Last week the otherwise excellent Leader of the House, Lord (Jonathan) Hill, dismissed my complaint that he was claiming both democratic legitimacy, and effective assessment of, the merit of topics for debate because they were subject to a “ballot”. This was his justification for resisting the election of a Backbench Debates Committee: the current “ballot”…
In a curious way, we seem to be back to normal: the so-called “popular press” may now concentrate their fire – and their investigative effort – entirely on the political class, with the occasional foray into “celebrity” territory, and leave “real people” in peace. While the newspapers chose politicians and self-appointed publicity-seekers as their targets…
First, I must respond to the query from ‘Old Albion’ arising from my previous posting. There were no connections made to the forthcoming referendum on independence for Scotland during the debate about commemoration of World War 1 on Monday evening. The only indirect reference was the general acknowledgement of the unstinting contribution – and supreme…
With only about thirty minutes to go, we were given a reprieve last night and allowed to speak for three minutes on World War 1. Big deal! This came about because the previous business accelerated and the so-called “dinner hour debate” became the final business of the evening, and the hour was elongated to ninety minutes. The…
It has just been confirmed that each speaker will have only ONE minute to speak in this evening’s important debate about the First World War. It really seems quite ridiculous, and rather insulting, that such a grave subject is now being reduced to not much more than an episode of Radio 4’s Just a Minute.…
