The first meetings of the Joint Committee which is going to examine the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill took place last week, as Lord Norton has already reported. The team undertaking this “pre-legislative scrutiny” is formidable indeed. Looking round the table and noting a bevy of professors, distinguished lawyers and former very senior civil servants –…
There was a statement in the House today on the situation in Burma following the cyclone. It is yet another reminder of why the international community needs to find ways of dealing with extreme authoritarian regimes. It is very difficult for the rest of the world to help when you are dealing with a military…
Baroness Murphy’s post reminds me of a question frequently raised in discussions about the Lords. Can peers vote in parliamentary elections? The answer is no. Or rather, members of the House of Lords cannot vote in parliamentary elections. Prior to 1999 it was held in common law that it was the status of being a…
I’ve just got back from a few days in Norway; while I was here to vote in the London Mayoral and local elections, I was abroad for the count and spent the next few days trying to catch up with the results. BBC World was perhaps understandably rather more focussed on Zimbabwe than on London.…
I have been appointed to serve on the Joint Committee on the Draft Constitutional Renewal Bill. (Lord Tyler is aonther member.) The Committee has to examine the draft Bill and report by mid-July. The Bill contains several provisions, covering the Civil Service, the role of the Attorney General, ratification of treaties, appointment of judges, and…
Who was the last Prime Minister to spend most of his premiership on the benches in the House of Lords? It is a bit of a trick question. The answer is Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee (1945-51). The chamber of the House of Commons was destroyed by enemy bombing on 10 May 1941. The decision…
A full three days after the local council and London Mayoral elections the BBC Radio Newscasts still refer to Labour’s results as ‘disastrous’ and ‘the worst for 40 years’ and places them near to the top of the news headlines. What, I wonder, is the editorial policy behind these kind of comments? Does it add to our knowledge,…
This question http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/80501-0002.htm raised the way we respond to an infection that children can get in parks and playgrounds. I don’t doubt there have been some serious consequences from the infection but they are rare and the media does find difficulty in handling these questions without raising excessive fears that result in over protective parenting…
Follow this link to read the exchange on proposals in the Lords to improve public knowledge of the work of the Lords. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/80501-0001.htm#08050183000008 Viscount Tenby http://biographies.parliament.uk/parliament/default.asp?id=26817 turned out to be a keen supporter so I will urge him to sign up. There was good support for the Speaker’s attempts to open up the Lords and…
