On behalf of the Lord Speaker I visited Dauntsey’s School, near Devizes in Wiltshire, at the end of last week. Invited many months ago I rashly suggested that “Bring Back Guy Fawkes?” was a suitable November discussion-starter for Year 12/13, but that I would tread more delicately with a theme for the later lecture of…
It is amazing how otherwise well-informed commentators fall for “isn’t the House of Lords wonderful” complacency. David Seymour, former political editor of the Mirror Group, should surely know better. In his recent list of “Unsung Heroes” in TOTAL POLITICS he drew attention to some very distinguished Peers. Unfortunately, he failed to check their record of…
The Government Chief Whip, Lord Bassam, told us last week that we had to have shorter questions and answers. The result was dramatic. On Tuesday – before his admonition – some 25 Peers got in on Question Time. On Wednesday, immediately after he had told us to be briefer, the number rose to 31 ……
A number of comments on my last posting (“Freedom of Choice“) asked for more information on the cross-party proposals to make the House of Lords more representative and responsive to the public. I think it would be inappropriate to go into detail on this inevitably controversial issue here, but readers may like to look at…
As several Peers quoted in the debate last night (referred to by Lord Norton), the problem we were discussing can best be resolved when the unfinished reform of the Lords is completed. As Lord Norton says, “it is a matter for electors to choose” who represents them. I agree. Now let’s get on with making…
