During the summer, there were reports that both Houses of Parliament may have to move out to enable renovation of the Palace, which is in a state of some decay, to be undertaken. A study group appointed by the Management Boards of both Houses has just produced a pre-feasibility study and preliminary strategic business case…
I serve on the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. The Committee examines Statutory Instruments and reports on those that merit the attention of the House. We rarely take oral evidence, but we have decided to do so in respect of the Government’s recent guidance on public consultations, which entails Departments being able to hold a consultation…
As the nature of conflict has changed in the post-Cold War era, so too has the UK government’s policy discourse on development aid. Since DfID’s first White Paper in 1997, Eliminating World Poverty: a challenge for the 21st Century, we have witnessed a growing recognition that development and security are intrinsically linked. Over the…
There are important questions that voters could put to candidates standing for election. These include: 1: Will they promote the use of restorative justice? This is a group of methods enabling offenders to repair the harm they have done to their victims and to the local community; 2: Will they reduce offending among children and young…
I have been puzzling over this one. The Tory Chief Whip eventually resigned over the issue of using (although he denies it) the word “plebs” in relation to the police. He admitted swearing at them, but swearing, whatever the words, was not deemed to be as great a sin as the use of the word…
You can bet your bottom dollar that we won’t have a badger cull, and it won’t be anything to do with the science. It’ll be because by next year the Government won’t be able to resist the noise from a rather small group of campaigners. Someone is bound to comment that an e-petition of 160,000…
Following my blog of 12th October about next month’s elections for Police and Crime Commissioners, I have asked a Written Question on this subject, the answer to which can be seen here.
I previously mentioned two indexes, the Department for International Development’s (DFID) needs-effectiveness index and the Fund for Peace’s Failed States Index. There are many other examples though and in recent years it has seemed to be a growth industry with everyone and anyone wanting to have a piece of the action. As the recent errors…
On her 60th birthday, 16 October, Baroness Brinton asked the Minister, Lord Freud, what steps the government were taking to address unemployment amongst older women. The Baroness suggested that unemployment amongst older women was rocketing. The statistics given by the Minister, however, were encouraging. He said that the unemployment rate amongst women aged 5-64 was…
