The House resumes next Monday with the first day in committee of the Planning Bill. This is an important measure that will allow a quicker resolution of major planning issues. There is opposition to the Bill but it is worth remembering that the Terminal Five planning process took over five years and cost the taxpayer…
Many years ago when I set up a small research institute with a focus on development aid in crises – we chanced upon some rather peculiar (or they seemed that at the time) features of famine. To cut short a very long (and very interesting) time of research and testing here are the main conclusions: Famine is almost never due…
The events of recent days, with world financial turmoil, have rather borne out my earlier observations about the consequences of a long parliamentary recess. The US Congress has been at the centre of attention. Here, the Government has been able to act under legislation enacted earlier this year. Had that not been in place, then…
This is not so much about Westminster wit as about Westminster characters. In a post earlier this year, I asked if readers could name the three hereditary peers who sit in the House of Commons. Given the quality of our readership, the answer was provided very quickly by several people. I thought I would therefore…
As Baroness d’Souza touches upon in her earlier post, the original Parliament buildings, other than Westminster Hall, were destroyed by fire in 1834. In their place, a new Palace of Westminster, designed by Charles Barry, was constructed. There remains a fire risk, but in the history of the Palace that has not been the only challenge. In…
When people demonstrate outside Parliament, they tend to congregate in Parliament Square. It has space for large demonstrations and it faces the Commons’ end of the Palace of Westminster. Some groups, however, demonstrate by the George V statue opposite the Lords’ end of the Palace. As I mentioned in my previous post, I get a…
As any student of English history will know the original Parliament buildings burnt down in the 19th Century, apart from Westminster Hall which mercifully was spared. Today a fire alarm sounded in the mid-afternoon. This time not the usual mournful voice advising us over the speaker system to await further news or a test alarm …
Iain Dale occasionally does a link from his blog to one of the posts on this site. Whenever he does, our traffic increases quite markedly. He did a link to my post on office space in the Lords. However, he said that I bemoaned my lack of office space. As the first person to comment on his…
At this time of the year our attention turns to the parliamentary session ahead. The party conferences give a clue as to what to expect: yes, it is possible that the next few weeks could be stormy politically, but equally external (financial) fireworks could persuade everyone to hold tight to the status quo. However, the day to day…
