I shall be participating in a “Prayer to Annul” debate this evening. This weird wording means a debate raised to protest against a negative statutory instrument. Under the standard negative procedure, the SI is annulled if the prayer motion is agreed by the House within 40 days of the SI being laid. Lord Kirkwood of…
I was listening to Lord McKenzie of Luton explaining his second amendment in the National Insurance Contributions Bill today…he has a lovely soothing manner and always speaks plainly and well (although Lord Newby from the Lib Dems rather took the wind out of his sails and the amendment was lost at the vote). But Lord…
Last November, while visiting the archeological museum in Tripoli with a tour group I was approached by a camera crew making a short news item for Libyan TV to promote tourism, the idea being to show what a nice appreciative lot we foreign tourists were. I duly went into ambassadorial mode, speaking of the wonderful…
It may be recess but the Parliamentary timetable waits for no-one. Committee stage of the Pensions Bill starts next Monday 28th and amendments for the first day of committee had to be placed in the Public Bill Office by yesterday at 4.00pm. I have added my name to that of three former Lord Chancellors (Lords…
As soon as recess began yesterday we came down to Italy for a few days change from what has been a depressing few weeks in the Lords. I have a completely different take on what happened in the last stages of the passage of the PVSC bill from Lord Knight. But before I get onto…
