During the Xmas break, I read a wonderful book that I should have discovered earlier – No Expenses Spared, by Winnett and Rayner (2009). The authors are two of the journalists at the Daily Telegraph who uncovered the MPs’ expenses scandal, and they explain how the stories unfolded. It makes for fascinating reading, but it…
A Select Committee (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmhaff/184/18402.htm) has proposed the establishment of a Royal Commission to consider the effect of decriminalising certain drugs. The use of marijuana has been legalised in the states of Washington and Colorado. Is it not odd that those states that are the fiercest guardians of the environment – no smoking, curbs on alcohol, taxes…
Like everyone else, I am waiting to see what Sir Brian Leveson recommends in his report on the media, due in a few days’ time. I have no decided views at the moment about press regulation, except that I am very well aware of how difficult it is to regulate what is on the internet,…
These comments follow on from Lord Tyler’s analysis of the overcrowded House. There was a question from Lord Lee on 12 November about how to encourage more Chinese tourists to visit the UK, and in response difficulties about visas, costs and lack of flights were aired. I would have liked to intervene but there were so…
As widely trailed, the Bishop of Durham has been announced as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, and the appointment has been widely welcomed, with just a few voices muttering that he is an old Etonian. The quality of the man chosen to fill this post matters to all of us, of other faiths and of…
