Peers are back at work today: that is, the House returns from its Summer Recess, but (of course) many of us have been busy on public business of various sorts. I spent a very thought-provoking afternoon at a Sixth Form last week, being put on the spot by very bright students in a Question and Answer session, and the weeks have been put to good use with catch-up reading and writing. Oh, and I had to report back to my Liberal Democrat colleagues, at our Brighton Conference, on the failure of the Commons to make progress after they gave the Lords Reform Bill such a huge Second Reading majority.
MPs are still away from Westminster, because the Conservative Members may feel that they have to attend some or all of their own Party Conference in Birmingham. Their colleagues in the Lords don’t seem to feel quite so dedicated to these tribal gatherings. I don’t think that this is evidence of non-partisanship amongst Peers – after all most divisions split on party lines – but merely a degree of detachment from these events and the local activists who naturally loom larger in the minds of constituency MPs. It would be interesting to compare the proportion of the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative membership of this House who have participated in these conferences this autumn, but unlike attendance in the House daily attendance is not registered!
It may also be that some Peers resent being treated to the way these occasions have become glorified rallies rather than democratic debates and decision-making events. I asked a couple of colleagues here – one Labour and one Conservative – when their respective conferences last substantially changed party policy, against the advice of their leadership. Both were stumped. The only examples I can remember are when the Conservatives last had a conference showdown with their leadership in 1963 (!) and when Neil Kinnock attempted to take on the Militant Left at the Labour Conference in 1985, and met considerable resistance. The Liberal Democrats (and the Liberals before them), by contrast, have a had a succession of such decisive discussions and votes, and still do, even now the party is in a Coalition Government: this year the debate on the detail of the Justice and Security Bill may prove significant, not least because the section concerned will be closely scrutinised in the Lords in the weeks ahead.
Perhaps one of our many erudite readers may be able to tell us which Conservative Leader it was who said something along the lines of “I would as soon take the advice of my party in conference as that of my footman”? Here’s a conundrum: the membership of all three major parties has dropped dramatically in recent decades and the ways in which they are consulted by the leadership have changed out of all recognition, as electronic communication has replaced the annual get-togther by the seaside. Attendance may have kept up, but that is largely due to the huge numbers of journalists and lobbyists who feel they must be there. So why do politicians and media alike still take the Party Conferences so seriously? Or perhaps that is an illusion too ?
Party conferences are just there as mutual backslapping (or stabbing) sessions and an excuse for a week by the sea side.
There are reasons why party membership is dropping, more and more people are realising that actually, all they care about is getting into and retaining power, and the only time they need to listen to the population is in the months leading up to an election.
Yes, Lord Tyler, those and similar beanos have become “glorified rallies”
and yes, it is an “illusion” that those polly and media bees-around-the-honey-pot are taking the real Needs of this Nation seriously;
they are alike like the Lawyer sitting in the middle milking the cow the tail of which is being pulled by one “owner” and the horns the opposite way by another “owner”;
and the same ‘ringmaster’ skill is prized by other professions,
all coming down to “Yes, let’s you The People and the Problem fight”
and we’ll bankroll it and hold your coat”;
just as it is a deeply-entrenched “delusion” possessing most if not all Professional classes,
especially those who should know better such as the Psychiatrists, Doctors and Educators,
who absolutely “know” that they, each, are not just more than one-human-being but upwards of two –
(If £300 per week is a sufficient human-living, then someone drawing ten of them is only 10% efficient at making ends meet,
and is surely deluded that s/he is ten-human-beings not one).
Such ‘experts’ look about as clever as the monkeys who get their fists around the tasty-smelling-food in a narrow-necked jar, and won’t (simply WON’T)
let go;
Even in order to become free,
and to both survive and thrive elsewhere
on the two legs God gave them;
instead of ‘leaderfully’ going round and round and round-and-round these many and various “command-performance” honey-traps.
You would be right, noble lord,
None of them can be really serious about the Thrival of our Earth’s Lifesupports and our human-race’s sustainworthy survival thereby, can they ?
It was Arthur J. Balfour and the reference was to his valet.
Dear Lord Tyler,
The dropping of participants could be explained by many reasons such as they are unmotivated to tackle questions because of their low numbers in Parliament. I do think my Lord that there are too many commoners to compete with the ideas of the lords. I am sure my dear Lord will agree with me with all my respect that I am paying to him to appoint more lords, let it be Junior Lords from European Communities to supplement the absentees. I am sure that most Junior Lords will be present and ready to learn and participate in the works of their “beloved and blessed lords’in the name of the Blessed United Kingdom.
I am sure that my lord will not disapprove with this idea.
God save the Queen and her Lords. God bless the United Kingdom.
Nazma FOURRE
That we, as a Global-Homo-Sapiens-Sapiens, need most urgently and importantly,
those young-brains-and-bodies that have adequately demonstrated, to The Widest Public,
at least A-level skills, specificly in Human Health & Sustainworthiness Building:
is axiomatic.
For you can’t govern people if you are yourself short of both Individual and Lifeplace-Group development-skills, abilities & experience, in
Subjects:
Individual-Human-Development : specificly including both lone-personal and mutual-group, self-awareness and self-control;
6-Modes ‘Lateral’ Thinking;
Formal-Argumentation & Moral-Reasoning;
Method III Needs & Hows Recognition and Cooperative (Win-Win-Win) Problem-Solving;
these are all minimum essential skills, for both living in a lifeplace and (especially) for governing both lifeplaces and all-inclusivly The Longest-Term Sustainworthy Lifeplace on a Generic Basis.
———————-
A young governance-professional will also need to have clearly demonstrated Workplace skill(s)
within which the present established universities,schools and other job-training-businesses, should suffice, with their Workplace-skills now provided by Faculties of
Arts;
Humanities;
Sciences;
Business;
Communications;
but I would say that especially Geography is a vital general-subject,
and more priority so than Politics –
Note please:
Skills in Thinking, Formal-Argumentation and Moral-Reasoning surpass in ‘learnability’, and are more essential than, skills in Politics, Economics, Olympics, and History
(the latter’s deep and essential skills in retrojection and ‘unmasking-the-villain’ are already fully covered as parts of the Syllabuses for Human Development and Thinking-Skills respectively-and-cooperatively)
are among the new essentials, for both Educators and Governance Professionals.
God save the Queen and her Lords. God bless the United Kingdom
Vive la republique! Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité!
I would as soon take the advice of my party in conference as that of my footman
A good many men do.
the membership of all three major parties has dropped dramatically
I wonder whether this is an argument in favour of LD recovery at the next general election?!
I am enormously impressed by the erudition of readers. Lord Norton I would expect to quick off the mark with the answer to any quiz of this character, but yesterday Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng got in first to recall the complete quote by Arther Balfour, “I would sooner listen ot the opinions of my valet than those of the Conservative Party Conference”, writing in the Evening Standard. He went on to recall that Balfour “led the party to a disastrous election defeat in 1906”. What that says of the significance of party conferences, then and now, I leave to you to decide…
Dear Lord Tyler,
You are just simply the best, the devoted lord who acts together with the blessed lords to improve the standard of the house of the Lords. I hope my lord does hear my little voice of hiring junior lords. “United we stand and divided we fall”, this new philosophy of hiring more lords in Parliament will help the competition of ideas between commoners and lords easier.Hope my lord approve my idea.May God bless thee.
God bless the United Kingdom.God save the Queen and the beloved lords.
Nazma FOURRE
There are no illusions at these conferences whatsoever. The faithful know before they go it’s a farce to hoodwink the electorate. However, that same public is getting smarter. The Pavlov’s dog syndrome is growing thin, and the donations are drying up. Except from the fat cats who keep it all alive as they are the only ones doing so well out of it.
You see the ordinary tax payer is a scrounger who wants to live on hand outs, paid for by themselves, when the chips are down. After all he paid into a system that gave him the expectation that his money would protect him in times of trouble. However, the bankers and big financiers, when they messed up, because they emptied the coffers as it’s all too tempting to play the tables when you have it at your fingertips, are, of course, to big to fail. And so, the disabled, sick, mentally ill and poverty stricken are whipped into destitution to keep these con artists afloat. As well as to make sure that this years bonus is, at very least, equal to last. Be back on the gravy train in time time, love, you wait and see. They can’t do without me, and besides, I know too much.
But once they are questioned, as Diamond was, about his clever slight of hand and trousering, he pxxssed off and no one hears of him again. Now he’s nicely settled back in a mansion Stateside. No charges for fraud there. Oh, no, get hold of Johnny English on the dole, he is the one who has brought us to ruin. And he has it tucked up in his hovel in the woods. That place that is too good for the likes of him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLu7H3zE40g
And Libor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0FrvZyVZL8&feature=related
Here is one of his four million pound ‘homes’ on Nantucket. So, there is plenty to lien on there. Should the desire take hold of our fair government.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/06/30/article-2167085-13DD65C9000005DC-912_634x421.jpg
After all he paid into a system that gave him the expectation that his money would protect him in times of trouble. However, the bankers and big financiers, when they messed up, because they emptied the coffers as it’s all too tempting to play the tables when you have it at your fingertips, are, of course, to big to fail
===========
First part – correct.
Second part, complete twaddle. Absolute rubbish. Lies. You’ve been hoodwinked by politicians.
If we take the first part, lets talk pensions. How much does the state owe and what the heck has that got to do with bankers or some cabal of big financiers? Nothing.
The choice of spending all the money from people’s contributions was a political decision. They took the money and they spent it.
Even for the bank bailout, I would be in favour of people who took government money losing their wealth.
So look at the debts You’ve failed to tell us how much you think the state owes people.
Why is that?
Now I suggest its this. You’re dependent on the state. You’re going to have to rely on friendly politicians paying out. However, I’ve a sneaking idea you realise they are bust, and the implications of that are too much for you to take in.
At the same time, tell us what the government has lost and how, on the banks. I doubt you can come up with those figures either.
You’ve been conned Maude.
Why do you need a summer recess anyway? Is texting ‘lol’ and twittering on your ipads all a bit to much for you or something? 😉
I’m joking, or am I?
Anyway in my book, conferences are just for those politicians to boost their ego’s and get big donations from donors who think they will get something for it. Why else would they donate in the first place? Silly system if you ask me and shouldn’t be allowed. It’s corruption waiting to happen. Hence no mansion tax but disability and jobless cuts.
We’re all being conned Blagger, some more than others.