John Lyon addressing an earlier seminar
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon, is among the regular speakers at the seminars held in Westminster for Hull politics students on placement. Other speakers usually include the Lord Speaker, Black Rod, and the Serjeant at Arms.
The Parliamentary Commissioner has just published a consultation paper on the scope and content of the House of Commons Code of Conduct for MPs. One point raised in the consultation paper, at paragraph 58, is whether all Members should be asked to sign the code. This, as the paper notes, is the practice followed in the Lords. However, I mention it because of the footnote to the suggestion: “I am indebted to students of Hull University who made this suggestion at a seminar chaired by Professor Philip, Lord Norton of Louth, in December 2010″. The seminars are usually extremely interesting as well as generating productive discussion. It is especially gratifying that the discussion can be valuable for the speaker as well as the students.
Catching up on Private Eye, a letter in the most recent issue (No. 1283) put up a sturdy defence of the Politics Dept at, er, Hull University. In case anyone missed it Lunchtime O’Boulez penned a piece (in No. 1282) that somehow married Mumsnet with the music industry, with Darren Henley acting as best man. (Mr Henley is the MD of Classic FM and has recently presented his Review of Music Education to the Dept of Education.)
To the meat, what Lunchtime wrote:
“But Henley doesn’t impress the militant Mumsnetters, who were keen to point out that a point out that a man with a politics degree from Hull who runs a commercial radio station isn’t best qualified to lord it over music teachers”
Over to you, Lord Norton.
ladytizzy: I may need to get the ‘Hull mafia’ on to this.
I should add that I taught Darren Henley.
…and that’s why Mr Henley is where he is, and Mumsnet is…