Author Archives: Baroness Murphy

Badgers

17/07/2010 – 1:01 pm

Bedd Gelert snuck in a little note on the failed proposal for a Welsh badger cull to Lord Norton’s last so I thought I’d take this opportunity to respond. I have more the average fondness for badgers because I once played one! The role of Badger in Wind in the Willows was my first starring [...]

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New Kids on the Block

30/06/2010 – 9:03 am

This last two days we’ve been meeting in the Chamber 15 minutes early to accommodate the influx of new peers. Why we continue to have new people joining us when one of the key issues is how to reduce the size of the Chamber is something of a puzzle but they keep coming! The six [...]

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Lord Hill of Oareford

25/06/2010 – 10:38 am

This is the photo of Lord Hill of Oareford, the Schools Minister that I thought I’d inserted into my last post. As Jonathan Hill he was a ministerial advisor in various departments in the 1980s and 1990s (he had the reputation for being what my auntie would call ‘a head full of smarts’). He  headed up [...]

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Religious education, an oxymoron

24/06/2010 – 1:53 pm

In the committee stages of the Academies Bill yesterday we had a fascinating debate about the role of faith schools and the risks they pose. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/100623-0005.htm#10062341000480 . I am concerned that a quarter of existing academies are faith schools, ranging from the traditional Church of England local community primary schools to the highly selective fundamentalist Christian, [...]

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Drug Policy Debate

16/06/2010 – 12:08 pm

We had a short (90 minute) debate yesterday evening about Drug Misuse Policy, initiated by Baroness Meacher.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has recently issued a discussion paper entitled From Coercion to Cohesion: Treating Drug Dependence through Healthcare, not Punishment. http://www.idpc.net/publications/unodc-from-coercion-to-cohesion-treatment. For nearly 50 years, ever since the first UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs of [...]

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