As regular readers will be aware, the House of Lords is a self-regulating chamber. The Lord Speaker has no powers in the chamber. The House collectively is responsible for order. No one has to catch the Speaker’s eye in order to speak. If you wish to speak in a set-piece debate, you sign up in advance. This used to be done manually – signing a list in the Government Whips’ Office – but nowadays can be done electronically via the Government Whips’ website. This site is publicly accessible and so anyone can see who has signed up to speak in forthcoming debates.
This forthcoming Tuesday (27 January) there are two important debates. The first is on the Government’s assessment as set out in the pre-Budget Report 2008. As a glance at the speakers’ list on the site shows, those who have signed up include peers who have served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Treasury minister, as well as a number of peers from a business background; Lord Peston, former professor of economics at the LSE (and father of Robert) is also speaking. The minister replying, Lord Myners, has extensive experience in the City.
However, far more peers – over thirty so far – have signed up to speak in the second debate – on developments in Gaza. They include members who have served as head of the diplomatic service (Lord Wright of Richmond), UK ambassador to the UN (Lord Hannay), Minister of State at the Foreign Office (Lord Luce), Lord Chief Justice (Lord Woolf), and members of the security service (Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale, Baroness Neville-Jones); the minister replying to the debate, Lord Malloch-Brown, was Deputy Secretary-General of the UN.
We will not be short of topical debates this week. On Thursday, Lord Browne of Maddingley, former chief executive of BP, will lead a debate on the political aspects of addressing climate change. Speakers already signed up include Lord May of Oxford (President of the Royal Society and former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government), Lord Hannay (who served as head of the EC energy, science and space department), Lord Jenkin of Roding (a former Environment Secretary) and Lord Giddens (one of the country’s leading sociologists). Other names are likely to be added between now and Thursday.
We should be in for some stimulating, and educative, debates.
Damn they’re somewhat relatives to each other … that’s not democracy it’s a nepotic dictatorship …
Gilmour Poincaree: You will find that the House has members who each have multiple skills and extensive experience. Lord Hannay, for example, is well qualfied to speak on energy and international relations, with a particular knowledge of the Middle East.
It is far from unknown for peers to speak in consecutive debates on different subjects. Given that those taking part in a debate typically stay for most or all of a debate, this can be quite demanding.
Who are his relatives amongst the whole bunch of you … ?!!! … if you don’t mind …
Nice and sleazy does it every time !
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5581547.ece
Fine work, if you can get it…
Gilmour Poincaree: Now you have lost me. Who are you referring to?
Lord Hannay, who else ?!!! … “What kinda languague do they speak in what ?!!!”
Gilmour Poincaree: I am not aware that Lord Hannay is related to any other members.
Bedd Gelert: I have read the story in ‘The Sunday Times’. I may do a separare post on the issue. The BBC has a useful Q&A brief at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7849812.stm
Lord Norton,
Would be useful – as I’ve not read the article yet, so the ‘jury is still out’.
But in any case there is a whole industry in ‘lobbying’ e.g. for defence companies which is completely legal and above board, but whose ethics and morality are rather murky to say the least.
Now that President Obama is in the Whitehouse promising a fresh start on transparency and financial probity and an end to the ‘revolving doors’ for lobbyists, can we possibly do the same thing over here ?
‘Yes we can ! Er, sometime..’
From the BBC site..
“Baroness Royall has acknowledged that there aren’t many sanctions available to the House of Lords to punish errant members. ”
I dare say that will not be the case for too much longer.
Cui bono ? No doubt helps Murdoch’s case for republicanism no end…
Hmmm.. Having read the article one wonders how much worse this is than what Lord ‘Powderject’ Drayson and Lord ‘Future Heathrow’ Soley get up to completely legally. Or Lord Myners saying one thing and doing another..
http://www.order-order.com/2009/01/is-myners-full-of-self-loathing.html
The point about self-regulation in the Lords is that it may rely on ‘naming and shaming’, which carries far less clout amongst those who are shameless..