The Olympics have brought Twitter into the news, as millions of spectators give their instant opinions on the games and the athletes. Some of it is illiterate and hurtful, but there is little control, and freedom of speech is gaining ground as the internet principle. It was reported recently that a man who tweeted in frustration…
Or perhaps I should say House trading. That is, if you support an elected House of Lords (so we can secure some more seats there for our people), we will allow you to go forward with the boundary changes that might secure more seats for your people in the Commons. Striking deals like this is no way to…
It is currently being argued that the abolition of appointed Lords and their replacement by elected Lords (“reform”) must go ahead because it was promised in the manifestos of all three major political parties at the last Election. The Tory manifesto said that the party would work to “build a consensus” on the topic. This…
The move to reform the House of Lords by replacing appointed members with elected ones is driven by the premise that it will be more democratic and accountable. But according to the Bill published this week, it is intended to provide expressly that the Lords will be inferior to the Commons in that if the…
Listening to the first of this year’s Reith Lectures (by Prof. Niall Ferguson, The Rule of Law and its Enemies; next one, Tuesday 9am Radio 4) caused me to meditate on the Arab “spring”. I have just returned from a conference in the Middle East on the Middle East, at which there was universal agreement…
