I think I came dangerously close to sacrilege last Thursday! Lord Roberts of Llandudno had asked a question on prayers in the House of Lords. Just before questions in the House there is a period of prayer led by a Bishop for all those who want to attend. Lord Roberts wanted to include those of other faiths…
Lord Hollick led a wide ranging debate last Thursday to call attention ‘to the case for policies to support economic growth and to promote investment, innovation, technology, infrastructure, skills and job creation’. Because of the large number of Lords wishing to speak we were limited to the absurdly short time of 4 minutes each! Surely this…
The House held a very good debate on Libya last Friday. The main problem we had was the number of speakers – not itself a problem but it meant we were limited to a maximum of 7 minutes. I focusses my comments on the need for intervention and the problem of post conflict policy. You…
Congratulations to Chris K. and Jonathan who were the winners of the previous quiz. They got in ahead of maria_ivokermartin and emmy to identify three or more peers who had presented their own television programmes, three or more who had published novels, and three or more who had sat in the House of Commons as Liberal…
Last night, we had just had our first vote on the Pensions Bill, narrowly won by the Government. (The main point of the Pensions Bill is to move both sexes to a state pension age of 66. This will happen over a 5-6 year period and was planned in principle by the former government. The…
You may remember that when I was reporting on a Grand Committee debate in the Moses Room, I asked the Minister whether or not his waste regulations, chasing us all to be more responsible recyclers, was printed on recycled paper. Lord Henley, a self-confessed “waste nerd”, admitted he didn’t know but has now been kind…
Saturday we celebrated with an old friend who thinks he has been appointed to the Supreme Court. I say “thinks” because although the appointment is all over the internet, there has been no official announcement. The appointment has been brewing for about 5 months, and still no formal announcement. Apparently it cannot be announced until…
Lord Norton has already commented on the Government defeat over the abolition of the Youth Justice Board. I was one of the Crossbenchers who voted against the Government. The debate was seriously interesting, see http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/110328-0001.htm#1103289000828. I went into the Chamber quite prepared to vote with the Government on the basis that the YJB had largely…
It is variously claimed that the combination of Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties in the House of Lords provides the coalition with an inbuilt majority. It has not proven so inbuilt as to protect the Government from defeat. In yesterday’s proceedings on Report stage of the Public Bodies Bill, there were three votes and the Government lost…
