Guest blog from Lord Harrison: The European Union has money troubles. The banking crisis in 2008 was a global disaster whose impact on the EU is still being felt. Just days ago Portugal’s government fell when its plans to cut Portugal’s enormous budget deficit were rejected. It is now paying over 8% interest (that’s compared…
I’m a Crossbench Peer and have tabled a debate in the House of Lords on good early parenting and its role in preparing a child for success at school this Thursday 3 February. It’s the first time the House of Lords and the BBC have run a pilot online initiative, asking for your views ahead…
Their Lordships are getting into a right old lather over the stand-off between the Government and the opposition in the House – “filibustering is not cricket – not the way we do things in this House”, “if things carry on like this we will see a guillotine introduced and that would be the end of…
I’m a great believer in the Sure Start programme. It offers real support to parents and gives children a better start in life. Sure Start is a government flagship programme to support families on low incomes through children’s centres in (as of October 2009) 3,151 locations. The target is at least 3,500 children’s centres by…
In conversation with local dairy farmers, I hear significant anxieties about the sustainability of the industry. It is clear that the emergency funds distributed from the Dairy Fund do not provide a long-term solution. There need to be some measures put in place which deal with the fundamental problem which is, simply put, that the…
