The Guardian on Saturday carried an article on women peers and included an interview with the formidable Baroness Trumpington (she of YouTube fame). Part of the interview read: “So what does she think about the government’s plan to reform the Lords? Straight-backed in her chair, she rolls her eyes. The coalition is, she says, a…
There was the usual pageantry for the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday. Given that it was a two-year session, some new peers were attending the ceremony for the first time. The chamber was packed. (One year, there were empty benches at the back, the result apparently of a shortage of robes. ) The timetable doesn’t change, so everyone knows the…
The Lords has had some members who have not enhanced the reputation of the House – occasionally quite the reverse, as we know from recent history – but the membership is marked far more by those who have achieved notable distinctions, not only before but also during their time in the House. This quiz focuses…
Blimey, I must have been a member of a different Joint Committee to that on which Lord Tyler served. A 26-member committee (in practice 25, as one member never attended) is too large a body for sustained scrutiny. It facilitates disparate questioning and may actually militate against a good attendance (once or twice we were inquorate…
The House recently lost another doughty member in the form of Lord Ashley of Stoke. Jack Ashley, when he was an MP, lost his hearing. He learned to lip-read and later regained some partial hearing. In the Lords, he had the facility of a machine that transposed what was being said into words on a…
