Much of the debate around reforming the Lords gets caught up in the idea that the two Houses are rivals, where one gaining legitimacy automatically undermines the capacity of the other to do its job. In fact, the two Houses work best when they work together, and for that having a more assertive Lords can…
One of the elephant traps which is potentially enlarged by modern opportunities for instantaneous comment is that all too many people in public life engage their laptops, Blackberries, or iPhones before they have fully engaged their brains. I am struck by the number of people who commented within hours of the breakdown of last week’s…
Some people have said that the Liberal Democrats must avoid becoming part of ‘the Establishment’ just because we are in Government. I couldn’t agree more. However, you will imagine my surprise and delight on discovering that part of the Establishment appears anyway to have joined the Liberal Democrats. The Facilities Department of the House of…
I’m about to go off to the Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform. We are making good progress, and further fuel has been added to our fire this week, by a very useful note from the Lords Library (already referred to by Lord Norton) setting out all the evidence of the public’s opinion about reform. …
Yesterday, Lord (Patrick) Cormack – one of those people here who has been one of my political foes so long that he has become a friend – asked the Government to enact emergency legislation to stop people camping out in protest, whether at capitalism or anything else. The Bishop of Bath and Wells ex-communicated him…
