life peer has served as a distinguished judge and whose brother served as Lord Chancellor?
The first two readers to supply the correct answers will be the winners.
Parliament was prorogued at 4.30 p.m. today. It was a quiet end end to a tumultuous session. There was no last minute ‘ping pong’ between the chambers. The absence of such ‘ping pong’ reflected the influence rather than the weakness of the Lords. On recent measures – some of the big Bills going through the House – the Government has been busy accepting amendments, recognising that they improve the Bill. Few of the amendments are the result of Government defeats. The House proceeds largely by way of a constructive discourse with ministers. Each session, anything between 1,000 and 4,000 amendments may be secured in the House. Occasionally, it becomes necessary to force a vote and the Government may be defeated. As Meg Russell’s research has shown, about 40 per cent of defeats are accepted by Government; somewhat counter-intuitively, it is the more important defeats than tend to be accepted. 


