As Lord Speaker, I’m honoured to be blogging at the beginning of the second Parliament Week today. There are many worthwhile events that will be taking place both here at Westminster and around the country. On Monday, the House of Lords will launch its pilot outreach partnership with the charity Debate Mate, which uses volunteer…
I’ve just returned from watching the last of the olive harvest in Lucca, thankfully all gathered in before torrential rain caused landslips and destruction all over our area. And also with brilliant timing to avoid today’s general strike in Italy. Strikes are common in Italy, the consequence of an outdated system of labour relations and…
As widely trailed, the Bishop of Durham has been announced as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, and the appointment has been widely welcomed, with just a few voices muttering that he is an old Etonian. The quality of the man chosen to fill this post matters to all of us, of other faiths and of…
To see the events taking place during this week you can check the following website: http://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/parliament-week/
Baroness Cumberlege Lord Laming This morning I chaired the last of four seminars for peers about the new draft Social Care Bill. They’ve been organised by Baroness Jolly from the Lib Dems. The last seminar this year but not the last of the many more I expect for next year when the bill finally arrives.…
The Government once again ‘pulled’ the Lords’ scheduled discussion of the Electoral Registration and Administration Bill yesterday. Peers were not amused, as the exchanges with Lord Strathclyde showed. The Leader of the House appeared to say that we were not permitted to discuss our scheduled business until the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister had…
I wrote almost exactly two years ago about the failings of so-called ‘self-regulation’ in the Lords. Despite the jaded tone of the piece, I was genuinely optimistic that a group set up by Lord Strathclyde – under the able Chairmanship of Lord Goodlad – would come forward with good proposals to improve things and these…
On two successive evening this week I went to meetings in London about churches of Iran and Egypt. These are the two states, with Turkey, that have the largest populations and are pivots of the region. At the Iranian meeting a young woman spoke who had been imprisonned for her faith. A moving letter was…
Yesterday afternoon we passed emergency legislation, introduced into the house and passed in one day, including receiving Royal Assent. This is a relatively rare occurrence. It can only happen if all parties agree to the urgent necessity. The Mental Health (Approval Functions) Bill came about because the Government discovered that 4 out of 10 Strategic…
