This weekend’s quiz questions. The House of Commons has a promiment member who is blind (David Blunkett, a university classmate of mine.) He is not the first blind member to sit in the House of Commons. The House of Lords also has had a number of members who have been blind. One of them was…
As regular readers will know, the peers who propose and second the motion on the loyal address (thanking the Queen for her speech) are expected to inject humour into their speeches. The speakers yesterday – former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer of Thoroton and Labour back-bencher Baroness Ford – did not disappoint. Baroness Ford recalled the…
Not surprisingly, given developments in the House of Commons, one question frequently asked in conversations in the Lords today was: what would be the position if the police sought to enter a peer’s office in the House of Lords? The positions in the two Houses are not identical. The House of Lords is a self-regulating House and…
As readers of this blog will know, Lord Tyler and I both served on the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Renewal Bill which met before the summer recess and, under a tight and demanding timetable, managed to produce a substantial report on the Bill. Published on 31 July, it can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200708/jtselect/jtconren/166/16602.htm The intention was…
The State Opening of Parliament is always a grand occasion. We do ceremony extremely well and this morning everything proceeded according to the timetable. The programme lists very precise timings: for example, ‘11.08 The Lord Chancellor proceeds from the Prince’s Chamber to the foot of the Sovereign’s Staircase. 11.11 The Peers appointed to carry the…
For those wishing to see the programme broadcast on BBC Parliament to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Life Peerages Act, you can find it at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fzc1j/Peers_Progress/ You will see some familiar faces from this blog, including Baroness d’Souza, Lord Tyler and myself. I hasten to add that none of us was in the Lords fifty…
I am pleased that the House of Lords voted by a majority of 52 against an amendment which would have overturned the Government’s proposal. The change will reverse the then Home Secretary David Blunkett’s 2004 downgrading and raise a maximum jail sentence for possession to five years. I believe that Cannabis is not a ‘soft’…
The weekend quiz question. How many married couples sit in the House of Lords and who are they? One clue: the title of this post doesn’t apply in every case. And can you name those members of the House of Lords who have spouses sitting in the House of Commons?
In an earlier post, on 27 August, I drew attention to the result of a survey of showing that 98 per cent of electoral registration officers favoured getting rid of the practice of selling the electoral register to commercial bodies. Citizens have by law to supply data about themselves for electoral purposes. I have always…
