Tag Archives: Commonwealth

A very great Aussie

Baroness Deech 10/12/2011 – 12:08 am

 The death has just been announced of Sir Zelman Cowen, former Governor General of Australia, former Vice-Chancellor, former Provost of Oriel College Oxford, great constitutional lawyer and historian; widely regarded as a man of the utmost integrity, intellect and kindliness, no one had a bad word to say about him.  I met him when he was a fellow head of an Oxford college and regard my acquainta […]

Multiculturism

Lord Soley 06/02/2011 – 6:23 pm

I would like to think there is a straight forward explanation for the alienation of some of our young people whose family origins are from other countries/cultures but I'm not too sure. Saying multiculturalism has failed raises more question then it answers. I have never been too sure what multiculturalism is. Does it mean allowing people to keep close to their cultural origins? Does it imply sepa […]

….And what about the numbers?

Baroness D'Souza 16/05/2010 – 3:46 pm

Given the enforced restrictions on blogging, I will be forgiven for being a bit prolix? We are told that there will be a massive influx of new peers arising from the Dissolution list and the new Government's need to bulk up with whips. The UK has (embarrassingly) at present the largest second chamber in the world at something like 740 members of whom perhaps 450 turn up on any kind of a regul […]

War memorials – ways of remembering

Lord Soley 07/11/2009 – 1:49 pm

There was a debate on defence issues on Friday inevitably dominated by Afghanistan but it went wider than that. I referred to the importance for our troops of ensuring that we did not try and score political points in these debates. You can read the debate here and see what you think. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldhansrd/text/91106-0008.htm I also used the campaign to abol […]