Tag Archives: new peers

Voting behaviour in the House

Lord Norton 19/11/2010 – 6:18 pm

There was a vote in the House on Wednesday on an amendment to the Identity Documents Bill moved by Lord Hunt of King's Heath, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.  The Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers who voted (178) outnumbered Labour peers (162).  However, the amendment was carried by 220 votes to 188.   The Government defeat was attributable to the fact that the cross-bench peers di […]

Politics is an odd business…

Baroness D'Souza 29/05/2010 – 3:47 pm

Everyone agrees that the House of Lords has far too many members, we are already stuffed to the gills. Yet we now have 56 additional peers and the rumour of more to come. How does a perfectly obvious fact get so easily discounted? As Peter Riddell points out in today's Times it cannot be a question of the Coalition Government needing to secure a majority - it already has one at a whopping 50.  […]

Is it goodbye?

Baroness Deech 16/05/2010 – 9:49 am

Will the appointed peers be evicted shortly to make room for an all-or mainly-elected Upper House/Senate?  I will not rehearse the arguments for and against, which are well known, especially to those who read this blog.  When I heard that the LibDem-Tory coalition had firm plans to evict us by Christmas, I was very upset.  Not just for myself, only really getting going after 5 years as a peer ( […]

Adding value

Lord Norton 01/07/2008 – 1:48 pm

What have the Rt Rev. John Charles, Bishop of Lincoln, and Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5, got in common?  Answer: They were both introduced into the House of Lords today.   The Bishop joins the House by reason of seniority, replacing a retiring Bishop.  Baroness Manningham-Buller is, as far as I am aware, the first former head of MI5 to be elevated to the peerage.  She is not […]