Today, the “Debate on the Loyal Address” continues in both Houses. The Lords is having a second day concentrating on constitutional issues, and that will doubtless mean yet more indignation in our House about the government’s proposals for Lords Reform. I have been struck, listening to in particular (but by no means exclusively) to Labour…
After 30 meetings of the Joint Committee scrutinising the Government’s House of Lords Reform draft bill – and long sessions of assertion and deliberation – I confess I have been somewhat exhausted. However, I must record one extremely important – and positive – lesson. Every one of the Joint Committees on which I have served,…
I am extremely grateful to Matthew Purvis, one of the extremely assiduous and analytically astute researchers in the House of Lords Library, who has confirmed with some statistics my suspicion that former MPs and councillors (nominees of their parties, all) are indeed disproportionately represented among the active membership (those who attend and vote) of the…
In March 1962 I organised a bus-load of somewhat shambolic students from Oxford to visit the hitherto unknown ‘commuter belt’ town of Orpington. A few of us returned again on Polling Day for what turned out to be a historic Byelection result. The victor of that politically seismic event was a young engineer, only recently…
There is nothing new under the sun, it is said. Yet, at regular intervals we get told that the current ideas for reform of the House of Lords are all too sudden, ill-digested and in need of copious further debate. Trying to sort out my bookshelves at home, I came upon an interesting set of…
