Author Archives: Peter Facey

The Independent View: House of Lords Reform – The Way Forward

By Peter Facey | Tue 10th July 2012 - 11:15 am

It’s fair to say that last night’s debate on the House of Lords Reform Bill will not go down in history as the Common’s finest moment. There was more cant on display than the entire run of Play Away. Many of the speeches appeared to be against a different bill entirely and you could be forgiven for thinking the bill bore no resemblance to the one which Labour had proposed in its own White Paper in 2008 (in fact, the proposals are remarkably similar).

For all that, however, it is fair to say the Lib Dems have not exactly covered …

The Independent View: Lib Dem peers kill local referendums

By Peter Facey | Tue 18th October 2011 - 9:25 am

On the 10th of October the House of Lords killed off the prospect of voters getting the power to initiate referendums on local issues. Up until then the Localism Bill had contained a modest proposal to give local people in England the power to call non-binding referendums on local issues if 5% of their fellow voters supported them. The proposal was hedged in with safeguards and protections to ensure that it did not contravene national laws or go beyond the powers of the local authority.

But the hopes that this could see revival of local democracy with citizens being given the …