Watching the Home Office Select Committee interrogate present and past Met Police Officers this week made me wonder whether the RSCPA should have been called in. I felt that the ferocious MPs on the Committee were (understandably) trying to make up for their previous failure to get anywhere near the full horrendous habits of some…
Just a few figures to contemplate about Lords Reform. 68 of those who took part in the two-day debate (just on two thirds) were ex-MPs, and a few more were existing or previous councillors, and yet the prevailing mood seemed to be that elected politicians are always somehow less independent and responsible than appointed ones. …
For those who had a look at my last post (All Square?), I was very glad to have some support from comments here, as well as from other Peers who spoke. However, the most encouraging reaction was from my Liberal Democrat colleague, Lord (William) Wallace of Saltaire, the Minister replying to the debate. By happy…
We’ve had some unusually positive discussions this week, in some of which I have pleasantly surprised to find an unexpected degree of consensus. On Tuesday, it sounded as if Members on all sides were keen to make progress on the ‘working practices’ recommendations that we had from a specially appointed group. I had anticipated that…
Whatever our views on the merits or demerits of the Coalition Cabinet’s White Paper on Lords Reform I hope we are going to stick to factual evidence, rather than the cab drivers’ gossip, in our pre-legislative scrutiny. For example, let’s get the facts straight on costs. At present about 450 Peers (out of a potential…
