A reminder that anyone who wins the prize on three occasions will be invited to tea at the Lords. This week’s quiz questions: 1. Identify two current peers who fit the following description: I am a peer who has previously served as an MP I switched parties while in the Commons I served as a…
Working in the Palace of Westminster is a privilege, but it does have some problems, not least given the age of the building. I have previously mentioned the cramped conditions in the Lords: space has not expanded sufficiently to keep abreast of the growth in the active membership. There are also other problems, some transient…
Many people I suspect see the House of Lords as a largely static body. Nothing could be further from the truth. We lose about twenty members a year. The three most recent losses are Lord Bledisloe, a distinguished lawyer, Lord Blaker, a former minister, and Lord Kingsland, the Shadow Lord Chancellor. We also acquire new members,…
The saga of the Parliamentary Standards Bill continues. On my way to a meeting this morning, a former Labour Cabinet minister saw me to say what an awful Bill it was. This afternoon, a senior cross-bench peer summed up his view of the Bill and the way it was being dealt with. He was succinct: “What…
We have one Parliament but the Palace of Westminster houses two distinct institutions. The House of Commons has its own infrastucture (library, refreshment department, clerks) and so too does the House of Lords. When it was decided that there should be one parliamentary ICT department, an Act of Parliament was necessary to bring it into…
