The House of Lords is in the news, with much lamenting about the size of the House and the impending arrival of new entrants. Yet since the House remains unreformed, of course we need new blood. Otherwise we will simplify fossilise. The only democratic way to shed numbers must be for the electorate to decide who is…
The chamber of the House of Lords can be very intimidating, especially for newer Members trying to make a succinct point, when it is full to bursting at Questions. They can hardly be blamed if they refer carefully to notes when asking for information from Ministers. Yet, all too often, when they do this, some old stagers…
Just in case anyone outside the Palace of Westminster has been fooled by the recent deceitful diatribes that “MPs are lazy and given up on their Parliamentary duties” or “this final fifth year has turned us into a Zombie Parliament” I offer the following exchanges in the Lords today: Lord Grocott: To ask Her Majesty’s…
I suppose we should all know by now, but it still seems odd to me that the positions taken up by many Peers seem so at variance with their Party, their colleagues in the Commons and with their promises to the electorate in party manifestos. In recent days Labour backbench Peers have been universally critical,…
For years some Peers’ strategy in the face of all reforming governments has been resistance and then snail-like reluctance in retereat. Witness the hard fought, last ditch rear-guard actions of the hereditaries to the Blair government’s removal of much of their number in 1998/99. Their watch word was always as little as possible, as slowly…
