As I enter my fortieth year working in or around Westminster, the political scene superficially resembles that which existed when I first arrived. But underneath , the tectonic plates have shifted. And for this there is one overwhelming reason. It is the decline of class as the central determinant of political parties,,party politics and electoral…
The Life Peerages Act 1958 saw women enter the House as members. The Peerages Act 1963 enabled women who inherited their titles to sit. The number of women peers has grown over the decades. The Independent Appointments Commission has been especially active in ensuring that those it nominates for life peerages reflect the diversity of…
One of the comments in response to Baroness Murphy’s post touches upon the extent to which people are now encouraged to lobby members of the House of Lords. In this, there is nothing new. One survey conducted in 1986 of charities, consumer groups, unions and other organised interests found that 70% had approached peers for the…
Yesterday the ‘Usual Channels’, that’s the chief party whips meeting in private, failed to agree that the Welfare Reform Bill should be debated in its committee stages ‘in Grand Committee’, that is outside the main chamber. Grand Committee is usually held in the Moses Room but for Bills likely to generate more interest there is…
My frustration with the lack of any policy for avaition by the current government provoked me to come in to Lord Spicer’s question with the following supplementary: Lord Soley: Is not the answer to the Question of the noble Lord, Lord Spicer, really that, in future, South American flights will go to Madrid, Indian and…
I watched some of the moving ceremonies on TV yesterday. Ithink it is important that we remember the horror of that attack and it should remind us that terrorism has enormous force today because of the nature of our interdependent world and the sheer power of modern technology. Can we ever hope to live without the…
Yesterday we had the second reading of the Scotland Bill. The Government has got into difficulties with the timetabling of business and to criticism from all parts of the House, only gave one day to the debate. The Bill has implications for the whole of the UK – not just Scotland and there were 36 members…
One advantage of the House of Lords is that it is possible for members to raise issues that may be delicate, and others may not wished to be raised, but which deserve consideration. Sometimes they are raised from somewhat unxpected sources. On Monday, Health Minister, Earl Howe, was answering a question from Lord Fowler on…
I recently did a post on my own blog about the extent to which people confuse Parliament and Government and how this is compounded by the new e-petition system, under which people can submit petitions to a Government website and, if one attracts 100,000 or more signatures, it can be considered for debate in the…
