Both MPs and Peers had a brief recess last week, to cover the Bank Holiday and the half term for some schools. While we were all away from Westminster – and journalists were too – Government Ministers were up to their usual tricks. It is a favourite sport to get out controversial announcements when we…
Three discussions in which I have been involved recently have swirled around the impact of the pressures of 24/7 news, instantaneous political pronouncements and the low public esteem for politicians. A research study on Tuesday morning got me thinking about this interaction, then a group around the Lord Speaker’s table took it further and, in the…
The first meetings of the Joint Committee which is going to examine the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill took place last week, as Lord Norton has already reported. The team undertaking this “pre-legislative scrutiny” is formidable indeed. Looking round the table and noting a bevy of professors, distinguished lawyers and former very senior civil servants –…
I was re-elected to the Commons – after a gap of 18 years, during which I had a real job – in April 1992. Almost immediately I set up a small all-party group of MPs and Peers who were concerned about the serious health effects for farmers who used organophosphate (OP) sheep dips. Having met…
I am not at my best on a Monday at 6 am, even on a bright Cornish morning. Catching the early train to get to the Lords in time to dispose of a postbag of some 40 items, and as many e-mails, from the Easter Recess made this early start necessary. It was redeemed by…
