The Lord Speaker, Baroness Hayman, has announced that she will not be seeking re-election in July.
The Lord Speaker is elected for a term of five years and is eligible to serve for a maximum of two terms. Baroness Hayman was the first person to be elected to the post, in 2006, after the Lord Chancellor ceased to be the Speaker of the House. As such, she created history and has been extremely active as an ambassador for the House, not least in promoting an extensive and successful outreach programme, exemplied in the ‘Peers in School’ initiative.
The House will have an opportunity to pay tribute to her at a later date. In the interim, it will be interesting to see which candidates emerge to succeed her.
Pseudo elected.
We get no say.
Lord Blagger: You don’t get a say in the election of the Speaker of the House of Commons either. The members of the House are arguably best placed to make the choice based on knowledge of the candidates.
We don’t get a say in your dictating to us what laws we have to conform to either.
You’ve not got one iota of legitamacy as a result.
So come on, answer my prior question.
What should happen to lords who not attended and claimed?
1 year or 2 years in jail?
Lord Blagger: I think we are going to have to apply the same rule to this blog as applies in the Commons against tedious repetition. I am fed up of pointing out that we do not dictate to anyone, as anyone with a passing knowledge of the parliamentary process will be aware. I am very familiar with the concept of legitimacy. There is a substantial literature on the subject.
As I have pointed out, under the new regime, peers have to attend in order to claim the daily attendance allowance. As for peers who commit offences, we should adopt the same practice as in the Commons,as provided for in the Steel Bill.
The problem is that you need to be constantly reminded that you have no democratic authority what so ever.
Now you constantly like to dress up the Lords as a democratic institution. ie. You have elections for your speaker.
However, it doesn’t change the basic truth.
1. When you pass a law, you dictate.
2. You aren’t elected.
Lord Blagger: Twaddle. The response to each of your points is: No I don’t; No I don’t; No, we don’t. We know.
Two points – three replies from you. Try using some fingers.
You do dictate. You’re even doing it now trying to state that you’re democratic, because you’ve dictate you are.
You do pass laws telling us what to do, and you don’t have a mandate.
It shows up your mindset.
So back to the unanswered question.
Jail or not for all the peers who have fiddled their attendance allowance?
Lord Blagger: Making a statement is not to dictate anything. It is to make a statement. The House of Lords does not pass laws. Parliament does. There is also a difference between the House of Lords and the courts. I am a Lord not a judge. The only mindset I have is one favouring accuracy. I recommend it.
PS You made more than two points. Your numbering wasn’t exhaustive.
LN: You have used an intranet link!
http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2011/may/lord-speaker-steps-down/
The one above seems to work?
Senex: Many thanks. I have changed the link.
Fortuitously we also find that karmic law has done for Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones and that her condescending pomposity when ditching Greg Dyke from his tenure at the BBC has caught up with her on the unbreakable law that ‘what goes around, comes around…’
And not before time. Still, I’m sure she will be able to find other outlets for her patronising smugness..
You don’t get a say in the election of the Speaker of the House of Commons either Not even at the general election ballot box really, but where would we be if the speaker of the house of commons were elected by hoi polloi? I’ for one believe in gentle evolution and not sudden revolution!
However I am delighted to see Lord Blagger take up the cry of public elections for the presidency of the House of Lords. it is a move in the right direction in the modern world.
Recently the whole of the world was delighted by the spectacle of decadence of the UK. Lord Norton ran a special subject thread on his very own website to discuss all the thrilling aspects of it.
I am hoping to use a dry compost loo for garden fertilizer.
However I am delighted to see Lord Blagger take up the cry of public elections for the presidency of the House of Lords.
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Far better actually to abolish the Lords and allow people a direct say in issues.
The recent referenda was nothing of the sort. It was just about which people we selected to ignore what the electorate wants.
The interesting thing was the kicking the lib dems got in the process. A direct result of lying to the electorate.
LB: “Far better actually to abolish the Lords”
Would you abolish the Monarchy too?
If only it had been Bercow who decided to retire, then we would see the beginning of a clean up in the Commons.