The way we are paid expenses in the Lords is sleazy, embarrassing and I hate it. A lot of crossbench colleagues feel the same way and I daresay others do too. There are a number of peers who are sufficiently rich (or are paid as Ministers) they don’t feel the need to draw expenses but the vast…
I will get round to responding to several comments about our pay which have cropped up in comments on Lord Norton’s fascinating blog on reform of the lords but first I want to warn everyone that I shall shortly be returning home to Norfolk for the long break ( thank goodness for missing out on the…
Bismarck said, according to Susanna Kalitowski from the Hansard Society, that “Laws are like sausages; it’s better not to see them being made”. Kalitowski, whose report will be launched tomorrow afternoon and ‘previewed’ in the House Magazine yesterday, has studied the role of parliamentary scrutiny of legislation, interviewing over 80 interviews with Ministers, MPs, peers,…
I haven’t blogged for 10days or so, largely because I’ve been so busy with responsibilities outside parliament, both work and domestic. It’s a constant juggle to arrange the various strands of my life so that they dovetail into each other seamlessly. I know my ‘busyness’ is of my own making and I have lots of…
I want to pick up on a theme Lord Norton has raised once or twice, about the perceived problem of political disengagement, especially amomg the young. You know, the poor voting record in elections, the small numbers who join political parties and so on. I would like to suggest that it is a symptom of…
