I took the opportunity of the February Recess to pay a fascinating first visit to India. So many impressions, but only room for one here: quite apart from our success in tracking down some family connections, I was struck by the resilience of the English language – often in a delightfully dated form. My daily…
I am looking forward immensely to the AV contest on 22nd March. No, not the referendum clash between Margaret Beckett and Lord Prescott (for the “No” campaign) and Helena Bonham-Carter and Colin Firth (for “Yes”) on 5th May. Instead I have in mind the by-election for a Hereditary Peer to replace the veteran Labour Lord Strabolgi,…
In amongst the relative tedium of debates on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, there have been some moments of mind-blowing revelation. Labour Peer Lord Lipsey gave a vivid example of the dangers of imposing artificial turnout and acceptance thresholds on the results of votes. He said: “If there is a vote on this,…
The whole House is now hopeful that the last few weeks’ shenanigans on the part of a minority of Labour Peers can now be brought to an end, without further damage to the reputation of the Lords. I have been reminding colleagues across the House that Labour Peers themselves published a report all the way…
The more nocturnal of our readers will doubtless have flicked through television channels in the early hours many times before. When the BBC’s rolling news becomes tiresome, perhaps because the day’s stories have long since turned from ‘rolling’ to plain old, you flick along two channels and have a look at what Sky’s saying. Then…
