Category Archives: Parliament

Anything connected with business in the Houses of Commons or Lords (eg, PMQs).

Helen Duffett

Lord Speaker election: Two Liberal Democrat peers standing

By Helen Duffett | Fri 1st July 2011 - 12:59 pm

Two Liberal Democrat peers are among the six candidates standing for election as Speaker of the House of Lords.

Baroness (Angela) Harris and Lord (Rupert) Redesdale have entered the contest following the announcement that the current Lord Speaker, Baroness Hayman, will not be seeking re-election.

On Tuesday evening, the Hansard Society held a hustings in which the candidates set out their reasons for standing and answered questions from the audience of peers.

You can listen to their speeches here, including Baroness Harris’ (Lord Redesdale had a prior engagement).

You can also watch full coverage of the Lord Speaker …

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Paul Tyler

Lord Tyler writes: Don’t listen to the doomsayers

By Paul Tyler | Fri 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 …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Since when is the NHS a “micro” issue?

By Paul Walter | Wed 29th June 2011 - 8:53 pm

A bit of a surprise at Prime MInister’s Questions. I expected Ed Miliband to ask about public sector pensions and the strike tomorrow. It was a bit odd when he asked about the NHS. Cameron later said that Miliband couldn’t fire off questions on the strikes subject “because he is in the pocket of the unions.” He also rather cheaply accused Miliband of fighting shy of Greece “because his plan is to make Britain like Greece.”

Then, Cameron reach his climax with a line which must have been honed over much midnight oil in Downing Street:

He has to talk about

…

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The Voice

“Speaking rights only” for unelected peers – Hames

By The Voice | Tue 28th June 2011 - 12:27 pm

Another barnstorming speech on Lords reform, this time by Duncan Hames MP in last night’s Commons debate.

Duncan reiterates the suggestion he made earlier in the debate, that unelected peers should have speaking rights only:

Does the right hon. Gentleman think that bishops voting in the House of Lords adds in any way to the expertise they are able to offer through what they say in that Chamber, and might they find it easier to remain in that Chamber if they were to desist from taking part in Divisions?

The speech in full:

It is a privilege to follow Rory Stewart, not

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Bits start to fall off Cameron’s wagon

By Paul Walter | Wed 22nd June 2011 - 7:53 pm

After last week’s Miliband success at Prime Minister’s Questions, this time we started off with Ed Miliband in softly softly mode. He asked about Libya and the service chiefs’ concern about an extended campaign. Displaying a becoming measure of gravitas, he also asked whether the defence review should be revisited in the light of the “Arab Spring” which William Hague has described as more important than 9-11. That’s a good question given that the review didn’t mention Libya, Tunisia or Egypt.

David Cameron said he has been assured by the military grand fromage that we could keep the campaign going as …

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Helen Duffett

“It was a virtuoso performance” – Viscount Astor on Lord Ashdown on Lords reform

By Helen Duffett | Tue 21st June 2011 - 11:17 pm

Reading tonight’s Lords Hansard at bedtime (as you do), I’ve just found Paddy Ashdown’s speech from this evening’s debate on the House of Lords Reform Draft Bill.

Viscount Astor (Conservative), who spoke next, said:

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, has just given a speech that I am sure will be used by every Liberal Democrat candidate who wishes to stand at an election to this House in the future. It was a virtuoso performance. I am afraid that my contribution will be somewhat more modest.

If you do wish to stand at a future election to the House of Lords, I’m reproducing Paddy’s speech below so you can get memorising right away.

What did Baroness Boothroyd say that Paddy found so bloodcurdling? Why would he happily exchange wisdom for legitimacy? How would history have been affected if the House of Lords had been constructed differently?

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Stephen Tall

“Delivering this is going to be very difficult” – Tory peer Strathclyde’s verdict on Lords reform

By Stephen Tall | Sat 18th June 2011 - 6:10 pm

Let’s start with the good news — Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the Lords is a self-styled “long-term supporter” of reform of the Upper House. Now for the bad news — he’s pessimistic that the Coalition will actualy deliver elected senators by 2015, the deadline set by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

Here’s what m’Lord Strathclyde (who inherited a seat from his grandfather at the age of 25) has to say in an interview in today’s Financial Times:

“To me the dream scenario would be . . . getting in place by the end of the next session and then going forward

…

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Listen very carefully, I shall wave this shroud only five times

By Paul Walter | Wed 15th June 2011 - 2:23 pm

Someone must have told Ed Miliband that he shouldn’t flit around, butterfly-like, between subjects at Prime Minister’s Questions. He did that last week and got a caning for it. So this week he was doggedly persistent – monomaniac even – on just one subject. Indeed, just one question. He repeated the same words over and over and over and over again. The impression was that he had gone from the sublime to the ridiculous, but it worked and he ostensibly wrong-footed David Cameron.

Ed Miliband said that the government’s welfare reform plans would make 7,000 cancer sufferers worse off by up …

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Helen Duffett

Jo Swinson MP urges applications for Speaker’s internships scheme

By Helen Duffett | Tue 14th June 2011 - 3:55 pm

Jo Swinson MP has joined a cross-party group of MPs to launch an internship scheme which will open Parliament’s doors to young people of all backgrounds.

Jo launched the Speaker’s Parliamentary Placements Scheme last week, along with Labour and Conservative MPs Hazel Blears and Eric Ollerenshaw.

In a bid to make Parliament more inclusive and open, the scheme hopes to attract 12 young people from disadvantaged and diverse backgrounds, who’ll be given the opportunity to complete a paid internship in Parliament. They will begin their placements after conference season this autumn.

Jo said:

I am delighted this scheme has now been launched and

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Pots, kettles, medians and Erskine May

By Paul Walter | Wed 8th June 2011 - 1:20 pm

Pity poor old Ken Clarke. When your own side are saying you are too old for the job, then you know things are bad. Phillip Hollobone (Con) asked at Prime Ministers’ Questions why magistrates have to retire at 70 years old while the man who appoints them, the Justice Secretary – Clarke, is 71 years old. With friends like that….

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The Voice

LibLink | Paul Tyler: Lords’ Question Time is a “farcical free-for-all”

By The Voice | Tue 7th June 2011 - 12:42 pm

Lord Tyler writes over at e-Politix today about the way Question Time is conducted in the Lords:

As the House’s membership has increased in recent months, Question Time has become an ever more farcical free-for-all. There are a large number of Members who wish to contribute at any one time. Newcomers are rightly mystified by the absurd way in which one has to jockey for the opportunity to speak. You have to pop up and start bellowing, ‘My Lords’, in the hope that your bellow will be more thundersome than those of competing Members, or that some Lordly recognition

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Paul Walter

DPMQs: Groundhog limbo dancing

By Paul Walter | Wed 25th May 2011 - 10:57 pm

It was Groundhog Day at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions this week. The main theme was House of Lords reform. MPs raised, more or less, the same questions that were raised just after Nick Clegg’s original announcement.

If this session is any indication, the main opposition to the proposals will come from Conservative MPs, even though they are more or less committed, by the Coalition Agreement and an expected party whip, to eventually support the reforms. I totted up the MPs asking questions. Two Conservative made neutral points. Asking what seemed to be hostile questions were seven Conservatives, four Labour MPs and one SDLP member. Asking supportive questions were one LibDem, one Labour and two Conservative MPs.

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The Voice

Lord Stoneham defends Goodwin disclosure

By The Voice | Tue 24th May 2011 - 9:16 am

The Liberal Democrat peer who disclosed that former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Sir Fred Goodwin had a relationship with a senior colleague defended his action last night.

Using Parliamentary privilege, Lord Stoneham of Droxford told peers last Thursday:

Every taxpayer has a direct public interest in the events leading up to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, so how can it be right for a super-injunction to hide the alleged relationship between Sir Fred Goodwin and a senior colleague?

If true, it would be a serious breach of corporate governance and not even the Financial Services Authority would be

…

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Broadcast the Prime Ministerial Test Card

By Paul Walter | Thu 19th May 2011 - 12:26 am

He’s been one of the safest pairs of ministerial hands over decades. But he dropped a serious brick during a Five Live interview this morning. Then he wouldn’t answer his phone even when it was Number Ten trying to urgently contact him. Then the Leader of the Opposition called for his sacking at Prime Minister’s Questions. Then Number 10 went ballistic and sent him out to do another round of media interviews to try to mitigate the damage. It was quite a day in the life of one Rt. Hon Kenneth Harry “Ken” Clarke QC MP.

When the Prime Minister has …

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Lord Tom McNally

Tom McNally writes: we must not let the best be the enemy of the good

By Lord Tom McNally | Wed 18th May 2011 - 9:12 am

To get the full flavour of the task facing the Government when contemplating Lords reform can I recommend going to the House of Lords website and calling up the Hansard for 17 May? There you will read an hour of exchanges when Lord Strathclyde (the Leader of the House) repeated the Government statement on House of Lords reform which Nick Clegg had made in the Commons. There was very little support around the House for the Coalition’s vision for reform.

I believe Nick Clegg has done the House of Lords the courtesy of treating the House of Lords like grown-ups. …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: The bread rolls fly thick and fast

By Paul Walter | Wed 11th May 2011 - 9:23 pm

One of the things which Ed Miliband does right at Prime Minister’s Questions, is to start with short, straight-forward questions. He’s obviously realized this is a good ploy, as he does it invariably. Today’s shorty was: “A year into his Government, how would the Prime Minister rate his handling of the NHS?”

It’s taken a while for David Cameron to work out how best to answer these shorties. He started by waffling like billy-o, tying himself up in knots. Then he tried a short reply and came a cropper there as well. So now he goes middle for diddle with a …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Calm down dear, Lansley’s going through the slow shredder

By Paul Walter | Thu 28th April 2011 - 12:25 am

During an answer on the NHS, David Cameron made his now infamous “Calm down, dear” remark to Angela Eagle (available via Channel4News on YouTube). He followed it up with the words “Calm down” repeated several times, including to “the most annoying man in politics” (Cameron’s words), Ed Balls. It was a relatively inconsequential, if ill-advised, remark. However, I don’t get the “it’s a joke from an ad” defence here. The full catchphrase is “Calm down dear – it’s a commercial”. “Calm down, dear” on its own is only half a catchphrase.

The reason why the remark is, quite rightly, causing …

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Jeremy Browne MP

Jeremy Browne writes: the Lib Dems are implementing our core agenda in Government

By Jeremy Browne MP | Mon 18th April 2011 - 10:30 am

A common misconception is that the Liberal Democrats are in the government solely to make the case for constitutional reform and civil liberties, while everything else comes from the Conservatives. This
analysis is deeply flawed, but it helps to explain why some political observers, who know little about the Lib Dems beyond the most lazy caricature, fail to understand what actually drives the government forward. Yes, constitutional reform and civil liberties are important to the Lib Dems, but so are many other areas of policy. The Lib Dems are certainly not trading off the whole of the rest of government policy …

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Paul Walter

DPMQs: By golly, by gosh, he’s finally getting the hang of this

By Paul Walter | Tue 5th April 2011 - 9:56 pm

Nick Clegg at last seems to be finding his feet at Deputy Prime Minister’s Question Time. He is treating facetious Labour questions with the dismissive brevity they deserve. He is taking them head on. For example, when Labour’s John Spellar asked a particularly smart-arsed question, Nick Clegg replied with “I cannot be bothered to answer that question.” It seemed a very appropriate response.

I thought Clegg dealt with Harriet Harman’s questions very well. She asked about the Educational Maintenance Allowance and University funding. On the latter point, Clegg replied that there are still two or three months to go before the …

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Steve Webb MP

Steve Webb writes: working for pensioners, now and in the future

By Steve Webb MP | Mon 4th April 2011 - 11:08 pm

When I was appointed Pensions Minister last May my first priority was protecting current pensioners. It was widely assumed that the spending review would see cuts to a range of forms of help that pensioners receive. But despite the spending pressures, the budgets for bus passes, free television licences, free prescriptions and the Winter Fuel Allowance have been protected at the level set out by the previous government. Better still, where Labour had planned to cut Cold Weather Payments to £8.50 per week we have made them £25 permanently to protect the most vulnerable when the temperature is below …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Handbags and put-downs

By Paul Walter | Thu 31st March 2011 - 12:01 am

It’s funny how a simple statement of congratulations on a planned wedding can’t be accepted in the Commons without a “handbag moment” (see Reeves/Mortimer) dredging up twenty year-old events. Ed Miliband thanked David Cameron for his congratulations adding “I might have to come to him in the next couple of months for advice, because I know that he knows how to organise memorable stag nights.” Ooooh!

Handbags having been safely stowed, Ed Miliband raised the matter of the stampede of British universities to join the “£9,000 club”. Cameron replied that the Office for Fair Access will decide on which universities can …

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Qurban Hussain

Lord Qurban Hussain’s maiden speech

By Qurban Hussain | Sat 26th March 2011 - 10:20 am

In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. This week, Baron Hussain, of Luton in the County of Bedfordshire made his maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on the promotion of enterprise, growth and fundamental rebalancing of the economy. His words are reproduced below.

My Lords, it gives me great pleasure to speak in your Lordships’ House for

…

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Paul Walter

PMQs: PIP or pip-squeak?

By Paul Walter | Thu 24th March 2011 - 10:35 pm

This week Prime Minister’s Questions contained a discussion of the military action in Libya. The need for Arab involvement in the task force was emphasized. Ed Miliband asked for David Cameron to clarify the position on the targeting of Colonel Gaddafi. The Prime Minister didn’t clarify it.

Ed Miliband then made a good point which David Cameron tersely swotted aside with worrying brevity. Miliband asked why the government is taking away the mobility component of the disability living allowance for those in care homes. That sounds a bit convoluted but if you look here you can read what it means …

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Will the LibDem motion on the NHS make any difference? – Will it ‘eck as like

By Paul Walter | Thu 17th March 2011 - 9:58 pm

I do like Ed Miliband’s short opening questions. They always get David Cameron tied up in a convoluted response. This week it was: “Following the Liberal Democrat conference at the weekend, is the Prime Minister planning any new amendments to his Health and Social Care Bill?”

The government is “anti-cherry-picking” was Cameron’s (very) abridged reply. He was a day early for DEFRA questions (warf, warf).
Ed Miliband repeated his question to “give the Prime Minister another go at answering”.

No “Cherry picking”, no “price competition”, reform and “extra money”, said Cameron. Get away from “pre-scripted questions” he said. Miliband replied that Cameron should …

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Mike Storey

Lord Mike Storey’s maiden speech

By Mike Storey | Thu 17th March 2011 - 6:22 pm

In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Today, Baron Storey, of Childwall in the City of Liverpool made his maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate on early intervention for children. His words are reproduced below.

My Lords, I first thank noble Lords for making my entry into the House so welcoming. Indeed, the generosity of that welcome

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Libya sits on Hague’s head like a baseball cap

By Paul Walter | Wed 9th March 2011 - 11:54 pm

Ed Miliband boot the put in at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, regarding the string of cock-ups on the Libyan front, presided over by one William Hague, Foreign Secretary of this parish.

He said: “We have had the flights fiasco, talk of Colonel Gaddafi heading to Venezuela when he was not, overblown briefing about potential military action, and the setback last weekend.”

All in all, Libya is starting to rank alongside baseball caps in the list of things William Hague should leave well off his CV.

“We have an excellent Foreign Secretary” was finally squeezed out of Cameron by way of “support” for …

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Sal Brinton

Baroness Sal Brinton’s maiden speech

By Sal Brinton | Thu 3rd March 2011 - 8:20 pm

In recent months, LDV has been bringing its readers copies of our new MPs’ and Peers’ first words in Parliament, so that we can read what is being said and respond. You can find all of the speeches in this category with this link. Today, Baroness Brinton, of Kenardington in the County of Kent, made her maiden speech in the House of Lords during a debate to call attention to the global and domestic challenges for women in the centenary year of International Women’s Day. Her words are reproduced below.

My Lords, I rise to speak for the

…

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Paul Walter

PMQs: Miliband nukes Cameron

By Paul Walter | Thu 3rd March 2011 - 9:57 am

Ed Miliband used his first three questions, at this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, in stimulating a very earnest explanation of what the UK is doing about the crisis in Libya. This also addressed why RAF personnel are being made redundant at the very moment we need the RAF to be on stand-by to maintain a No fly zone over Libya.

Ed Miliband’s fourth question nuked the Prime Minister. Cameron didn’t have an answer. It was stunning: The Government “are adamant that there is no need for cuts in local authority front-line services. Can he therefore explain why Conservative-run Bromley council is …

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The Voice

Coalition drops plans to allow Ministers to scrap quangos without consulting Parliament

By The Voice | Wed 2nd March 2011 - 5:53 pm

The Government has abandoned plans to give ministers sweeping powers to scrap quangos without consulting MPs.

From the Telegraph:

The Public Bodies Bill has been proposed by the Coalition to allow ministers to abolish almost 200 public bodies including the Audit Commission and the Film Council.

It would also give ministers extensive new legal powers to order changes to another 150 public bodies using secondary legislation, meaning they could be abolished without further parliamentary approval.

Such powers are often called “Henry VIII” powers in reference to the Tudor monarch’s autocratic rule.

After a report by the Lords Constitution Committee, which said they would …

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Paul Walter

DPMQS: baiting Mister Mañana

By Paul Walter | Wed 2nd March 2011 - 9:42 am

We are told that Nick Clegg acts as “Flashman’s fag”. The system also means that the Deputy Prime Minister has his own gofer. His name is Mark Harper. So when the speaker calls “Questions for the Deputy Prime Minister” we have the surreal spectacle of Mr. Harper answering the first two questions. Being a good liberal though, Nick Clegg doesn’t seem to have got the hang of the fagging system and Mr. Harper ends up taking the easy questions, at least in the case of the first one today. It was from a Tory, Gavin Barwell pointing out the discrepancies …

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