Protecting individual privacy is, to my mind, fundamental to a free society. Without privacy and the opportunity to have personal possessions, the state is all powerful. Too often, we allow the public sphere to expand, eroding personal privacy and hence freedom. There is a balance to be drawn between the public and private, between the…
Shortly before the final sitting of the law lords, one of their number – Lord Mance – gave an interview on the move from the Palace of Westminster to the new Supreme Court the other side of Parliament square. You can link to the interview here. In the course of it, he provides an answer…
To date, we have three people who have each won one quiz since I offered tea at the Lords as the prize for anyone winning three quizzes. I am happy to offer tea not only to the first person to win three quizzes, but also the second and third – and possibly more… So keep…
I have spent a good part of this year working on a new edition of one of my books, The British Polity. It is text on British politics written for an international, primarily an American, audience. It is published in the States. It includes a glossary of terms. Some of these are terms specific…
At Question Time earlier this month, the redoubtable Baroness Trumpington asked about the practice employed by some charities of sending cash through the post. The minister, Baroness Crawley, indicated that it was a practice to be deprecated. Baroness Trumpington went on to ask: “If the Government have the power to stop this objectionable practice, why…
