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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jun 3, 2020 18:38:18 GMT
Lord Rea was the Peer who memorably opposed Section 28 by telling the House how he was brought up by his lesbian mother and her partner.
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Post by curiousliberal on Jun 3, 2020 18:41:10 GMT
Baroness Howe of Idlicote, a crossbench peer since 2001, has resigned.
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Post by timmullen1 on Jun 3, 2020 19:02:27 GMT
Lord Rea was the Peer who memorably opposed Section 28 by telling the House how he was brought up by his lesbian mother and her partner. If there’s a by-election amongst Labour hereditaries could we see the return of Viscount Stansgate? |
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Chris from Brum
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Post by Chris from Brum on Jun 3, 2020 19:09:30 GMT
Lord Rea was the Peer who memorably opposed Section 28 by telling the House how he was brought up by his lesbian mother and her partner. If there’s a by-election amongst Labour hereditaries could we see the return of Viscount Stansgate? Does Stephen Wedgwood Benn even want to stand? |
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Post by timmullen1 on Jun 3, 2020 19:12:52 GMT
If there’s a by-election amongst Labour hereditaries could we see the return of Viscount Stansgate? Does Stephen Wedgwood Benn even want to stand? I’m 99.9% sure he put his name on the Register of Peers wishing to stand when he inherited the title, which technically remained with Tony, but whether it remains there I can’t find; I’m sure the Register used to be on the HoL website, but they’ve had a horrible redesign and I can’t find it at the moment (the Register not the website obviously). EDIT: And then I immediately find it, and indeed Viscount Stansgate is on the list published in February this year. |
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Chris from Brum
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Post by Chris from Brum on Jun 3, 2020 19:15:11 GMT
Does Stephen Wedgwood Benn even want to stand? I’m 99.9% sure he put his name on the Register of Peers wishing to stand when he inherited the title, which technically remained with Tony, but whether it remains there I can’t find; I’m sure the Register used to be on the HoL website, but they’ve had a horrible redesign and I can’t find it at the moment (the Register not the website obviously). Well ok, but he seems to have a busy professional life outside parliamentary politics, so I'm sure he could be forgiven for passing up the opportunity. His call, however. |
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Post by timmullen1 on Jun 3, 2020 19:15:43 GMT
I’m 99.9% sure he put his name on the Register of Peers wishing to stand when he inherited the title, which technically remained with Tony, but whether it remains there I can’t find; I’m sure the Register used to be on the HoL website, but they’ve had a horrible redesign and I can’t find it at the moment (the Register not the website obviously). Well ok, but he seems to have a busy professional life outside parliamentary politics, so I'm sure he could be forgiven for passing up the opportunity. His call, however. See edit to my previous post. |
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Post by tonygreaves on Jun 3, 2020 19:39:52 GMT
Nicholas Rea was a good man, a doctor and not a natural politician, but he made a very positive contribution to the House without playing a leading political role. He inherited his title from his uncle (the second Baron Rea and son of a leading Liberal politician) who had been Leader of the Liberals in the Lords from the mid-50s to 1967, and was a prominent senior figure in the party in my early days. He was one of the two peers elected by the Labour hereditaries in 1999. There will now be a by-election in the Labour constituency which now consists of three members. What excitement! (The last by-election for a Labour hered saw Lord Grantchester win by two votes to one).
Baroness Howe of Idlicote is Elspeth Howe, Geoffrey Howe's wife, who sat on the crossbenches and was a quite prominent and forthright (and quite liberal) voice in the House. She will be missed. I think we are going to lose quite a few good older members around the House if the present unsatisfactory ways of working go on for a while.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jun 3, 2020 21:54:10 GMT
I wonder if Gerry Monkswell will have another go at the Labour spot. I sometimes used to sit next to him at GC meetings.
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Post by neilm on Jun 4, 2020 3:35:39 GMT
I wonder if Gerry Monkswell will have another go at the Labour spot. I sometimes used to sit next to him at GC meetings. I thought he'd lived in Manchester for ages, how come you were on the same GC as him? |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jun 4, 2020 9:58:19 GMT
I wonder if Gerry Monkswell will have another go at the Labour spot. I sometimes used to sit next to him at GC meetings. I thought he'd lived in Manchester for ages, how come you were on the same GC as him? When he was in the House of Lords he lived in Pimlico. Think he still had a home in south Manchester but his Labour Party membership was in London. His problem was that, unlike most Peers who only speak on issues they have professional involvement in, Gerry tended to speak in all sorts of debates about anything that was on his mind. Meant he was one of the most active peers but not popular with the others. |
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Post by tonygreaves on Jun 4, 2020 15:01:15 GMT
I think he is now 70 which is the average age of members of the Lords! (the mean - the median must be slightly older). Since 70+ year olds are at present discouraged from turning up, there may be pressure to get someone younger in. No doubt the Labour whips will be twisting a (very) few arms!
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Post by tonygreaves on Jun 5, 2020 14:34:31 GMT
The average age of the Lords has hardly changed in the 20 years I have been a member. For a long time it was stated to be 69. Now it's stated to be 70. When retirements came in about five years ago we thought it would go down, but it seems not so (in spite of the spate of new Tory peers in recent years).
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finsobruce
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Post by finsobruce on Jun 5, 2020 14:44:24 GMT
The average age of the Lords has hardly changed in the 20 years I have been a member. For a long time it was stated to be 69. Now it's stated to be 70. When retirements came in about five years ago we thought it would go down, but it seems not so (in spite of the spate of new Tory peers in recent years). Presumably because most people nominated would not want to give up their current job etc, until they are retired or semi-retired. The same thing that applies to local councillors, regardless of whether you pay them or not, even without the risk of being voted out via the ballot box. |
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Post by curiousliberal on Jun 13, 2020 18:26:48 GMT
Lord Malloch-Brown, a crossbench peer and former (Labour) minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, has taken leave of absence.
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on Jun 18, 2020 23:17:35 GMT
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Sibboleth
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Post by Sibboleth on Jun 18, 2020 23:49:08 GMT
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Post by tonygreaves on Jun 20, 2020 11:42:24 GMT
Doesn't make any difference to effective numbers in the House. They will have been on a "soft whip" for some time. (That is when unaligned members of the House, Crossbench or Unaffiliated, get info on business (a weekly "whip") from one of the parties (or I guess in some cases two).
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pl
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Post by pl on Jun 20, 2020 11:48:26 GMT
Doesn't make any difference to effective numbers in the House. They will have been on a "soft whip" for some time. (That is when unaligned members of the House, Crossbench or Unaffiliated, get info on business (a weekly "whip") from one of the parties (or I guess in some cases two). Tony, what happens with the smaller parties, who don’t really have any HoL infrastructure. Do they get copies of the whip from larger parties? |
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Post by tonygreaves on Jun 20, 2020 22:52:45 GMT
There are official documents issued by the House or the Government Whips Office which are far fuller than they used to be (lots available on the web) and nowadays are enough in relation to the motions and amendments down etc for any person willing to devote attention. But they don't say which items are likely to be voted on and when, and other "plotting" things. So the party whips (timetable documents) that are issued every week are vital for this kind of thing. Then there is a cascade of stuff around voting - "songsheets" setting out what each group of amendments is about and which are the key amendments that may go to a division (actually very few of the total) - e-mails, texts and WhatsApp etc saying when a vote is coming up, when the Minister is replying (ie a vote imminent) when it's called, and offering "advice" on which way to vote.
Some small parties will have their own rudimentary organisation - enough for their size. eg the DUP and Ulster Unionists. I assume the two Green peers communicate with each other! But most other small parties are just single peers, no different from Non-affiliated and or indeed Crossbenchers - all effectively Indies. But the large parties (Lab and LD anyway) keep lists of sympathetic Indies and indeed quite sophisticated info on which issues Indies are likely to support our causes. It's not difficult. So "soft whips" get sent out. There are some Indies who are Indies in name only for professional or other reasons and may get sent full whips on the side as it were.
For instance on the various Brexit debates and votes in the Lords the Liberal Democrats organised all the anti-Brexit members on the quiet, and gathered quite extensive intelligence around the House on what individuals thought, and used it to get the highest possible numbers in the lobbies on our side. This included not just Indies of various labels but also various members of the two larger parties who were more pro-Europe than their front benches! It's not just one-way urging members into the lobby, it's info on what the likely levels of support are so tactical decisions of what to vote on and what to hold back on, and tactical adjustment of amendments to get the highest vote.
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