Category Archives: Baroness D’Souza

My time as Cross Bench Convenor…

Baroness D'Souza 26/08/2011 – 3:14 pm

....is coming to an end after four years. I have learnt so much about the workings of the House and hope this will stand me in good stead for the role of Lord Speaker which I will take up formally on 1st September. In the last three years or so I have blogged (not all that regularly) on the job of Convenor and what it has entailed, on procedures in the Chamber, on various aspects of legislatio […]

Written at 3:14 pm on 26/08/2011, by Baroness D'Souza

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Crossbench Voting Independence!

Baroness D'Souza 23/05/2011 – 8:36 pm

Last week during a rather tense debate on Police Reform, a distinguished Crossbencher mentioned that he spoke from the 'relative neutrality of the Cross Benches' at which some peers snorted - a touch derisively. In the last Labour administration I was called in by the Front Bench to "explain the role of the Crossbenchers" which unfortunately became a session of ill-concealed irritation that t […]

Written at 8:36 pm on 23/05/2011, by Baroness D'Souza

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Taking the Pulse of the Nation (cab drivers)

Baroness D'Souza 19/05/2011 – 9:31 am

Yesterday a colleague asked a black cab to take her to the House of Lords and he refused - saying "not after what I've just heard on the radio." Mystified she asked the next cabbie, who reluctantly agreed to take her to Parliament, what it was all about. He too had heard the broadcast which was about providing peers with salaries! So the draft bill and White Paper on reform of the House of Lor […]

Written at 9:31 am on 19/05/2011, by Baroness D'Souza

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I wonder why the parties now seem so interested in the Cross Benches

Baroness D'Souza 05/12/2010 – 5:14 pm

Throughout the time I have been Convenor of the Cross Benches I got used to the ill-disguised jibes directed at the Cross Benches - there are too many of us, it was said, we don't get out to vote, we don't contribute to the nitty gritty of legislation, we don't attend enough. Some of this was/is true but since the election we are increasingly 'courted' by both Government and Opposition. The reas […]

Written at 5:14 pm on 05/12/2010, by Baroness D'Souza Comments (10)

Human Rights work – right?

Baroness D'Souza 02/12/2010 – 6:42 pm

A debate today on human rights included a dismal record of man's inhumanity to man - in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. Last night at a lecture by Louise Arbour, the eminent prosecutor at the International Criminal Court and now the chief executive of the International Crisis Group, recounted an equally sad list of failures to protect people and to promote peace . What is to be […]

Written at 6:42 pm on 02/12/2010, by Baroness D'Souza Comments (2)