This evening we are to have a “dinner hour debate” to discuss the 2014 anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. At the time of writing there are 23 Peers on the Speakers List. Once the mover of the motion and the Minister replying have taken their allocation of some 20 minutes the…
I wonder if any colleagues, or any regular readers, have ever tried to find the “Parliamentary Rifle Range”. For some years, while I was still an MP, there were regular requests for this apparently anachronistic facility, somewhere in the basement, to be replaced with a creche for the children of staff and members of both…
Those following the debate on by how much the Coalition Government should increase welfare payments in the coming years, may have noticed that some Liberal Democrat MPs voted in both lobbies of the House of Commons. This was duly recorded, and stands as an ad hoc way for MPs to show an abstention in Hansard.…
I have taken a few days to mull over the statement made by David Cameron last week, expressing shock, admission and apology over the assassination of Patrick Finucane in 1989. As with his Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough statements you would have to be super-cynical not to admire the PM for the forthright way in which…
On the day that the Chancellor performs his celebrated Scrooge act, with a very wintery “Autumn Statement”, I noticed that the cost of the House of Lords has risen by a record 38% to £109 million (up from £78m last year), for the most recent 12 month period. Allowances to members have risen by over…
