Abolished & Airbrushed

Gillian Shephard is not pleased. Next week she intends speaking on a debate in the House of Lords on womens' issues. She got hold of the Library brief on the debate to discover that a neat bit of airbrushing out of history had occurred. It seems the brief said that Joan Ruddock was the first ever Minister for Women in 1997. Lady S phoned the House of Lords library to query that piece of information and was informed they had read it on a specialist 'wimmins' blog. Standards are obviously slipping, for Gillian herself was appointed Minister for Women in 1992.

So in a few short hours she had not only been abolished by the House of Commons, she had been airbrushed out of history too. Sometimes life just ain't fair.

MPs to Vote on Lords Reform

Today MPs are voting on House of Lords reform. I explained HERE my views on the subject. In short I believe that a newly reformed House of Lords should be predominantly elected. I'd go for 100% but would settle for 80%. The LibDems are being whipped to vote for the 80% option and I believe most Conservatives are being encouraged to vote that way too. See The Guardian today. Of course, the real fun will start when their Lordships have to vote. They ain't gonna like it. When I interviewed Gillian Shephard last November she made clear that the Association of Conservative Peers intended to resist any proposal which contained an overwhelmingly elected element. As you'll see from this clip, she was in feisty mood...