There will be a Private Notice Question today in the Chamber of the House of Lords. It will read as follows “To ask HMG, following the proposals announced yesterday, whether they will urgently report to the House how they will maintain an arm’s length relationship with the banks in which they have taken a shareholding.’…
I mentioned in an earlier post Lord Rowlands’ booklet on the House of Lords in the early eighteenth century. One notable feature of the House was that on occasion peers could sit in silence for fifteen or thirty minutes before anyone rose to say anything. Another distintive feature was the existence of proxy voting. An…
A friend has drawn my attention to a question that appeared in The Times a few days ago. I missed it but I thought I would reproduce it as it is such a good question. When was the last US presidential election which was won by the Republicans in which a Nixon or a Bush was…
On Tuesday, Americans will go to the polls. They will choose between two principal candidates. The focus on their relative merits has rather obscured discussion of the process by which they became candidates. Both have risen to the top despite not having any executive experience. The last Senator to be elected President was John Kennedy…
I can’t remember if anyone has so far described ‘long table’? If not – it is an ancient custom in the House of Lords. In three of the restaurants (the Home (pronouced Hume and dedicated to Lord Home – a Tory Prime Minister in the 1970s) Room, the Peers’ Dining Room and the Barry Room…
The Government has already signalled its intention to bring in a Communications Data Bill in the new parliamentary session. As many will remember one of the most vociferous objections to identity cards was not the cards themselves but the central register that would store huge amounts of personal data. However, the plans to introduce a massive…
Clearing out an old box from the attic the other day I came across a dog eared document too damaged alas, to photograph for this site. It was my very own ID card from 1940 when I was a little over a year old. Maybe I got it for my first birthday. Did I wave it…
There will be a full debate in the House on Monday on the current economic situation. More than forty peers will be taking part. Lord Myners will lead for the Government. Speakers will include eight peers who have served in the Treasury (three as Chancellor of the Exchequer), economists (including four professors), leading figures in…
I intervened very briefly in a debate last night on a motion to approve a particular Order, the Judicial Appointments Order. My point related to the information contained in the Explanatory Memorandum but had a wider relevance. The Order was designed to encourage greater diversity in the membership of the judiciary through making Fellowship of the…
