This is more or less what I said during the debate this morning on the Equality (Titles) Bill, which aims to extend gender equality to titles and to husbands of lady peers:- We in this House are very ready to impose equality obligations on others, and must be equally ready to accept them ourselves. The…
Lords Bradshaw and Berkeley believe that the high speed lines of this country should be part of an integrated rail network with many services operating beyond the limits of high speed lines, and with the most economic and convenient links to major cities should reflect the needs of the passenger for easy interchange as well…
As a Mathematician with a lifelong passion for numbers I have always liked statistics. I am wary of them, of course. ‘There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics” may be an overused quotation, but it does contain a grain of truth. In the wrong hands, ‘facts’ are not always what they…
The BBC is very good at radio drama which I often catch on car journeys. But one or two sentences in one the other day had me seeing red. This was the 15 minute serial at the end of Woman’s Hour, which is repeated at 7.45 in the evening. The serial was The Pursuits of…
Normally the mention of a “cross party consensus” is reassuring: it means that the parties are reaching agreement on a big venture, for example transport infrastructure, or (if only!) the NHS or pensions, that necessarily spans many years. In this way, abrupt changes of policy are avoided when there is a change of government. Today however, I…
Selective family memories I suppose we all do it. That is, choose which members of our family to highlight and which to ignore if we have a chance to talk about our backgrounds. But I was sad to see that in Lisa Nandy’s profile in the House Magazine recently, she omitted to say who her…
I am nearing the end of my time with the Metropolitan Police Service. I was not sure what to expect when I signed up for the “Parliamentary Police Service Scheme” but knew it it was the best way, as an outsider, to see police work firsthand. I have learnt some very practical things, such as…
One in seven school children arrive without having had breakfast. Unfortunately a reasonable number of these come from difficult family backgrounds. Starting a challenging school day having possibly come from an argument at home, or worse, combined with no food is a tough start for a child – breakfast is, after all, the most important…
The idea of a ‘Heathrow Hub’ will never take off with our insistence of putting transit passengers through ‘Security’ run by people training to work art Yarls Wood Detention centre.
