Reading today’s Times, I was struck by an interesting contrast. In the main section, there was an article and a sketch on page 13, covering the current controversy, plus a leader on page 2. In the Daily Universal Register, on page 27, listing birthdays, it mentions that Lord Rix [Brian Rix] gave up comedy acting…
Baroness Murphy has already commented on the allegations in The Sunday Times made against four peers. Both the Leader of the House, Baroness Royall, and the Leader of the Opposition, Lord Strathclyde, have said that the allegations are such as to justify an immediate and thorough inquiry. The House has in place the mechanism for…
As regular readers will be aware, the House of Lords is a self-regulating chamber. The Lord Speaker has no powers in the chamber. The House collectively is responsible for order. No one has to catch the Speaker’s eye in order to speak. If you wish to speak in a set-piece debate, you sign up in advance. …
This week’s quiz entails identifying three peers: Peer 1: I entered the House of Lords when I was 25; I have served in the House for more than forty years; I am a dentist and a bandleader. Who am I? Peer 2: I served as a special assistant to a Prime Minister and as head…
In his speech yesterday to mark the tenth anniversary of the Macpherson report, Trevor Phillips – chair of the new Equality and Human Rights Commission – drew attention to the fact that the House of Lords was more ethnically diverse than the House of Commons. Parliament, he argued, was not reflecting changes in British society. “For Parliament to…
