A very interesting day on the Lords Select Committee on Communications yesterday. In the morning we went to visit the nearly completed extension to Broadcasting House in Portland Place. The inside is magnificent, although by no means all fitted out yet. There will be a huge news room, and separate activities on the different floors around…
There has been much discussion, not least at the Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, about judicial appointments and how to ensure a diverse judiciary. One of the less practical suggestions made to widen the pool from which judges may be selected is to institute part-time judging. This, said the Lord Chancellor, would enable more…
There has been focus on UNESCO recently. It admitted Palestine as a full member (although I am not sure whether Palestine has signed up to the constitution of the UNESCO, which is a condition of membership) and in consequence the United States has withdrawn its funding. In 1985 the United Kingdom withdrew from UNESCO for…
I have received dozens of emails from members of the public, addressed to all Lords, about their opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill, currently before the Lords. Because the wording of the emails is almost identical, many of them get filtered into my junk mail by action of my computer. One or two…
I am pleased to see that the government is going to legislate to ensure that the first born child of a monarch succeeds to the throne in the future, and that sons and daughters will be equal in that respect. If the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge have a girl first, she will be Queen…
