I usually invite a guest speaker to our weekly crossbench meetings and yesterday it was Sir John Major. He now spends a lot of his working life addressing audiences all over the world on topics ranging from leaner government, through trade competition , to world population. So his was a practised speech but no less…
As has already been made clear,the Queen’s Speech is followed by five days of pure debate – roughly divided into broad subject areas. Last Thursday there were 34 speeches on the ‘Foreign Affairs ‘day. Of these, 16 mentioned Afghanistan; and of these two represented passionate appeals to rethink strategy and become seriously involved in reconstruction.…
It is almost unbearable when the names of young men and women killed in Afghanistan are read out in the Chamber of the House of Lords. After we returned from the summer recess the roll call was no less than 38 and it was more than many of us could cope with. The question hangs…
The freedom of expression question comes up once again in the Coroners and Justice bill which will have its 3rd Reading on Thursday 5 November. This will be the last chance for amendments and votes. The battle is between those who believe free speech is so important that it has to encompass insult, and anything short…
I was appointed a Privy Counsellor last July – a very curious honour. It goes back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I, who apparently wrote out the job description in her own hand having become impatient with the efforts of her courtiers. The two major functions of a Privy Counsellor are to agree to…
