Lord Bates is away from the office at the moment. He has begun a 2,000-mile walk from Mount Olympus in Greece to London in order to highlight the campaign for an Olympic Truce during London 2012. As regular readers will know, this is something to which he is strongly committed. His trip is self-financed and…
The Report of the Leader’s Group on the Working Practices of the House was published today. You can see the announcement and link to the report here.
The Times carried a substantial article last Friday on Portugal’s approach to drugs. The Portuguese experience has been held up as a possible model for others to follow. The article, by Chris Smyth, identifies the statistics that appear to bear out the aims of the reform. Since the policy was introduced ten years ago, drug use among the…
The Constitution Unit at University College London has today published a report arguing that there should be a moratorium on the creation of peerages. It contends: ‘The House of Lords’ effective functioning has already been compromised by the recent rapid rise in membership, in ways which are damaging its effectiveness. Any further increase in size…
I am spending the week commuting between the annual conference of the Political Studies Association (PSA), which this year is being held in London, and the Lords. This morning I was at the conference speaking, at rather short notice, on the English Question and the coalition. The purpose of this post, though, is to focus…
