The House of Lords employs nearly 500 people. Not one of them is an apprentice, and only one member of staff is under the age of 21 – according to a Parliamentary answer I have just received. How can Parliament preach apprenticeships to the nation if it has no apprentices itself? There is a highly…
The proposals to allow same-sex marriage clearly get some people excited. When I did a post on my blog about it, it attracted the most comments I have ever received. One of my points was about the insularity of those opposing the proposals. I was therefore very interested in the findings of a study just…
The House of Lords has received a lot of attention in the past few weeks as a result of the Government’s House of Lords Reform Bill. I am almost tempted to ask as a quiz question if anyone can identify a newspaper (or even television) story about the House of Lords that has not been…
The past week has been pretty hectic. The Lords has been busy getting on with the detailed scrutiny of legislation. However, peers have also been keenly interested in what has been going on in the Commons. Many have followed the proceedings on screen. Now that offices have TV screens, it is possible to get on…
Or perhaps I should say House trading. That is, if you support an elected House of Lords (so we can secure some more seats there for our people), we will allow you to go forward with the boundary changes that might secure more seats for your people in the Commons. Striking deals like this is no way to…
I have been fascinated with the way words have been used – some would say misused – in the Lords Reform debates of recent weeks. No doubt both sides have been guilty. Some of the reformers have got very muddled up in their descriptions of the proposed electoral system. Some of the opponents have tried…
These indigenous people were originally nomadic, but in recent years have built their own villages, and even schools. In the Negev, in southern Israel, the Authorities have major plans for re-locating the Bedouin. Unfortunately these plans have been drawn up without consulting the Bedouin, and therefore cause problems, for example from repeated demolitions of dwellings. One Bedouin…
I was delighted to be present at the Nominet awards http://nia.nominet.org.uk/winners/2012 in the Saatchi Gallery last night with Beccy Allen and Michael Raftery from Hansard. Photograph here: http://nia.nominet.org.uk/galleries/2012?page=0%2C9 We were in the last group – Online Public Services and Information – the short listed organisations were read out and then the runner up announced. With…
It is currently being argued that the abolition of appointed Lords and their replacement by elected Lords (“reform”) must go ahead because it was promised in the manifestos of all three major political parties at the last Election. The Tory manifesto said that the party would work to “build a consensus” on the topic. This…
