The Leader of the House this morning announced that, if necessary, we would get an extra day in committee on the Parliamentary Standards Bill and that the Government would table amendments to meet some of the concerns raised in debate on Wednesday. That represents some progress but for anyone to suggest that this will enable…
As a direct result of Liberal Democrat Peers’ votes to avoid delay on the Parliamentary Standards Bill, we have been able to bring sufficient pressure to bear on Ministers to gain an extra day for a whole raft of amendments to improve the legislation. Peter Riddell is quite right that for the Lords to stand…
The committees of the House of Lords produce some excellent reports. The report of the Science and Technology Committee on Genomic Medicine has found a fan in the form of Mark Henderson, the scientific editor of The Times. His story can be read here. The report, he says, “is a quite remarkable summary of the…
We had a five-hour debate yesterday on the Second Reading of the Parliamentary Standards Bill. It rather resembled the Second Reading debate in the Commons in that the Bill was friendless on the back-benches. Indeed, only the minister spoke in support. I made the case for insisting on the normal intervals between the stages of the Bill. …
The Parliamentary Standards Bill was put together in haste in an attempt to address public anger over parliamentarians’ use of expenses. It seeks to set up an independent agency to administer MPs’ pay and allowances, and establishes a commissioner to conduct investigations. The problem with the Bill is that it does not get to the…
Other bloggers have commented on Lord Falconer’s amendment coming up this evening, which would allow for better safeguards for those people, now numbered in hundreds, who travel to Switzerland to end their lives, accompanied by a relative or friend who is currently exposed to prosecution. At the moment there are no safeguards either for the…
I believe life has been given by God and belongs to God. Later today the House of Lords is considering the Coroners and Justice Bill. The Bill, in clauses 49-51, seeks to amend the 1961 Suicide Act to clarify the offence of encouraging or assisting suicide in relation to the internet. Such online activity has…
Do you too suffer from the “Friday Afternoon Syndrome” ? When colleagues pile up on your desk the tasks for which you have been waiting for weeks, so that they can go off for the weekend – or a week’s holiday – without a care in the world ? That’s what the Government is…
On Tuesday the House will debate Lord Falconer’s amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill that would allow a friend or relative to accompany a person who travels to a clinic where there is assisted dying. Like many Peers I have received letters and emails about this. I shall vote for the amendment. Assisted dying for…
