This week’s quiz questions. The first two readers to respond with the correct answers will be the winners.
1. When a division is called in the House of Lords, how many minutes do peers have to get into the chamber before the doors to the chamber are locked?
2. The Select Committee on the European Communties, since renamed the Select Committee on the EU, was established in 1974. On only two occasions has the chair of the committee been drawn from the Conservative benches. The second of the two peers was Lord Brabazon of Tara. Who was the first?
3. The present Marquis of Salisbury entered the House of Lords as Viscount Cranborne, that is, while his father was still alive. He did not enter as a life peer, so on what basis was he elevated to membership?
My first time to attempt a quiz and I am hoping for a maximum of 66.666% which is not great.
1.Three Lords form a quorum for a procedural vote and thirty for a substantive vote by division. However, if you mean who can remain the chamber after the others go to the lobbies I would think only the Lord Speaker who votes from his Chair.
2. I am totally ignorant of this.
3. Prior to succeeding as Marquis in this decade he had a distinguished carreer in Lords and several offices after serving in Commons. He wa elevated by the most recent Writ of Acceleration which was issued under his father’s junior title of Baron Cecil.
1) 8 minutes
2)
3) via a writ in acceleration (commonly called ‘of acceleration’) in his father’s barony of Cecil of Essendon.
1. 8 minutes
2. I’d hazard a guess at Lord Aldington
3. By writ of acceleration in the title of Lord Cecil of Essenden
1. 8 minutes (thanks for an earlier post of yours!)
2. Baroness Tweedsmuir of Belhelvie (1974-1977)
3. By writ of acceleration as Baron Cecil – his position was then the subject of much discussion when the House of Lords Act was being debated
Congratulations to Jonathan, who answered all three questions correctly. He is clearly on track to become a super prize-winner: this is his fourth victory. The other three readers got one or two of the three correct answers: the second question proved the real teaser.
Peers have eight minutes in which to reach the chamber before the doors are locked. You do not have to be in a division lobby; as long as you are in the chamber, you can vote. As Jonathan notes, I have previously mentioned in a post the fact that we have eight minutes. This is not the first quiz question where the answer is to be found in earlier posts.
As Jonathan records, Baroness Tweedsmuir of Belhevie, a former Conservative minister, chaired the EC Committee from 1974 to 1977. She was the second person to chair the committee.
As all four readers note, Lord Cranborne was elevated to the Lords by writ of acceleration, in his father’s barony of Cecil of Essenden. The use of a writ of acceleration was rarely used and is a now a feature of history.