When a vote is called, peers can vote Content or Not Content. The voting figures do not always correspond with how many peers are present. On occasion, some members abstain from voting. The reason the Government lost a vote last week on the Academies Bill was because of a combination of some Liberal Democrat peers…
There were some interesting exchanges in the House yesterday when Viscount Tenby asked at Question Time whether the Government planned to change the law to allow peers to vote in general elections. He pointed out that, if prisoners were allowed to vote, the only people barred from voting would be those deemed incapable of voting and…
I want to pick up on a theme Lord Norton has raised once or twice, about the perceived problem of political disengagement, especially amomg the young. You know, the poor voting record in elections, the small numbers who join political parties and so on. I would like to suggest that it is a symptom of…
Baroness Murphy’s post reminds me of a question frequently raised in discussions about the Lords. Can peers vote in parliamentary elections? The answer is no. Or rather, members of the House of Lords cannot vote in parliamentary elections. Prior to 1999 it was held in common law that it was the status of being a…
