I had planned to do a post on last week’s two-day debate on the Government’s White Paper and draft Bill on the future of the House of Lords, but decided that as others had already covered it, your interest may already have been satisfied. I did speak in the debate – I had the good…
Congratulations to Len and danfilson who were the winners of the last quiz. The latter gave an extremely good list of members of the House of Lords who were medically qualified. For this quiz we focus on academics and civil servants. As usual, the first two readers to supply the correct answers will be the winners. 1. Name at…
My first posting on “Lords of the blog” comes a day after an uninvited visitor was sighted in the red carpeted corridors of the Lords. A fox “broke in” to the House somewhere near the Speaker’s apartments and pest control had to be called in. This happens occasionally. I think that a fox was once…
I’m taking a leaf out of Lord Norton’s book here and setting a quiz. Why should he have all the fun?. I was spurred onto this by noting that the Earl of Sandwich, whose photo appeared behind Lady Boothroyd in my last post, had an ancestor noted not only for his gastronomic genius but also…
Just a few figures to contemplate about Lords Reform. 68 of those who took part in the two-day debate (just on two thirds) were ex-MPs, and a few more were existing or previous councillors, and yet the prevailing mood seemed to be that elected politicians are always somehow less independent and responsible than appointed ones. …
Some people are for turning the House of Lords from an appointed to an elected House of Lords, and some are against. The arguments bat to and fro; but one has so far received virtually no attention: the cost of the government’s proposals for election. In the first five years reform could end up costing…
104 speakers listed and a generous time allocation of 9 minutes, I had been looking forward to the first day of the two day debate on the White Paper on House of Lords Reform. There were no new arguments but some of the old ones were elegantly put and some were wonderfully passionate. Read it…
The report of the Committee of Selection has now been published with the names of the thirteen peers who are nominated by the committee to serve on the proposed Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill. They are: Labour: Baroness Andrews, Lord Richard, Lord Rooker, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean Conservative: Lord…
Amidst the essay and exam marking over the past few weeks, I was also busy working on a lecture on Enoch Powell, one of the most controversial politicians of the latter half of the 20th Century as well as a distinguished parliamentarian. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has organised a series of lectures…
