Over the years, the House of Lords has become more specialised through the use of committees. It now utilises a number of sessional (in effect, permanent) investigative select committees. The members, including the chairs, are appointed by the House. The three peers who are pictured each chair a select committee. This week’s quiz is to…
In an earlier post, Lord Tyler referred to the Deputy PM indicating his sympathy for the proposal for reducing the number of ministers in the event of the reduction in the number of MPs. This sympathy did not translate into Government action. On Monday, Charles Walker, the Conservative MP for Broxbourne, moved a new clause…
Lord Sassoon, the Treasury Minister, repeated the statement on the Comprehensive Spending Review on Wednesday afternoon. There was considerable competition to question him. Though the time was extended to allow more questions than usual, not all those who were keen to ask questions were able to do so. Pictured above are three peers who did put…
Wednesday was dominated by the Comprehensive Spending Review, but later in the day there was a significant event in the Lords in relation to the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty accords a role to national parliaments in the European law-making process – something they did not previously have – enabling them to refer proposed legislation back…
This evening I chaired the inaugural meeting of the All-Party Group on the Constitution, established to help inform debate on constitutional issues. We covered the Alternative Vote (AV) and the referendum. Professor Simon Hix, Professor of European and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics, provided an overview of AV and how it works,…
