Tag Archives: lord mcnally

Coming up in the Lords… 23 January – 2 February

By Mark Valladares | Published 17th January 2012 - 5:23 pm

It has become abundantly clear since the Christmas break that most of the Parliamentary excitement, apart from that curiosity known as Prime Minister’s Questions, is going to come from the Lords until Easter, and the coming fortnight will be no exception.

Days 5 and 6 of the Report Stage of the Welfare Reform Bill will take place on January 23rd and 25th, with the Third Reading scheduled, perhaps optimistically for 31st January. It’s always dangerous to guess exactly how much progress will be made on Day 4, taking …

Posted in News | Also tagged dick newby, house of lords, jim wallace | 21 Comments

Opinion: A real opportunity to Make Justice Work

By Linda Jack | Published 7th October 2011 - 11:53 am

One of the highlights of conference for me was the breakfast roundtable organised by Make Justice Work. As conference goers and fringe organisers will know, getting one MP along is a challenge, managing to attract three must be close to a record! So it was a demonstration of the commitment our party has to reforming the criminal justice system that Justice minister Tom McNally, chair of the Justice Select Committee Alan Beith and member of the Home Affairs Select Committee Julian Huppert, all attended.

For those of you who don’t know the organisation, it was founded by Roma Hooper to …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alan beith, julian huppert, justice, make justice work, peter oborne, roma hooper | 1 Comment

Nick Clegg’s speech to LibDem Conference

By Mark Pack | Published 21st September 2011 - 3:51 pm

During Liberal Democrat conference someone watching it from home texted me: “I now know what the Lib Dems are against – bankers, top rate taxpayers, tax cheats generally, overpaid directors and energy companies But, with the single exception of gay marriage, I’ve got no idea what the Lib Dems are for.”

Some will – rightly – quibble over the ‘against’ list in that but the essential point is a fair one. Liberal Democrat conference has been a lot about what won’t happen or isn’t the case: the coalition isn’t going to end early, the Liberal Democrats are not the same as …

Posted in Conference | Also tagged collette dunkley, featured, lynne featherstone, nick clegg, social mobility, vince cable, william gladstone | 16 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats didn’t just avoid Murdoch, we tried to cut him down to size

By James Percival | Published 12th July 2011 - 1:53 pm

In my last post for Lib Dem Voice, I pointed out that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems had never courted Murdoch and his cronies.

Actually, that was just the half of it.

We didn’t just avoid him. We have tried, in different ways over a number of years, to cut the media mogul down to size and clamp down on the sort of abhorrent media practices that have been exposed of late.

As far back as 1994, the year before Tony Blair chose to fly to Oz to lick Rupert Murdoch’s boots, we were calling for the OFT …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bskyb, communications bill, competition bill, ipcc, press complaints commission, rupert murdoch, the times, tony blair, vince cable | 38 Comments

Lord Tyler writes: Don’t listen to the doomsayers

By Paul Tyler | Published 1st July 2011 - 10:53 am

Since the publication of the Government’s White Paper and Draft Bill on House of Lords reform, the old guard have lined up to cavil about its detail, to deride its democratic principles and to defend – in the last ditch – the status quo.

This has augmented the popular media’s predisposition towards arch cynicism and trenchant pessimism. Yet there is firm evidence to contradict their lazy assumptions. Just because Labour engaged in over a decade of dither and delay does not mean that a determined government, with the resolve of the House of Commons behind it, cannot succeed.

The …

Posted in Op-eds, Parliament | Also tagged andrew adonis, chris bryant, constitutional reform, dan rogerson, david cameron, david miliband, duncan hames, house of lords, joyce quin, larry whitty, laura sandys, lords reform, mark harper, mark williams, nick clegg, nick true, therese coffey | 8 Comments

Liberal Democrat peers: oh dear

By Mark Pack | Published 31st May 2011 - 8:58 pm

No point beating about the bush, if you want to find several handful of Liberal Democrat Parliamentarians who I think are wrong just look to the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords where, as today’s news showed, there is a very large minority opposed to introducing elections for the upper house.

Despite Lords reform having been a long-standing Liberal Democrat (and before that both SDP and Liberal Party) policy, despite the party being in a coalition committed to Lords reform (a pretty remarkable opportunity when you consider the Conservative Party’s traditional view), despite Liberal Democrat party leaders having …

Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lords reform, paul tyler | 21 Comments

Lord McNally fully backs reforming the Lords

By Mark Pack | Published 29th May 2011 - 5:06 pm

There’s been quite a lot of muttering from politicians about now Lords reform, although featuring in the manifestos of all three main parties at the general election, might not quite be needed or quite yet. That’s even included, regrettably, Liberal Democrat ranks in the Lords.

But Tom McNally, Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords, gave those who think 100 years hasn’t been long enough to think about change or that democracy isn’t what Parliament requires, short shrift in the latest Liberal Democrat News:

One hundred years ago the Liberal government committed itself to a second chamber “constituted on a popular basis instead

…

Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, house of lords, lords reform | 3 Comments

Lord McNally: General Election costs “broadly the same” under AV, no plans for counting machines

By Helen Duffett | Published 3rd May 2011 - 7:51 pm

An exchange in the House of Lords this afternoon led Lord McNally, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice to exclaim, “Gosh, we are getting a lot of information today.” (contrast with David Cameron’s appearance this morning on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme)

Phil Willis (Lord Willis of Knaresborough) asked Her Majesty’s Government “what they estimate will be the costs of a general election held under the alternative vote system”.

Lord McNally replied that the costs of a general election under AV would be broadly the same as under the existing system. Any extra costs incurred by the …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, neil kinnock, phil willis | 9 Comments

Libel Reform Bill published

By Mark Pack | Published 15th March 2011 - 7:38 pm

Earlier today, the government published its draft Libel Reform Bill. It’s an issue that Liberal Democrats, along with many others, have been campaigning on for a few years now and one on which Lib Dem minister at the Ministry of Justice Tom McNally has said his reputation should be judged on.

So it is good news for both our freedoms and Tom’s reputation that the Bill published today proposes major reforms and has met with a warm response, including:

Major changes to Britain’s antiquated defamation laws will be outlined by ministers today with the publication of a bill to provide greater

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david allen green, evan harris, libel, roy greenslade | 2 Comments

Youth Justice day: thanks and farewell

By Linda Jack | Published 8th March 2011 - 11:07 pm

A final thanks to all those who have contributed to today’s focus on Youth Justice. I trust, dear readers, you have found the debate enlightening and challenging and those of you heading for Sheffield will join us for the debate on Saturday afternoon. We have a fringe event on Friday evening at 8pm in Suite 5 in Jury’s Inn. Peter Oborne will be chairing a debate with Tom McNally, Simon Hughes and others on Youth Justice in an Age of Austerity.

In the midst of all that I personally find unpalatable about the Coalition this is one area where I have …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged guest editor, ken clarke, linda jack, youth justice | Leave a comment

The weekend debate: Is it part of government’s role to encourage political campaigning?

By Mark Pack | Published 19th February 2011 - 8:55 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

During the week, Lord McNally said in Parliament, as part of an answer to a written question, that “The Government do not have a role in encouraging party political activity on the ground”.

Is he right: should it be part of the government’s role to encourage party political activity or should government have nothing to do with it? For example, should the government fund (directly or indirectly) publicity campaigns to encourage people to get involved in politics, including via parties? Should it …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged weekend debate | 5 Comments

Lib Dems push forward on freedom of speech, freedom of information

By Mark Pack | Published 6th January 2011 - 9:45 pm

Two snippets of news today about freedoms – a reminder of the importance of libel law reform and good news on extending freedom of information.

In the Independent, John Kampfner (Chief Executive of Index on Censorship) writes:

“There’s nothing like a boob job cream to get readers going on an important issue. The case of Dr Dalia Nield, one of the country’s leading plastic surgery consultants, goes to the heart of the problem with English libel law. Dr Nield took issue with the company producing the cream, which claimed to increase a woman’s cup size. Her remarks, in a national newspaper,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged john kampfner, libel, nick clegg | 4 Comments

Good news on libel law reform as McNally stakes his reputation on reform

By Mark Pack | Published 7th December 2010 - 5:25 pm

Liberal Democrat minister Lord Tom McNally not only repeated his support for libel law reform over the weekend, but also said it was an issue on which his ministerial career should be judged.

Speaking at an event to mark the first anniversary of the Libel Reform Campaign, Lord McNally declared the current state of libel law as “not fit for purpose” and went on to say,

We agree the law needs reforming and have been working on a draft Defamation Bill, which we hope to publish and put out for consultation in March.

See the Press Gazette for more on this story.

Posted in News | Also tagged libel | Leave a comment

Opinion: Lords avoid falling into Labour’s “elephant trap” – just

By Jonathan Featonby | Published 27th November 2010 - 10:17 am

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituency Bill advanced to its second reading in the House of Lords earlier this month after narrowly avoiding a referral motion tabled by Labour peer Lord Falconer.

Lord Falconer had argued that the bill was hybrid as it treated two existing parliamentary seats – Orkney and the Western Isles – as special cases that would have been exempt from the constituency boundary redrawing element of the bill.

The motion was defeated by 224 votes to 210, allowing the second reading of the bill to take place.

But there needs to be a closer look as to …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged AV, lord falconer | 13 Comments

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