This week’s quiz questions. The first two readers to come up with the correct answers will be declared the winners.
1. There are presently more members of the House of Lords who have served as Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons than there are who have served as Government Chief Whip in the House of Lords. How many peers presently in the House of Lords have served as Government Chief Whip in the Commons and who are they?
2. I have an MPhil in urban spirituality
I am an ordained minister in the United Reform Church
I have founded various community organisations
I have been awarded the OBE
I sit on the cross-benches
Who am I?
1) Seven – Lord Jopling, Lord Wakeham, Lord Waddington, Lord Renton of Mount Harry, Lord Ryder of Wensum, Lord Goodlad, Baroness Taylor of Bolton
2) Lord Mawson
10 Jopling, Wakeham, Waddington, Renton of Mount Harry, Ryder of Wensum, Goodlad, Glenamara, Mellish, Foster of Bishop Auckland &
Taylor of Bolton
2) Lord Mawson.
Please disregard my earlier answer. In my haste, I forgot Comrade Ted. Please find my updated answer below.
1) Eight – Lord Glenamara, Lord Jopling, Lord Wakeham, Lord Waddington, Lord Renton of Mount Harry, Lord Ryder of Wensum, Lord Goodlad, Baroness Taylor of Bolton
2) Lord Mawson
Question 1:
There are eight:
Lord Glenamara
Lord Jopling
Lord Wakeham
Lord Waddington
Lord Renton of Mount Harry
Lord Ryder of Wensum
Lord Goodlad
Baroness Taylor of Bolton
Question 2:
Lord Mawson
I know I’m far too late today to win, but just for the fun of it:
1. Baroness Taylor of Bolton and Lord Glenamara (Lab), and Lords Wakeham, Waddington, Renton of Mount Harry, Ryder of Wensum, Goodlad and Jolping (all Con). So that makes eight.
2. Lord Mawson
A limited number of entries this week for what I thought were a couple of not overly difficult questions.
There are eight peers presently in the House who have held the office of Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons. Robin Lewis (second time round), Ulysses and Jonathan name them correctly. Croft: You added Lord Mellish, who died in 1998, and Lord Foster of Bishop Auckland, who was Opposition Chief Whip but never held the post of Government Chief Whip. The answer to the second question was Lord Mawson, correctly identified by everyone.
The first two to submit the correct answers were Robin Lewis and Ulysses. Congratulations to them. Jonathan: had not Robin Lewis realised he had omitted Lord Glenamara, and submitted a new entry, you would have been a winner.
The results mean that both Robin Lewis and Ulysses have won two competitions apiece. They join Jonathan, who has also won two. They are just one win away from joining Chris K. in being invited to tea at the Lords.
Here is my rather ‘impertinent’ question in search of a ‘pertinent’ answer…
If the House of Lords is so good, why on the earth is the ridiculous ill-thought legislation on ‘Vetting and Barring’ getting on the statue books ??
If the NSPCC could spot this is dangerous and ineffective legislation, why couldn’t you ?
Bedd Gelert: For the same reason the NSPCC did not spot the implications when the legislation was going through. On the face of it, the provisions enabling the Government to make provision to safeguard children will not have seemed unreasonable, but – as with many order-making powers – it depends on what use is made of them. The answer may be that we need to provide in future for greater restrictions on order-making powers, but the problem is getting the balance right. If primary legislation is too restrictive, it can create obvious problems (requiring new legislation), and if delegated legislation is too broad it may lend itself to mis-use by the government.