Category Archives: UK

Because there are so few committees in the British Parliament, and because the majority party enforces iron discipline on its members to make them vote for all of its proposals, British MPs have much less to do than their counterparts in, say, the US. As a result they turn up for debates, which are often entertaining (and result in there being I suspect more coverage of the UK debates on cable in the US than there is on TV in the UK….).

There's a whole industry of UK 'sketch writers' whose job it is every day that Parliament sits to produce an entertaining vignette of the day in parliament. It's often the most fun part of the daily paper, as Parliament has its share of eccentrics, and the writers also often have a good eye for the telling detail or the comedic analogy.

The House of Lords tends to get a more gentle treatment, although it is not exempt. And indeed, there's stuff going on there:

Telegraph | News | Commons sketch

Last June Mr Blair suddenly announced in a statement from Number 10 that, after 1,000 years or so, the office of Lord Chancellor was to be abolished as part of a vague upheaval of our judicial system.

One of the Lord Chancellor's duties had been to sit on the Woolsack as Lords Speaker. But Mr Blair indicated that the Lords now had to decide who did that. Then someone remembered that a Lords standing order, dating from 1660, said that the Lord Chancellor could only be absent from the Chamber for more than one day by permission of the Lords as a whole. The Tories were certainly not going to give permission. So they took the Lord Chancellor hostage, holding him on the Woolsack until the legislation abolishing him.

The captured man's name is Lord Falconer, a former flatmate of Mr Blair. Yesterday he looked as if he was well-fed and was being treated reasonably well. But the inactivity and boredom must be getting to him.

The British press, and thus the British political class, are all in a lather about the Honours system; as a result of a pair of leaks, there is decent chance that the system will be reformed. Below, I give a quick summary of how the system works, then summarize both the valid and the slightly peculiar aspects of the current criticisms of it, and then discuss what I consider to be the strong case in favor of a non-monetary system of reward and praise for those who contribute to the community.

The biggest difficulties surround the implementation of an honors program in a manner that would be constitutional, fair and not stultifying. I don't have the perfect answer to that, but I do have some suggestions.

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It used to be that the whole of the United Kingdom more or less shut down from Christmas to New Years. More recently, the shutdown has been limited to just Christmas and Boxing Day (the 26th), but the shutdown remains pretty complete. Newspapers don't publish (before the Internet I used to get a pretty bad case of news deprivation). Trains don't run. At all. All stores are closed (which when you figure that most British fridges are pretty small, means that you actually have to plan your food purchases pretty carefully so you don't run out…).

Nowadays the shutdown is a little less complete. A number of the larger department stores open on Boxing Day for their big annual sales. Walking through Didsbury this morining I noted a small number of resturants that say they will open for dinner on Boxing Day. Some years the Independent has published a vestigal paper on the 26th. Some bus compannies will run a few buses. But it's still a country locked up pretty tight.

So we'll stay home and watch the kids play with their new presents.

The judicial review committee of the House of Lords is the UK's highest court, except that it isn't technically a court. So, technically, that honor belongs to the Court of Appeal of England and Wales , which is why the Master of the Rolls, the head of the Court of Appeal, is the ranking judge in civil cases. The ranking judge in criminal cases is the Lord Chief Justice, which always makes me think of Gilbert and Sullivan. In Scottish criminal cases the highest court is the High Court of Justiciary. The High Court is a lower court than the Court of Appeal, although not the lowest court. And in all cases except those which go to the Judicial Committe of the Privy Council, the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords is, in effect, the UK's Supreme Court. Indeed, Prime Minister Tony Blair intends to take the Judicial Committee out of the upper chamber (the Law Lords are really Lords and they sit in the House of Lords — and even participate in debates relating to some legal matters), and replace it with a separate Supreme Court.

Anyway, whatever you may call it, the amazing thing is that the Judicial Committee/House of Lords/Supreme Court has never had a woman among its members. Until now: 'Incisive judge' becomes first female law lord.

'bout time.

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