Life in the Lords Articles

Easter 1998.  I was on holiday on Islay off the west coast of Scotland with my husband and children. I got a phone call from Downing St. I was asked if I would accept a Peerage if one was offered. Amazed, flattered and bemused, in and amongst the discussion that followed I said I didn’t really believe in the House of Lords.

It gets ever more interesting in the Lords – due in large part to discontents on the Lib Dem and Tory benches. The latter are deeply discomforted by the completely unnecessary, and muddled, ‘fixed term parliament’ bill, which winged its way untouched through the Commons.

At last the world knows a little of what we’ve been doing in the Lords, though more thanks to stories of campbeds and breakfasts than due to the nature of the struggle.