Lords of the Blog had a coming of age party on Thursday. A number of us celebrated with Hansard and House of Lords staff. The experimental stage has come to an end and we are now an established and ongoing operation. Our readers have helped make this a success – especially those who responded to…
The announcement of an end to the self regulating gentleman’s club that has characterised Parliament was welcome news to my ears! I have been arguing for an independent body to set pay and expenses for MP’s and Pees for some years and we have taken a significant step towards that. I have a history on…
Mary Seacole ( http://www.maryseacoleappeal.org.uk/), the Crimean war nurse, was buried in my old constituency of Hammersmith (Kensal Green cemetary). I set up this charity to give recognition of Mary and the role of ethnic minorities in British history. It will be the first memorial to a black woman in Britain. The artist selection event was held last…
I don’t approve of very long posts on blogs but the present scandal over expenses is so serious that I thought I should re-publish a paper I wrote some 18 months ago. It was similar to the evidence I gave to Sir John Baker last year and more recently Sir Christopher Kelly. I considered re-writing it to…
There’s no hiding it – 70 years ago the Second World War broke out and I was born. The two events are not necessarily connected although the Nazis did throw in the towel on my 6th birthday! Newspapers publish birthdays of people in public life and Peers are no exception. I always know when it’s…
