As someone claimed that we hadn’t addressed the issue of expenses in the Lords I thought I should put the record straight. If you type in the search box ‘expenses’ you will find quite a few entries from me and others. Recently we introduced a new system which will take effect from October. It is IMV a…
I thought I would set a somewhat different quiz question this week, perhaps providing an opportunity to win for readers who regularly watch debates in the Lords on the Parliament channel. As readers of The Norton View will be aware, I have just been archiving a large number of photographs. I reproduce here one taken…
Over the past two years, the problems of parliamentary expenses have tended to be dominated by stories affecting the House of Commons. The Daily Telegraph was at the forefront of revealing claims made by MPs. However, The Sunday Times identified problems with peers’ expenses and this acted as a wake-up call to the House. Since…
I see the coalition is beginning to favour the graduate tax solution to funding universities. I have grave doubts about it even though the principle of a graduate contribution or graduate tax is a welcome development on the surface. It has the support of students and student leaders and on the face of it is a…
Some good news on the foreign affairs front. Kenya completed it’s referendum on the new constitution peacefully which if you recall the violence that surrounded the general election and the loss of over 1000 lives must be given a thumbs up.
The sad news of the death of Dr Woo and her colleagues comes at the same time as the news that a UK policeman has been shot and killed in Afghanistan. In many ways this goes to the heart of the problem in Afghanistan and some other developing country’s. It may be a long time…
The recommendation that the posts of Secretaries of State for Scotland and Wales be merged has variously been made, including by the Constitution Committee of the House of Lords in its 2003 report on Devolution: Inter-Institutional Relations in the United Kingdom. Apparently, it almost came about in the botched Cabinet changes of 2003. It is a…
Quite the silliest idea yet for reforming the Lords was reported in the Times last week. It suggested that the peers with the lowest attendance records should be listed and voted out by other peers. The parallel with Big Brother is obvious, and at first I thought it was an April Fool, save that it…
July was a particularly heavy month for me so I have been absent from the blog. I will now try and make up for lost time during August – it might enable some of my more industriuos colleagues to take a well earned rest! Throughout this time I have been watching the increasingly authoritarian regime in…
