Clearly, the issue of expenses is one that is attracting widespread media attention and is having some remarkable resonance with the public. This is not one of those issues that is confined to the Westminster world. The focus is primarily on the Commons in respect of expenses, though not exclusively so. There is clearly a case…
Today my annunciator i.e. my office TV screen reporting events in parliament, suddenly went blank. I was in my office in Millbank trying to make sure I didn’t miss the Lord Speaker’s Procession before question time in order to give myself plenty of time to get in for Lord Cobbold’s question on drugs, tabled third. …
Two relatively straightforward, and easy, questions this week. How many members of the House of Lords are former Foreign Secretaries? Who are they? How many members of the House of Lords are former Chancellors of the Exchequer? Who are they?
My post on the banning of display cabinets for cigarettes attracted the largest number of comments we have had since starting the blog. As Croft commented, if the plan was ‘to show the readers what it is like to be intensely lobbied on a hot issue then I think it is a roaring success’. The responses do…
The BBC Radio 4 Programme ‘More or Less’ last week celebrated the 1909 introduction of Old Age Pensions (the podcast from 1 May is still online). I’d had contact with the programme about predicting longevity and they asked if they could interview me in the House of Lords Archives. The original letters and papers of Lloyd George,…
Following my earlier posts, and readers’ responses, on public consultations by Government, I put down a number of Parliamentary Questions. I have also now secured a slot for a Question for Short Debate (QSD): “to ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure that public consultations by Government Departments follow best practice”. Admittedly,…
There’s no hiding it – 70 years ago the Second World War broke out and I was born. The two events are not necessarily connected although the Nazis did throw in the towel on my 6th birthday! Newspapers publish birthdays of people in public life and Peers are no exception. I always know when it’s…
It has been another of those weeks. Yesterday was especially hectic, similar to Wednesday of last week (Constitution Committee, Association of Conservative Peers, Sub-Committee E of the EU Committee, Grand Committee on the Political Parties and Elections Bill, and a seminar with my students) but with the addition of giving evidence to the Information Committee…
The discussions on the Political Parties and Elections Bill – in “Grand Committee” in the Moses Room – have taken a fascinating turn. As Lord Norton has already reported here, Ministers are having to listen to Peers from all parties (and none), in contrast to the way in which the Bill was pushed through the…
