At the General Election, Oxford West and Abingdon’s MP of 13 years, Dr Evan Harris, lost by 176 votes. I hasten to emphasise that this is not a political blog – I am an independent without a vote! But his narrow loss set me thinking about the place of expertise in Parliament. Evan Harris was…
I went to a rather refreshing lecture last Friday which ruthlessly exposed the futility of current military efforts in Afghanistan. Rory Stewart, the lecturer, demonstrated that the 100,000 odd soldiers in Southern Afghanistan will not and cannot result in a lessening of terrorism and its export, eradicate the drug culture, create anything approaching democratic processes,…
Now that the House and Lords of the Blog are back in action, I thought I would resume the weekly test of readers’ knowledge about the Lords. This week there are three questions about the current membership. As usual, the first two readers to supply the correct answers will be the winners. 1. Who is…
Here is the text of my speech, in which I stressed the following issues; the importance of religious factors for UK foreign and defence policy; the need to distinguish between religiously motivated resistance to enemy occupation and ideological terrorism; and the fact that we should support unofficial diplomacy and work for conflict. My Lords, I…
I agree with Lord Norton that the composition of the House is not relevant to the question of expenses. The following BBC link is useful to see what some other countries do. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7961849.stm I tend to favour something along the lines of the German system but if we can extend the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authoriyt…
I am always amazed, but no longer surprised, by how any critical story affecting Parliament is used by some to claim it makes the case for an elected second chamber. Take the scandal over parliamentary expenses. Some people said this made the case for an elected second chamber. What? It is not clear why another…
The country, having killed off Gordon Brown’s government, finds itself left with a legacy. A parting gift to the country. Gordon Brown has bequeathed us John Leslie Prescott, who made a point at the weekend of saying that he was entering the Lords expressly to block reform. Last week there was much huffing and puffing…
The Blog has been strangely silent over the bank holiday week-end – does this suggest that most of you blog only at work or that you are all out and about pursuing hobbies? I mentioned the possibility of a referendum on an elected House of Lords at last week’s meeting of Lord Norton’s Reform Group. It was…
I echo Baroness d’Souza in pointing out that there simply is no more room on the red benches for new peers. I have just come back on Ryanair from a family law conference in Bratislava; the seating was roomy (an empty seat remained in a row of three) compared with the Lords. I raced to get…
