Category Archives: Lord Norton

Quiz: Parliament and war

Lord Norton 18/02/2012 – 9:45 am

I try to balance questions about the Lords (the chamber or its members) with more general questions about Parliament.  I revert this week to a previous topic, that of Parliament and war.   During the Second World War, both Houses continued to meet (despite a large number of members being away on active service), the parties came together in support of the war effort and that support was essenti […]

Written at 9:45 am on 18/02/2012, by Lord Norton

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Making progress

Lord Norton 14/02/2012 – 3:27 pm

On Friday, the House was sitting and we had the Report stage of the Steel Bill.  Some peers were opposed to some of its provisions (the Opposition did not want to put the Appointments Commission on a statutory basis and some hereditary peers opposed abolishing the by-election provision), so in order to make progress - there were over 300 amendments tabled - an agreement was reached to remove th […]

Written at 3:27 pm on 14/02/2012, by Lord Norton

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Quiz – women peers

Lord Norton 04/02/2012 – 10:23 am

The membership of the House of Lords was extended to women in 1958.  This was forty years after women were able to be elected to the House of Commons.   Today, the proportion of women in the Lords is the same as that in the Commons, though women tend to be more prominent in leadership positions in the Lords.  This week's quiz is on women in the House of Lords.  As usual, the first two readers […]

Written at 10:23 am on 04/02/2012, by Lord Norton

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Unpaid ministers

Lord Norton 31/01/2012 – 10:07 pm

There is a statutory limit on the number of ministers who can sit in the House of Commons, whether paid or unpaid, and a statutory limit on the number of ministers who can receive a ministerial salary.  As a result, this Government, like its predecessor, has appointed a number of unpaid ministers, especially in the Lords.  This provides the context for an exchange in Question Time yesterday […]

Written at 10:07 pm on 31/01/2012, by Lord Norton

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Declining mail

Lord Norton 26/01/2012 – 10:18 am

Each year, I table a question asking how many items of mail were received in the Palace of Westminster in the previous year.  I have previously written on how the number of letters we receive has declined in recent years.  In 2006, for example, 4,789,935 items of post were received.  In 2010, the figure was 3,082,187.  I have now received the answer for 2011.  The figure is 2,691,576.  (Of […]

Written at 10:18 am on 26/01/2012, by Lord Norton

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