I have mentioned in response to comments that I can be something of an iconoclast and variously challenge claims when they become accepted wisdom (and basically sustained by lazy or non-existent thinking). At times, it appears I can achieve this without planning to. I have been at meetings when I have offered what I regard as fairly straightforward…
According to The Sunday Times, the Government is planning to change the law so that people who have had certain mental health problems and are presently barred from being elected to Parliament can stand for election. People who have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act are barred from standing even if they have made…
The Intergovernmental Organisations Select Committee will publish its first report tomorrow. The report deals with the threat of infectious diseases and the intergovernmental organisations ability to deal with them. Meanwhile I have been very frustrated because the Liaison Committee which decides what select committees should exist and in what form met and agreed that the…
The way we are paid expenses in the Lords is sleazy, embarrassing and I hate it. A lot of crossbench colleagues feel the same way and I daresay others do too. There are a number of peers who are sufficiently rich (or are paid as Ministers) they don’t feel the need to draw expenses but the vast…
I will get round to responding to several comments about our pay which have cropped up in comments on Lord Norton’s fascinating blog on reform of the lords but first I want to warn everyone that I shall shortly be returning home to Norfolk for the long break ( thank goodness for missing out on the…
I have previously written about the material we receive as parliamentarians. One of the publications that arrives regularly on my desk is The German Times, ‘a monthly newspaper for Europe’. In the July issue, the executive editor, Theo Sommer, writes about the outcome of the referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon treaty. He raises issues…
I have previously done a post on the competition to find the outstanding life peer of the past fifty years. There was a shortlist of twelve, listed in my previous post. Peers voted for one of the twelve on the list. The result was announced by the Lord Speaker at a ceremony in Westminster Hall…
I thought I would take a leaf out of Iain Dale’s book (or rather blog) and announce when I am doing the occasional broadcast. I will be on Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster this week (Saturday 11.00 a.m.), debating the White Paper on Lords reform with Chris Bryant MP. The presenter is Peter Riddell.
Talked briefly yesterday at a very interesting conference sponsored by the Hansard Society and the Nuffield Foundation on Law in the Making. Until recently there has been relatively little research on the details of influencing legislation – how, who does it, by what means, what works best etc. It’s a big subject and complex but…
