Today my annunciator i.e. my office TV screen reporting events in parliament, suddenly went blank. I was in my office in Millbank trying to make sure I didn’t miss the Lord Speaker’s Procession before question time in order to give myself plenty of time to get in for Lord Cobbold’s question on drugs, tabled third. …
The BBC Radio 4 Programme ‘More or Less’ last week celebrated the 1909 introduction of Old Age Pensions (the podcast from 1 May is still online). I’d had contact with the programme about predicting longevity and they asked if they could interview me in the House of Lords Archives. The original letters and papers of Lloyd George,…
Last night I went to the launch of a new All Party Parliamentary Group, on Wellbeing Economics. I went along out of interest, having been fascinated by Lord Layard’s writings about population wellbeing and mental health. But really I knew next to nothing about it and in spite of being unanimously elected Vice Chair (almost…
Very interesting statistics appeared in the the House Magazine of 23rd March this week (p11) of the attendance figures for the year 07-08. (Source: House of Lords Information Office statistics, see below). I was surprised and not a little disappointed to see how low the attendance figures were for crossbenchers, even those of us who…
Lord Norton has mentioned the Bills before the House yesterday. I have been wrestling in my mind with Lord Lester’s private member’s Cohabitation Bill introduced yesterday but was unfortunately unable to speak. Normally I count myself as a ‘liberal’. I’m also an enduring fan of Lord Lester of Herne Hill and have found myself supporting most…
