Category Archives: Baroness Murphy

Arrivederci

Baroness Murphy 28/03/2012 – 4:35 pm

I’m taking a ‘sabbatical’ from the Lords for a little while, so this is my arrivederci blog. There’s no such thing as a sabbatical from the House of Lords of course but there doesn’t seem to be any other type of official leave that quite suits my circumstances. Leave of Absence seems reserved for the sick or dying or those translated to grand office abroad like Lady Amos (UN Under-Secret […]

Why did communications go so badly wrong?

Baroness Murphy 20/03/2012 – 2:53 pm

Lord Soley doesn't like the Health and Social Care Bill but I do. I was glad to see it passed. I felt quite elated last night after the final vote.  I was able to speak against the Lord Owen delaying amendment and glad he lost the vote by a large majority. To my surprise even the crossbenchers who had started out in opposition to the bill, even some doctors like Lord Walton and Lord Patel, were w […]

All Calm on the Westminster Front

Baroness Murphy 03/03/2012 – 11:39 am

Were you wondering where I’d gone? Well I’m back now from Central America and the Caribbean and mightily pleased I missed all that cold weather. I was in some remote spots and got news from Britain only intermittently. But the health bill figured in almost every bulletin. Turmoil, Coalition falling apart, political storms at Westminster, doctors and nurses noisily opposing the reforms and […]

The Financial Privilege Amendment

Baroness Murphy 02/02/2012 – 1:50 pm

Yesterday afternoon in the Commons, just before the debate on the Lords’ Amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill, the Speaker announced  “I must draw the House’s attention to the fact that financial privilege is involved in a substantial number of Lords amendments. If the House agrees to these amendments, I shall ensure that the appropriate entry is made in the Journal.” Thus the Governmen […]

The Benefit Cap and Child Support

Baroness Murphy 27/01/2012 – 2:10 pm

No-one who has been reading this blog for a while will be surprised that I voted with the Government on the Benefit Cap last Monday night and also for the Changes to the Child Support Agency on Wednesday. There is however a good case for compromise on the benefit cap in one respect. The cap is the same for the whole of England and Wales, and yet we know that of the 67,000 families or so who are r […]