House of Lords
My House of Lords dinner disaster
It was just a straightforward dinner in the bosom of the House of Lords, talking to members of the Jockey…
Letters: Let the King choose the Archbishop of Canterbury
Supreme idea Sir: My colleague Fergus Butler-Gallie is right about the deficiencies of the Church of England’s system for filling…
Peerless: the purge of the hereditaries
The House of Lords is very old, but not quite continuous. In 1649, shortly after the execution of King Charles…
Good Lords: the House is losing some of the best
Keir Starmer has not been the luckiest general. But, in one respect, he has bested Napoleon. The Duke of Wellington…
Pride continues to crumble
In the canteen of the House of Lords last week, a friendly server asked me if I’d like some ‘Pride…
Letters: Bring back mutton
Man out of time Sir: That Mary Wakefield left Rowan Williams ‘with my questions for the most part unresolved’ will…
Trump is giving us a taste of our own medicine
It seems the US State Department sees an impediment to free speech as an impediment to free trade with Britain.…
How to be a Lord
At the end of my first day at the House of Lords, I staggered out with so many books and…
When is a Lord not a Lord?
The Financial Times seeks applicants for the Sir Samuel Brittan fellowship. Announcing this, the paper refers to him as Sir…
Is Labour bluffing on Lords reform?
Is Labour really going to reform the House of Lords? The party has ended up in a bit of a…
Lords blows six figures on correcting its peers
While much ink has been spilled over the Covid Commons, far less has been written about the Lords. Overlooked and…
Abolish the Lords!
So three million quid gets you a seat in the House of Lords? That’s according to the latest revelations about…
The Spectator’s Notes
There is much to be said for meritocracy, and Adrian Wooldridge, in his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent, says…
Where’s my bloody peerage?
Watching Lord Hannan of Kingsclere being introduced in the House of Lords on Monday was a bittersweet moment. On the…
The Spectator’s Notes
Having only recently entered the House of Lords, I must tread with caution, but I had always understood that it…
The Spectator’s Notes
One of the most extraordinary features of the ‘cancel culture’ is how well it works. All decent people hate it,…
Rotating the Lords
Arguments about the purpose or indeed very existence of anything resembling the House of Lords would have struck classical democratic…
The Spectator’s notes
Chris Packham is widely seen as the most extreme of well-known animal rights activists. His obsessions against hunting and shooting…
Letters
The future of offices Sir: I agree with much of Gerard Lyons’s article about the future of the capital (‘London…
Portrait of the week
Home Some 2.7 million people in Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire and West Yorkshire, where many Muslims live, were…
Letters
Peer review Sir: A neat solution to the levels of inactivity of some members of the House of Lords (‘Peer…
Peer pressure
It is no credit to British democracy that we have the second largest legislative chamber in the world. The only…
Boris should take back control from the House of Lords
I imagine that in recommending Philip Hammond and Ken Clarke for peerages, Boris Johnson sees himself in engaging in a…
Forget moving the Lords – lets have an elected senate instead
In two weeks’ time, we will finally escape the European Union, freeing ourselves from its monumental waste. Waste, that is,…
Letters: Is this a solution to the post-Brexit world?
Lords reform Sir: How astonishing that the historian Robert Tombs (‘Beyond Brexit’, 15 December) should think that the Lords might…
