Looking through the 186 pages of the Facebook prospectus provides an insight into the internet today. Gone are the days when surfing the net was instructive, pleasurable and yes fun. We believed in internet neutrality. When surfing today we have to bear in mind that what we look at and what we do on the…
The membership of the House of Lords was extended to women in 1958. This was forty years after women were able to be elected to the House of Commons. Today, the proportion of women in the Lords is the same as that in the Commons, though women tend to be more prominent in leadership positions…
There have been conflicting stories in the press this week about how and whether the government intends to change the law in order to ensure that both parents see more of their children after divorce. Some reports said that there would be introduced a legal presumption of equally shared parenting; others that it would not…
Yesterday afternoon in the Commons, just before the debate on the Lords’ Amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill, the Speaker announced “I must draw the House’s attention to the fact that financial privilege is involved in a substantial number of Lords amendments. If the House agrees to these amendments, I shall ensure that the appropriate entry…
There is a statutory limit on the number of ministers who can sit in the House of Commons, whether paid or unpaid, and a statutory limit on the number of ministers who can receive a ministerial salary. As a result, this Government, like its predecessor, has appointed a number of unpaid ministers, especially in the Lords. …
On December 17 2010, a young Tunisian man set himself on fire. This desperate act helped to spark a political revolution in the Arab world. Images of people revolting against notoriously oppressive regimes captivated onlookers worldwide. More than a year later, the world is indeed a different place – long-term dictators have been unseated, governments…
The solution to the dilemma of the banker’s bonus is obvious. Mr. Hester should take it, and give it to charity. That way the contract he seems to have had with RBS is fulfilled; honour is preserved; and the money goes back to the people for good purposes. The chair of RBS and of the…
No-one who has been reading this blog for a while will be surprised that I voted with the Government on the Benefit Cap last Monday night and also for the Changes to the Child Support Agency on Wednesday. There is however a good case for compromise on the benefit cap in one respect. The cap is…
The Inheritance (Cohabitants) Bill received its first reading on the 12th January. It is based on a Law Commission Report, Law Com no. 331 (2011) http://www.justice.gov.uk/lawcommission/docs/lc331_intestacy_report.pdf which, after consultation, recommended that the law be changed so that cohabitants would have an automatic claim to the property of their partner if he or she died intestate, provided…
