As we begin a new year, I thought I would pose a few historical questions for this week’s quiz. I know some readers don’t attempt the quiz, but do find it interesting and, indeed, educative. I try to select questions that reflect the history as well as the nature of the membership of the House. As…
A Happy New Year to all our readers. It has been a very successful year for Lords of the Blog. We have attracted a growing volume of traffic and our international readership has expanded. As the responses to the posts, and the answers to the weekly quiz, have demonstrated, we clearly have an informed readership.…
According to the admirable TheyWorkforYou.com, I am a peer who ‘quite often rebels’ against my party. This is based on the fact that, according to the equally admirable Public Whip, I have voted against my own side in 41 out of 734 divisions. The description is about right, though not necessarily because of the votes…
The other evening the presenter of a Radio 4 programme, reviewing the year, stated that 2010 was the start of a new decade. The same programme claimed that Michael Martin was the first Speaker in three-hundred years to be forced out of office. Wrong on the second count (as regular readers will be well aware) and,…
Merry Christmas to all our readers. I had planned to do some posts earlier in the week, but at rather short notice I had to prepare the index for one of my forthcoming books. I fear the excitement of it all rather engrossed me. Anyway, watch this space for posts on peers’ expenses and the…
Snowed in at home in Norfolk on Saturday, a slight rise in the freezing temperatures means we are now able to slide a car slowly down the lane to the main road rather like steering a boat. I had some sympathy with Senators in the US yesterday, trying to get into their crucial vote on…
There is a pressing need for research and support if you are to do your job in the House properly. And it is even greater if you have an outside job as well, because you need time to read all the material that comes out every day – the new bills, the briefings, the reports and reviews, the announcements of forthcoming business, the…
Some of the procedures of the House are longstanding. Others are recent. Changes are regularly made, as for example with the provision for a dedicated question time for Secretaries of State who sit in the House. Our guide is the Companion to the Standing Orders and Guide to the Proceedings of the House of Lords,…
I was a going to blog about the Equality Bill this week, so much to say about it, both positive and negative but perhaps I’ll save that for when we return from Recess for the committee stages of the Bill. Instead I want to return to the right to die and the case of Kerrie…
