Just two questions this week, neither as hard as last week’s question. 1. How many current members of the House of Lords have served as Secretary of State for Wales? Who are they? 2. I served as principal private secretary to Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson as Chancellors of the Exchequer. I have served as…
The death of Baroness Chapman has been announced. Though the House has a number of wheelchair-bound peers, she was the first person with a congenital disability to be appointed to the House. She was born with brittle bone disease and was no more than two feet or so in height. After studying maths and business…
The media have been reporting various entries sent in to the Times Higher Education’s “exam howlers” competition. According to one student, the UK has an electoral system known as “first parcel post”. I had a student on one occasion who wrote “the Prime Minister has the power of disillusion”. I had to point out that,…
I read another newspaper article yesterday that appeared to lack any grasp of parliamentary history. In the Evening Standard, the City Editor Chris Blackhurst wrote that he was not certain a Conservative Government would take decisive action, even with a large majority. He went on: “I’m beginning to think a hung Parliament might be the…
Just one question this week, principally because I think it is an extremely difficult one. However, on past performance I may well be proved wrong. The first two readers to get it correct will be prize winners. Peers variously list their recreations and many are the sort of thing you may expect – music, opera,…
