Returning to the House of Lords yesterday my holiday in Scotland seemed rather distant but during that holiday I took time out to go to the memorial at Cove near Poolewe where the arctic convoys left for Russia during the Second World War. http://www.naval-history.net/WW2CampaignsRussianConvoys.htm A couple of years ago I had visited a local museum and…
Most of the noise about the Localism Bill has been generated over changes to the planning regime to enable development to occur quicker and more responsively to local housing and development needs and opportunities. It’s very hard to tell what the outcome will be…we certainly need more home building and local business development and I…
The House has members who span a significant age range. Among the older members are some who saw significant service in the Second World War. This quiz focuses on those peers who saw wartime service. As usual, the first two readers to supply the correct answers will be the winners. 1. I was a prisoner-of-war…
I don’t know whether it is legal or not, but it is certainly immoral. Why should students resident in Scotland benefit from free tuition at their local universities when English students at a Scottish university have to pay as much as they would at an English university? Maybe even more as Scottish courses are often of four years’ duration. European students choosing to…
The House of Lords Select Committee on HIV and AIDS in the United Kingdom published its report yesterday. The Committee, chaired by former Social Services Secretary, Lord Fowler, spent eight months taking evidence and has produced the first major analysis for some years. As the Committee notes in it summary: “This report examines what is…
We all should be grateful to Dr Andrew Blick, a Senior Research Fellow at Democratic Audit, and to Lord (Peter) Hennessy for a report they have co-authored. Called The Hidden Wiring Emerges the pamphlet provides the best and most comprehensive analysis yet of the Coalition’s draft Cabinet Manual, published in December 2010. The report raises…
It is reported that Nadine Dorries MP has tabled an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill, which will reach report stage in the Commons on 6 September, that would make mandatory the offer of “independent” counselling for women seeking an abortion. If enacted, the result would be that funds earmarked for counselling would be…
I’m back. Regular readers know very well where I’ve been so I won’t go on about how lovely it was and I have to say it’s very hard to come back to the grey skies of Norfolk and today’s torrential rain. We needed it for the garden but why couldn’t it have fallen out of…
Departing from the role of Convenor of the Cross Benches and taking up the Lord Speakership
