My earlier post on the licensing of lap dancing clubs continues to receive comments and is the first post on the blog to attract responses running into three figures. There have been a good many comments from people who have not previously contributed to the blog and several readers have used the opportunity to engage in debate on…
There is an interesting discussion growing around the contribution of meat production in relation to climate change. It is not just about methane gas from animals (including us!) but particularly about the destruction of forests to create grazing for cattle. The British have to watch what we say about this having cut down most of…
I was appointed a Privy Counsellor last July – a very curious honour. It goes back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I, who apparently wrote out the job description in her own hand having become impatient with the efforts of her courtiers. The two major functions of a Privy Counsellor are to agree to…
I have just returned from the Council of Europe “Forum for the Future of Democracy”, attending on behalf of the Lord Speaker. Curiously, nobody challenged my right to be there, as an unelected legislator. I listened a lot and spoke a little. The Council gathers together roughly twice as many countries as the EU, from…
Devotees of this blog may know that we are battling with the Coroners and Justice bill. An important bill but one which has several contentious issues such as, mandatory life sentences, secret inquests, relationship between coroners and the justice courts, free speech (including whether or not criminals can benefit from the publication of memoirs, seditious…
The Government has a number of lengthy bills progressing through Parliament which will fall in their entirety if they aren’t completed by Prorogation in the second week of November. A few recently introduced Bills will be ‘carried over’ but most must be done and dusted or they fall. The Coroners and Justice Bill has…
The last Prime Minister to be drawn from the Lords and to remain in the House was the Third Marquess of Salisbury. All subsequent premiers have sat in the Commons. When they have given up the reins of office, they have been offered peerages. Not all have taken up the offer or not taken it…
My earlier post on how tea-drinkers are treated attracted a record number of comments. I said it was one of several things that irritated me. I was planning to pursue my Victor Meldrew approach and the latest report from the Public Accounts Committee in the Commons provides a peg on which to hang another of my pet hates. …
Thanks to kiwiblog, as well as roarprawn and Alf Grumble, we have attracted a fair amount of traffic from New Zealand as well as apparently generating a little internal debate there. I hope our New Zealand readers will become regular followers, adding to our international readership.
