Not everyone gets a chance to visit the Palace of Westminster, a point that has been made by one or two visitors to this site. There are some virtual tours available on the Parliament website. Though second-best to an actual visit, some have the advantage of covering parts of the Palace not open to the…
In his farewell column in the Sunday Times, Simon Jenkins wrote: “This month Gordon Brown used the 2005 anti-terror law to seize the assets of Icelandic banks, an outrage that passed without protest from parliament and the courts.” Given that this was published on Sunday, the kindest thing that one can say about it is that…
Total Politics is a new monthly magazine; Iain Dale is the publisher. The November issue has an article, ‘Why we need the House of Lords’, by David Seymour, former political editor of the Mirror group. As he admits, he has moved from being a committed advocate of Lords reform to being a supporter of the present…
The Education Maintenance Allowance came up yesterday. The contracting company has been having difficulty delivering at an acceptable standard so it deserves some Parliamentary scrutiny. The EMA however has been remarkably helpful to many youngsters keeping them in eduction. This is particularly important at a time when unemployment is rising. Skills and educational level do…
The Government Chief Whip, Lord Bassam, told us last week that we had to have shorter questions and answers. The result was dramatic. On Tuesday – before his admonition – some 25 Peers got in on Question Time. On Wednesday, immediately after he had told us to be briefer, the number rose to 31 ……
Yesterday the Torture (Damages) bill proceeded to its next stage in the House of Lords. The Bill had its First Reading – a formality – some months ago, followed by Second Reading at which a number of impassioned speeches were delivered. The next step for any bill is the Committee stage. However, since no amendments were tabled, Lord Archer QC who…
I was listening to Broadcasting House on Radio 4 on Sunday morning when they introduced a listener, an American novelist, who wanted to complain about the coverage in the UK of American politics. She took exception to references to ‘swing states’ on the grounds that Americans took the view that each vote counted as equal. …
Following an earlier post, in which I referred to the officials’ box, a colleague thought it may be of interest to explain what it is. The officials’ box is at the top right corner of the picture. It is just beyond the benches in the chamber. It is occupied by civil servants drawn from the Department(s)…
Speedy Lords Last August I was taking my son and his friends to the airport. It was 3am and there was excited talk about their trip round Europe. My attention was not as it should be and the speedo went up to 36mph. FLASH! **##>*# Did I deserve this at 3am on an…
