Author Archives: Mark Valladares

Welcome back to Liberal Democrat Voice’s coverage of the House of Lords. Or not, as the case may be, because, as you read this, they haven’t gone away yet. Confused? You see, this column covers the programme for the two weeks to come, and they’re not sitting next week, as they take a short recess to draw breath. But I digress (I’ve obviously spent too much time with some the Conservative backbenchers)…

Refreshed and relaxed after the break, the Lords returns to an increasingly hectic programme of Bills. Days …

Despite escaping one major ambush, Lord Freud cannot have been looking forward to Amendment 59, moved by the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds. A short amendment;

Clause 94, page 63, line 25, after “benefits” insert “with the exclusion of child benefit”

it addressed issues of child poverty, as the Bishop noted,

The Government’s assessment of the impact of the cap is that some 67,000 households will be affected. The Minister spoke of that earlier as not a massive number. It is pretty massive for those involved, but the fact that it

…

Our apologies for being a little behind with this, but news has reached us of Diana Wallis’s attempt to become the President of the European Parliament, a job that, traditionally, has been stitched up by the two dominant Groups within the Parliament, the Socialists and Democrats, and the European People’s Party. Indeed, the Presidency has been held during the first half of the 2009-2014 term by Jerzy Buzek from the European People’s Party as part of a deal whereby he would stand down part way through to be replaced by a Socialist MEP.

The catch is that a by-election must take …