House of Lords
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…
Would you pay £80 for a video from John Bercow?
There is much to be said for meritocracy, and Adrian Wooldridge, in his new book, The Aristocracy of Talent, says…
What more do I have to do to get a peerage?
Watching Lord Hannan of Kingsclere being introduced in the House of Lords on Monday was a bittersweet moment. On the…
The strangeness of voting in the Lords from my bed
Having only recently entered the House of Lords, I must tread with caution, but I had always understood that it…
How to beat cancel culture
One of the most extraordinary features of the ‘cancel culture’ is how well it works. All decent people hate it,…
How the Athenians would have handled the Lords
Arguments about the purpose or indeed very existence of anything resembling the House of Lords would have struck classical democratic…
Is Chris Packham finally facing facts on shooting?
Chris Packham is widely seen as the most extreme of well-known animal rights activists. His obsessions against hunting and shooting…
Letters: Will office workers ever want to return?
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: Local lockdowns, busy beaches and an explosion in Beirut
Home Some 2.7 million people in Greater Manchester and parts of Lancashire and West Yorkshire, where many Muslims live, were…
Letters: How to slim down the nation
Peer review Sir: A neat solution to the levels of inactivity of some members of the House of Lords (‘Peer…
How Boris should pick his peers
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…
The Spectator’s Notes
The pre-commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales is already in full swing. She…
Why the next Tory leader is likely to be in the ‘Leave’ camp
Here is a thought for all those Tory MPs calculating their personal advantage in the forthcoming EU referendum: unless the…
Dear Mary solves problems for Nicky Haslam, Nigel Slater, Professor Mary Beard and others
From Nicky Haslam Q. Being considered something of a guru on the subject of things common, can you advise me…
Lords of misrule block the Tories at every turn
A few days after the general election, I bumped into one of David Cameron’s longest-standing political allies, one of those…
Charles Moore’s Notes: The government needs someone who knows how Parliament works
An enjoyable aspect of parliamentary rules and conventions is that almost no one understands them. This has become acutely true…
Portrait of the week
Home After it was twice defeated in the Lords on its plans to reduce working tax credits, the government announced…
Charles Moore’s Notes: Mr Cameron swings wildly between toughness and compassion
Presumably Britain has some sort of policy on immigration, asylum and refugees, but instead of struggling to understand it, you…
Does anyone else have an upper house as undemocratic as the Lords?
Peers’ peers Forty-five new peers were created. Are we alone in having an upper house of parliament made up of…
