Mention of Baroness Trumpington reminds me of another event. The noble Baroness is not alone in constituting a formidable presence in the House. As regular readers will be aware, I share an office with a number of Baronesses (three of them pictured right, busily at work). Our office is on the law lords’ corridor. Some years ago, there was talk of partitioning our room in order to create more space for the law lords: this was before the decision to create a supreme court. The then Chairman of Committees decided to have a look at the room to consider the feasibility of the proposal. He made the mistake of popping his head round the door when two of the Baronesses were present. I was also in at the time, but I don’t think my contribution was needed. Suffice to say, we never saw the Chairman of Committees again and nothing more was heard of the proposal.
Dear Lord Norton,
What a marvellous photograph!
I was privileged once several years ago to hear one of the pictured Baronesses pronounce the word ‘outrageous’. Actually, it was pronounced as two words: ‘Out Rageous’. I’ve never forgotten it and remembering it still brings a smile to my face.
Howridiculous.
Great to have that photograph. On the other hand — Wow! That is a rather democratic spatial arrangement. No offense intended.
On the other hand it is at Westminster not a hamlet near Birmingham or on the Orkneys. Still I think even a Communist Republican would have a hard time saying anything too critical.
Frank Wynerth Summer: We certainly maximise space. Across the corridor, what used to be a shower room now houses two peers’ desks.
Did they draw lots to decide whose desk went under the nozzle?
I’m just glad that’s todays quiz is not identify the three peers pictured!
Croft: Perhaps I should reveal that it would not be that difficult for anyone who trails through the archive for this site….
True, I wasn’t sure if individual peers might randomly move offices or the ‘authorities’ move them or their offices especially with the LLs departure or annual renovation etc.
Croft: There is no random movement. Given the pressures on space, there is a tendency to hold on to what one has. The pressures are even greater with the creation of new peers. The acquisition of outlying buildings, such as Fielden House and Millbank House, has created more space, reducing the number of peers who are without offices. When space becomes available (as with the law lords’ offices) it is normally allocated to those who do not have offices (or rather desks). The only movement between offices tends to occur when someone moves from a backbench to a front-bench position. There is also a large office on the first floor, West Front, for those peers who chair committees, but one only has a desk there for the period that one chairs a committee. When I chaired the Constitution Committee, I declined a desk there and opted to stay where I was: one of the best decisions I ever made.
Are you saying you lose your existing ‘office/desk’ if you choose to take a desk on the first floor committee chairman room? And you therefore have to go on the end of the allocation queue for new desks when you cease to be chairman?
Croft: Yes, I would have lost my existing desk, and there was no way I was risking that!
I shouldn’t laugh but really you can’t help it. I can’t work out if it’s a perverse disincentive to working as a chairman or a fiendishly cunning plan to ensure you never want to give the role up.
Croft: Even if you never want to give the job up, you have no option. The House operates a rotation rule, so one only chairs a committee for three years before being ‘rotated off’. The chairmen’s office may be useful for peers who don’t make use of their existing offices (and/or don’t like them) or don’t have offices.
The Baroness’s in the picture are Baroness Fookes, Baroness Knight and Baroness O’cathain. I have to say i think highly of all three. I only wish Baroness Fookes was elected lords speaker she would have been very good. However i think Baroness Hayman is making a good crack of the job for the time being. I do not know of any of the baroness in the picture though who command the presence which Baroness Trumpington does!
tory boy: I agree that Baroness Hayman is doing an excellent job. Baroness Fookes is excellent on the Woolsack as one of the Deputy Speakers, bringing the same authority as she exercised as a Deputy Speaker in the Commons. She is also, like the other Baronesses in the picture, extremely hardworking.