I know that it suits some other Peers to pretend that that the Bill to reform the House of Lords is just a Liberal Democrat plot, pursued by Nick Clegg, to take away their jobs. However, since the Cabinet unanimously endorsed the Bill, and the Prime Minister gave it his personal explicit approval, that won’t…
The Government wishes to replace the existing House of Lords with a new House, with almost 80% of the members being elected. I say ‘almost’ because the Government’s Bill does not, as widely reported, propose a 450-member House, of which 80% are elected. It provides for 360 elected members, 90 appointed members, up to 12 Lords Spiritual, and up…
An interesting bit of footwork by David Cameron on an EU referendum. I’m not sure that it will unify his party but it is a good try! Thinking about events over the last few weeks it is hard to see how Britain is going to stay a full member of the EU. The banking crisis…
The move to reform the House of Lords by replacing appointed members with elected ones is driven by the premise that it will be more democratic and accountable. But according to the Bill published this week, it is intended to provide expressly that the Lords will be inferior to the Commons in that if the…
The House of Lords, like the Commons, has a Question Time, though it differs in important respects from the Commons. In addition to oral questions, it is possible to table questions for written answer. The Government is expected to answer a written question within ten working days. Most Departments manage to do so, but following complaints…
The House of Lords Reform Bill was published yesterday (Wednesday). You can see a copy here. It differs in important respects from the Government’s draft Bill and the recommendations of the Joint Committee, not least in terms of the proposed electoral system (the semi-open regional list system). The Bill received a critical response when the Leader of the…
This last week I have spent away from the Lords in the USA, first at a global education conference at Stanford University and then in Tennessee seeing how education innovation is rolling out on the ground. It was an inspiring week that reinforced my view that English education is in real danger of being left…
Listening to the first of this year’s Reith Lectures (by Prof. Niall Ferguson, The Rule of Law and its Enemies; next one, Tuesday 9am Radio 4) caused me to meditate on the Arab “spring”. I have just returned from a conference in the Middle East on the Middle East, at which there was universal agreement…
