Wednesday 20th found the chamber exceptionally crowded. Every seat was taken by the time prayers were read; and those who came in afterwards either had to stand behind the bar, or sit on the gangway steps, or around the throne or between the Speaker and the despatch box. As soon as one of the seated…
The parties have begun what amounts to a long election campaign. There has to be an election before early June at the latest. The assumption is that the election will be on 6 May. That means that the number of parliamentary legislative days between now and dissolution is limited. However, within the Palace the legislative…
At the beginning of each year, I table a question to find out how many items of post were received in the Palace of Westminster in the preceding year. The answer to this year’s question produced some interesting figures, certainly compared with last year’s. In 2008, a total of 4,135,144 items of post were received…
Recently I interviewed Nick Robinson the BBC’s political editor. One of my interests over many years has been the relationship between politics and the media. The interaction between politicians and the media plays a vital role in defining the way our political system works for the public. It is vital to freedom, democracy and the…
The extreme weather conditions of last week did not deter peers from turning up on Monday for a question about the Olympics and on Thursday for a debate on the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. There is a connection between the two topics. In the climate debate Lord Patel and a few others made the point that…
I’m posting the quiz slightly ahead of time again this week. I am in the middle of two days of intense interviewing for Thouron Scholarships, so it is a choice between posting the quiz this evening or tomorrow night. I thought I would make use of the Thouron scholarship as the basis for one of the…
Some of you will know that the House of Lords Code of Conduct was recently scrutinised in great detail and a clearer code is emerging. Very simply put if you are a paid advocate for a particular enterprise – whether that be, for example, a commercial company of some sort of public relations firm –…
The Constitution Committee took evidence yesterday as part of its current inquiry into referendums. We heard from Peter Facey, of Unlock Democracy, and Peter Kellner, of YouGov, and then from Stuart Weir, of the Democratic Audit, and Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws, who is undertaking a study of deliberative democracy. What was interesting, and unexpected,…
I detect some cynicism in the Lords about the value of our work at the moment. There is a fatalist tendency, assuming that the General Election campaign – which has started so early that many people seem bored with it already – will sweep away any useful legislative scrutiny. And our House seems just as…
