Topic Archives: Parliament, government and politics

Not reaching agreement

Lord Norton 02/05/2012 – 6:41 pm

Blimey, I must have been a member of a different Joint Committee to that on which Lord Tyler served.  A 26-member committee (in practice 25, as one member never attended)  is too large a body for sustained scrutiny.  It facilitates disparate questioning and may actually militate against a good attendance (once or twice we were inquorate because insufficient MPs were present) because members m […]

Written at 6:41 pm on 02/05/2012, by Lord Norton

Topic: |
Tagged: , |

Comments (28)

Listening and learning?

Lord Tyler 30/04/2012 – 1:44 pm

After 30 meetings of the Joint Committee scrutinising the Government’s House of Lords Reform draft bill - and long sessions of assertion and deliberation - I confess I have been somewhat exhausted.  However, I must record one extremely important – and positive – lesson.   Every one of the Joint Committees on which I have served, as an MP and latterly as a Peer, has been an eye-opener.  […]

Written at 1:44 pm on 30/04/2012, by Lord Tyler

Topic: |

Comments (12)

Lords Reform – Part Four

Lord Soley 30/04/2012 – 5:00 am

This completes my current entry following the other three posts below. So where do we go from here. Saying ‘no’ to the present Bill is common sense but what is the alternative. Both Houses need reform but if we are not to re write our constitution then it needs to be gradualist. Tony Blair took a key step in restricting the number of hereditary Peers and although many of them do a good job, […]

Written at 5:00 am on 30/04/2012, by Lord Soley

Topic: |
Tagged: , , |

Comments (13)

Lords reform – Part three

Lord Soley 26/04/2012 – 11:02 pm

This is the third part of my article on Lords reform and follows from the two below. Read this and then prepare yourself in body and soul for the last terrifying instalment! This brings me to the critically important issue of the scrutiny of legislation. Select Committees in the Commons do a good job on ministerial departments but on Bills, which become the final laws, the Commons scrutiny is s […]

Written at 11:02 pm on 26/04/2012, by Lord Soley

Topic: |
Tagged: |

Comments (48)

Losing two peers

Lord Norton 26/04/2012 – 6:29 pm

The House recently lost another doughty member in the form of Lord Ashley of Stoke.   Jack Ashley, when he was an MP, lost his hearing.  He learned to lip-read and later regained some partial hearing.  In the Lords, he had the facility of a machine that transposed what was being said into words on a digital display.  He was a renowned and tireless campaigner in the field of disability rig […]

Written at 6:29 pm on 26/04/2012, by Lord Norton

Topic: |
Tagged: , |

Comments (3)