In the Queen’s speech there was an interesting contribution by Lord Owen. He warned of a growing crisis that will pose a major challenge to the UK. If the Euro does disintegrate then we will be badly affected but if it continues it will only do so as part of an ever closer union. In…
The House yesterday agreed a report from the Procedure Committee recommending that, if there is a Secretary of State in the House, then on one Thursday every month, when the House is sitting, 15 minutes should be set aside for three oral questions to the Secretary of State immediately following the existing 30 minutes for…
Yesterday’s Second Reading debate on the Digital Economy Bill produced some good speeches: the most telling critiques of the Bill were provided by Lord Lucas on the Conservative benches and Lord Whitty on the Labour benches. The debate is well worth reading. The first speaker on the Conservative side was former Cabinet minister, Lord Fowler,…
This morning´s edition of The Daily Telegraph has an article by Daniel Hannan headed “Let´s return to the good old days when MPs didn´t always toe the party line”. The only problem with this is that there were no “good old days”. Far from MPs becoming more prone to toe the party line, the movement…
Some readers have already begun to comment, in the thread to the preceding post, on the ministerial reshuffle as it affects the House of Lords. There will now be three peers in the Cabinet, two of them departmental ministers. The most senior is Lord Mandelson, who now heads a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which…
