Monthly Archives: March 2012
From committee to chamber
This past year, my work in the Lords has been very much focused on committees. The Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Bill has been especially time consuming. I had to re-organise my academic schedule to accommodate it … Continue reading
News from the House
Busy day. It is just coming up to midnight. We have just had the tenth (and final) vote of the evening on amendments on Third Reading (we can take amendments at this stage in the Lords) of the Legal Aid, … Continue reading
Should have gone to…..
This evening, I attended a lecture given by Home Secretary Theresa May, one of the lectures in the Speaker’s 2012 Lecture series on ‘Ministers and Government’. She recounted the occasion when she became Home Secretary and found that on her desk … Continue reading
Lord Newton of Braintree
I have just done a post on Lords of the Blog about the death of Lord Newton of Braintree. He was one of my two supporters when I entered the Lords. I wanted to have as supporters peers who reflected … Continue reading
Another eventful journey
Regular readers may recall the occasion when I travelled back to Hull late one evening, only to discover after the train had set off that there was no food on board and then for the train to be stuck near … Continue reading
The Speaker’s lecture
A video of the lecture on parliamentary reform, given by the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, at the University of Hull last month – one of the lectures given to mark the 50th anniversary of the Politics … Continue reading
Meeting the Queen
To mark her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen addressed members of both Houses of Parliament yesterday in Westminster Hall. Her speech was short, balanced, included some jokes and what some may regard as a dig at Parliament for the sheer volume of … Continue reading
Caption competition – the giant hat of cleverness
As regular readers may recall, my 25 years as professor of government at the University of Hull were celebrated at the end of last year at receptions in both the House of Lords and the University. My colleagues in the … Continue reading
On the move…
It’s been one of those weeks. I’ve hardly had a spare moment, hence the dearth of posts in recent days. Yesterday was particularly fraught. I was scheduled to lecture at Wroxton College, in Oxfordshire, in the morning, and would normally … Continue reading
Was it something I said?
For the second year running, The Times forgot my birthday. Perhaps they thought they were doing me a kindness. I decided this year that I would get myself a present. So I treated myself to a season ticket for parking at … Continue reading
The Norton View 