In the last few days I have suddenly been receiving emails and posts on my Facebook asking about muslims, immigration and the English Defence League. Why are people in my peaceful home town of Weymouth suddenly getting all worked up about these issues? Weymouth is not a town with very much ethnic diversity. The latest…
I completely disagree with Lord Lucas! I declare an interest as someone doing some work for Apple but I nevertheless bought my own iPad and love using it wherever I go – including the chamber. As a small light device it is much easier than the Parliamentary laptop or bundles of papers. I download PDFs…
This Tuesday from 10am to 8pm there will be the welcome opportunity to elect a member of the House of the Lords. Naturally it is completely bizarre that only candidates who would have been eligible to be hereditary peers may stand, but that was the nature of the compromise needed to remove hereditaries from the…
This is an article I wrote for another blogsite (labourlist) but thought it may also be of interest here: After around two dozen days of debate and scrutiny, the AV Bill, or Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill to give it its proper title, finally became law late last night. So where does it leave us? And…
Today is the day for Parliamentary ping pong on the Parliamentary Voting System & Constituencies Bill. The first issue up was whether or not the referendum result on AV should be binding in all circumstances. Lord Rooker proposed that if the turnout is less than 40% then the result is advisory and Parliament makes the…
