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Priorities and Trivia
I have noticed a new, irrational, approach to burying issues that the coalition does not like, and that is to label them “trivial” or to say that “we have more urgent priorities”. It came up in Any...
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Be careful what you wish for
The issue of press regulation came back again when on 2 April Baroness Hollins asked a question about what progress had been made in establishing a new system of regulation in the year since the Royal...
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Deleting history
This post is about the importance of paper. I am a supporter of the campaign group Keep Me Posted, which wants to ensure that companies such as banks and utilities allow their customers to continue to...
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Ruling the waves
Lord (Chris) Patten has been, and will continue to be, the most excellent Chancellor of Oxford University, held in affection by all. He is there when needed, his speeches are always a delight and apt...
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24/7
The shopworkers’ union USDAW wants to keep strict regulation of supermarket Sunday opening hours because “Sunday is special”. I assume they must have agreed with David Cameron who gave a speech at...
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Money and divorce
After two years of work – and decades of studying and lecturing about the subject – I have finally introduced my private member’s bill, the Divorce (Financial Provision) Bill. It is about the division...
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It’s a Private Affair
“Private Members’ Bills are Public Bills introduced by MPs and Lords who are not government ministers. As with other Public Bills their purpose is to change the law as it applies to the general...
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Passportless
There are plans to remove passports, with their accompanying entitlements, from those Britons who have gone abroad for jihadist purposes or return here after such exploits. Although it has been widely...
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I vow to thee my country
Vows are much in the news these days. All three party leaders have “vowed” to give Scotland more powers and to do so very quickly. Moreover Gordon Brown has vowed to ensure that this happens (surely he...
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Directionless travel
Have you noticed that there aren’t any large comprehensive printed timetables on display boards at your station any longer? I am a regular commuter through Reading station, where redevelopment has been...
View ArticleThe cost of cohabitation
On Friday 12th December the Lords gave a Second Reading to Lord Lester and Lord Marks’ Cohabitation Rights Bill that would give many marriage rights and responsibilities to those who cohabited for two...
View ArticleI told you so!
I have just read in the Times about the “Scandal of wasted millions spent on the Olympic Games legacy projects.” I cannot resist referring you to my post of 9 February 2014, The Olympic Outrage,...
View ArticleA quick yomp through plurality
The Select Committee on Communications recently published a report on Media Plurality, that is, the need to secure many different voices and owners in the news output: as we put it – “achieving a...
View ArticleAnother First for British science
I join with Baroness Murphy in welcoming the legalisation of clinical procedures to overcome the transmission of the dreadful mitochondrial disease. The Lords voted by a huge majority to allow the HFEA...
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A Paean for a Pianist: Dame Fanny is 95
Today Dame Fanny Waterman celebrates her 95th birthday. I was privileged to host a reception for her at the House of Lords a few days ago to mark her birthday, and to celebrate the Golden Anniversary...
View ArticleNever on a Friday
I commented on this topic in part in my post “24/7″ http://lordsoftheblog.net/2014/06/01/247/, where I told the tale of a patient with a life-threatening condition who had to wait in hospital from...
View ArticleOut of the frying pan into the fire: the BBC to OFCOM
It is rumoured that the days of the BBC Trust are over and that regulatory oversight of the BBC will be transferred to OFCOM. The House of Commons Select Committee on Culture Media and Sport...
View ArticleMobility and maintenance
I am very upset by this change announced in the recent Budget: university maintenance grants for lower income students in England and Wales are to be scrapped from September 2016. Currently, students...
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A lament for lost Oxford
This post is not strictly to do with life in the House of Lords, but readers may draw their own conclusions about planning law, the drive for retail growth, and the expansion of the numbers of students...
View ArticleTurning a blind eye to Iran
I watched with alarm and shame the footage on the news last night of our Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs attending the reopening of the British Embassy in Iran. The portrait of the Queen...
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