The seemingly endless flow of new peers (ALL of them no doubt very worthy and able to make a significant contribution) is worrying on at least one major count, namely the approach of an overall coalition Government majority. The Lords Norton and Lucas have already blogged about this but it is worth more words. The…
The demonstrators camped in Parliament Square were last night removed by bailiffs. Their continued presence has been highly controversial. On the one hand, the one situation worse than having people demonstrate outside Parliament is not having people demonstrate outside Parliament. On the other hand, no right is absolute unto itself and these protestors were not only causing…
When a vote is called, peers can vote Content or Not Content. The voting figures do not always correspond with how many peers are present. On occasion, some members abstain from voting. The reason the Government lost a vote last week on the Academies Bill was because of a combination of some Liberal Democrat peers…
Recently there have been debates and seminars about reform of the procedure and governance of the House of Lords. Many serious issues, such as the composition of committees, the scrutiny of bills and so on, have been examined. On a lighter note, it was queried whether peers should still wear the familiar scarlet robes (dating…
Bedd Gelert snuck in a little note on the failed proposal for a Welsh badger cull to Lord Norton’s last so I thought I’d take this opportunity to respond. I have more the average fondness for badgers because I once played one! The role of Badger in Wind in the Willows was my first starring…
As readers are well aware, the House of Lords has a diverse membership. We have peers drawn from a range of ethnic, socio-economic and national backgrounds. This week’s quiz is the first of several designed to identify some of the variety in the membership. As usual, the first two readers to supply the correct answers will…
In replying to a Question on Tuesday about the Maldives, Foreign Office Minister, Lord Howell of Guildford, made the passing observation that “The Maldives has of course been very strong in its support for sensible and balanced concerns over climate change, including having a Cabinet meeting underwater”, adding: ” though I understand there are no plans…
Speaking in the debate on working practices last night, Lord Lucas made a point that he had already covered in one of his posts on this blog. That is, the problem arising from having a coalition with enough votes in the Lords to command a clear majority. After 1999, no one party enjoyed a majority…
We had a very useful debate yesterday on the working practices of the House. The debate was wide-ranging and enabled us to press the case for strengthening procedures for legislative and non-legislative scrutiny. There were some good proposals advanced and broad support for enhancing pre and post-legislative scrutiny, as well as enabling Bills introduced in…
