The country, having killed off Gordon Brown’s government, finds itself left with a legacy. A parting gift to the country. Gordon Brown has bequeathed us John Leslie Prescott, who made a point at the weekend of saying that he was entering the Lords expressly to block reform. Last week there was much huffing and puffing…
Yesterday’s debate on constitutional affairs marked quite a moving moment for those of us on the Liberal Democrat side. Having argued tirelessly for decades that Britain needs thoroughgoing constitutional reform – a new electoral system, an elected second chamber, fixed term Parliaments, to name just three – it was astonishing and gratifying to see Tom…
For those regular readers who want to see just how mad our world can be, I strongly recommend reading Hansard for the more than nine hours of washing-up we did in the Lords yesterday. Or you can watch the video – the relevant section is about 33 minutes in. In brief, we spent all that…
When I arrived in this House, after some 14 years service in the Commons, I was very impressed by the extent to which both Peers’ questions to Ministers, and the Ministerial replies, were actually concerned to exchange useful information. MPs don’t tend to operate on that basis. Government backbenchers there want to give…
Sometimes the temptation to indulge is almost irresistible. At our Questions today the problem of mice in the Lords refreshment areas was raised by Baroness Finlay and both she and the Chairman of Committees, who replied, referred to the “Mice Helpline”. With a couple of minutes to go I was so very tempted to ask…
