Monthly Archives: June 2012
Caption Competition
Before I regale you further with comments on the House of Lords Reform Bill, I thought I would provide a moment for light relief with a caption competition. The picture was taken at the recent conference on Conservatives and Conservatism, … Continue reading
More on an inadequate Bill
I have been doing more work on the House of Lords Reform Bill and the Government’s proposals. I have drawn up a list of problems deriving from them. There isn’t space to reproduce them all here – it’s a long list. … Continue reading
A dog’s dinner of a Bill
The Government’s House of Lords Reform Bill has been published today and is as much, if not more so, of a dog’s dinner of a Bill as the draft Bill. It is a hotch-potch of provisions, with no clear coherence. I was … Continue reading
Analysing Conservative fortunes
In my speech yesterday at the conference on Conservatives and Conservatism – the conference finished this morning – I discussed the variables responsible for Conservative success in the 20th Century and utilised them for assessing the current position of the Conservative … Continue reading
The Conservative challenge
I am just putting the finishing touches to a speech I am giving tomorrow. The Conservatives and Conservatism specialist group of the Political Studies Association and the Centre for British Politics at the University of Hull are hosting a two-day conference … Continue reading
Gay marriage
On occasion the case for a proposal is strengthened by the nature of the arguments used against it. This is notably the case with the Government’s proposals to allow people of the same sex to marry. I was recently reading … Continue reading
Debating referendums
Yesterday, in both the the morning and the afternoon, I attended evidence-taking sessions of an inquiry being undertaken by the All-Party Group on Drug Policy Reform. The sessions, like others last month, were extremely illuminating, highlighting the problems faced by … Continue reading
The Magna Carta Lecture
For anyone interested in seeing the text of the Magna Carta lecture I gave at Lincoln Cathedral on Friday, it can now be downloaded from the Cathedral website here.
A voice for civil society
Last night, I delivered the 2012 Magna Carta Lecture at Lincoln Cathedral. The title of the lecture was ‘Still a role for the Barons?’ I addressed the functions now fulfilled by the House of Lords. In the course of looking at the … Continue reading
The Queen and the coffee table
As regular readers may recall, my office in the Lords is shared with several other peers and used to be rather cramped. We managed some months ago to create a little space and a couple of comfortable chairs were installed, … Continue reading
The Norton View 