Moving House

Today I am moving house from Rugby - a Midlands town through which the River Avon (the same one that is associated with Shakespeare) flows - though its much smaller in Rugby than in Stratford. Rugby is the place where the game of the same name first began (and from which American Football is descended).

I will be moving to Milton Keynes - about 40 miles closer to London -and a city with a more American feel than the traditional English town or city. It has a grid road system which creates blocks of approximately one square kilometre. The new home will be in Furzton - a lovely district with a beautiful lake. Ice hockey is played at the Leisure Plaza by MK Lightning; American Football by MK City Pathfinders (Manor Fields, Bletchley) ; Baseball by BaseballMK; and Basketball by MK Lions (Bletchley Leisure Centre). The city was used for the filming of the Superman IV movie - with Milton Keynes Central Railway Station as the UN Building. http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/s/superman4.html

You can read more about the city at http://www.mkweb.co.uk/

As you can imagine, I'm going to be quite busy today and for the new few days. It will also take a little while for telephone and broadband services to be installed. Therefore Washminster will not reappear until next Tuesday - when I'll be back at work in Westminster.

Political Parties and Elections Bill

The Committee Stage of this Bill is due to start today in the House of Lords. The Minister who is guiding the Bill through the House of Lords is Lord Bach (pictured)

The Bill makes some amendments to the regulation of party funding and election expenditure that is set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. It will cover the whole of the UK.

The Bill aims to:

• strengthen the regulatory powers of the Electoral Commission, to provide new powers of investigation and the option of civil sanctions
• enable political parties to put forward four extra Electoral Commissioners and relax political restrictions on staff of the Commission
• alter the definition of ‘election expenses’ and ‘candidate’ in the Representation of the People Act 1983 to take into account spending on elections prior to the dissolution of Parliament
• place further requirements on parties and donors to clarify the source of donations
• amend the Representation of the People Act to provide a more flexible system for adding to the register of electors when an election is called while the register is being updated.

The Research Paper prepared by the House of Commons Library on the Bill last September is available at http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2008/rp08-074.pdf

House of Lords Reform

Lord Tyler asked the Government in a parliamentary question yesterday "when they expect to publish the planned draft clauses on House of Lords reform in the light of responses to the White Paper An Elected Second Chamber: Further Reform of the House of Lords."

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (pictured), the Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, replied, "My Lords, the Government have always said that they would consider the possibility of publishing draft clauses in the light of responses to the White Paper. We are still in a period of consideration." He added later "We intend to report in the summer on the results of the consultation."

The issue which excited their Lordships was proportional representatation for the election of Peers. Lord Tyler claimed "the Conservative leader has announced that he is now campaigning for the same vote, the same value, right across the country—in other words, for proportional representation" - which upset some of the Tories, Lord Strathclyde commenting, "My Lords, may I assure the Minister that the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, is clearly deluding himself? The Conservative Party has no intention of campaigning for proportional representation."

The whole of the exchanges can be read at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200809/ldhansrd/text/90427-0001.htm#0904272000438

How Laws Are Made

Phil Willis MP who was Chair of the Joint Committee on the Draft Human Tissue and Embryos Bill has given an interesting presentation on the way that that bill made its way into Law. It gives a useful insight into the legislative process.

His slides are available athttp://www.open.ac.uk/documents/1/rc090604541921155.ppt
and the audio is available at http://www.genomicsnetwork.ac.uk/media/HFEA-Phil%20Willis.wma

The following Hansard Society publication provides further useful background - http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/downloads/archive/2007/09/27/law-in-the-making-jun-2007.aspx

The final report - which I strongly recommend - can be purchased at http://hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/parliament_and_government/archive/2008/07/11/law-in-the-making-a-new-publication-by-the-hansard-society.aspx

Book TV

So many books...so little time!

C-SPAN have, for some years, broadcast at weekends "Book TV" where authors talk, in depth, about the books they have written. I enjoy watching it - though it does hold the danger of additional expenditure!

Previous editions are available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/booktv and the website (which includes details of forthcoming programmes) is http://www.booktv.org/