On Tuesday, the House debated a report from the Constitution Committee of the Lords on The office of Lord Chancellor. It was a reasoned report, making a number of recommendations. In the debate, peers commended various of the proposals advanced by the committee. However, what was remarkable was the unanimity among backbench speakers as to…
From Tony Berkeley, House of Lords, London SW1 Message to Luxembourg Presidency on 4th Railway Package. There has been progress; the technical part is agreed, and the package is still together. Keep it together, and ignore the warnings of the monopolists. There are still a few serious outstanding issues which need resolving…
Today I have published detailed research into so called “shared space”. This is the architectural conceit, the planning folly which proposes that the removal of kerbs, road markings, controlled crossings such as zebras and pelicans and so on leads to a better experience for all users of our streets. To be clear this means no…
It is rumoured that the days of the BBC Trust are over and that regulatory oversight of the BBC will be transferred to OFCOM. The House of Commons Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport recommended in its report The Future of the BBC http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmcumeds/315/31510.htm#a48 that OFCOM be the final arbiter of complaints…
Chan Chan is 20 years old. 12 years ago, living with her family in northern Myanmar (Burma) she was diagnosed with HIV. As a child she had visited her local health clinic and an unclean needle changed her life forever. She moved away from the family at 10 to Yangon to be…
The Final Report from Deloitte on The Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme Independent Options Appraisal was published at 1.00 p.m. today. It was preceded by a presentation to MPs and peers. The meeting was not entirely harmonious. Part of the reason for this was highly parochial: some of the Power point slides were virtually…
Have you ever suffered the misfortune to sit next to some know-it-all reflecting on the cinematic masterpiece that is the 1942 movie Casablanca and pronouncing in a loud stage whisper that Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) never actually said “Play it again Sam”? So what if it was Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) who actually said, “Play…
The House appoints tomorrow the members of four ad hoc committees established for this session – on the Equality Act 2010 (looking at the impact on people with disabilities), Sexual Violence in Conflict, Social Mobility, and the Built Environment. What is notable is that each is being chaired by a female peer – Baroness Deech (cross-bencher), Baroness Nicholson of…
£1 doesn’t cover a morning coffee in the café next to my office, but across the world around one billion people live on just £1 a day for all their living costs. The Global Poverty Project has been working hard for the last four years to challenge this unacceptable state of affairs…
