Plaid to win Ceredigion in 2015?

Could the UK disband if Scotland secedes?

 

At present until the English Democrats declare their parliament on Saturday the UK has no English devolution just the Greater London Authority and County councils.

 

The territory of England has a general synod for its established church elected under PR for the laity.

 

The ideal policy of Plaid Cymru is a Welsh republic in the Commonwealth as laid out by Saunders Lewis their founding leader.

 

Northern Ireland is not a successor state to the irish kingdom as it was abolished by direct rule. The devolved settlement lays out that the line of succession passes according to sovereign states and has recently been amended to give gender equality.

 

Scotland has a majority in the Scottish Parliament in favour of secession within the Commonwealth with shared defence.

 

So to save the remaining UK or create a British – Irish republic their needs to be a referendum on the continuation of the monarchy with a review of prerogative powers. That would facilitate an elected senate for the common state. Another option might be to replace the House of Lords for England once Wales and Scotland secede.

 

There might need to be a Conservative MP for Ceredigion, unachieveable since 1885 when the franchise was extended to all men if you disagree with the above.

 

I disagree with the last option and look forward towards the first step towards English Devolution.

 

 

Why David Cameron is right about legislation being needed to regulate the internet.

1)      Since the 1970s there have been explicit cartoons coming out of East Asia, more recently they have spoofed many childrens cartoon series such as the Simpsons.

2)      More extreme varieties are on credit card websites with also posted videos

3)      The old ways in which cadets and charities funded themselves with calendars are now becoming perceived as sexist. Plus the purchase of magazines andtheir regulation are now out dated technologically. Put simply there isn’t the money in it or the business of Peter Stringfellow et. al.

4)      A Hillingdon council house or shared ownership could not be supported by modelling for these magazines and starring in the amateur pornos made at the same time, let alone starting a family. One series has more underage at times and the other has extreme content. Whether the models are really 18 is open to question. To paraphrase the NSPCC, these ‘publications’ breach the underwear rule.

5)      These products could put their models in danger in Muslim countries as a breach of Shariah Law.

6)      Some adult dating sites could contain the content and email it to people of older ages the ‘bit.ly’ server in particular.

7)      No classroom and internet can be 100% supervised and hacking the protocols to have a look is a technical challenge that many students, being more savvy in the updates in computer programming than their teachers, could theoretically achieve.

8)      Hence software licencing and support should be by borough  or district council so that there is ongoing technical update support for schools and liason with social services (provided that they do not produce such magazines).

Ways to  becoming James Bond

 

OK At 33 I’m probably too old if Daniel Craig does one or two more James Bond movies, let alone becomes another Sean Connery.

 

So If its not gonna be me, who and how?

 

One you need acting experience and some appreciation of military and high technology. A reader of Janes Defence weekly or Modern Railways perhaps.

 

Or Scotland might secede with Wales and Sean Connery becomes President of a Republican British Irish Council subject to a Labour victory and referendums on:

 

1)      A written constitution for the whole UK

2)      Membership of the European Union

3)      Whether there should be a President for a federal British Irish state instead of a president Eirnan and UK Monarch.

 

Answers

1)      Yes

2)      No

3)      Yes if any Labour Leader asked the question at Prime Minister Questions, without hindrance by any institution.

 

“Should the United Kingdom have a referendum to change to an elected Head of state as well as an Elected second chamber?”

And then stood on it as a manifesto commitment. There was one nation in 1801.

 

There is not an English Republican Army and I am not its head.

 

 

 

Continuing Centrepoint.

 

Last week I texted into LBC that to deal with asylum and economic migrants from Rumania there should be more centrepoint hostels over cross rail sites.

 

A potted history is that CEntrepoint was a hostel when in economic good times the property cartel of crown estates and westminster council  and the Duchies of the Royal Boroughs didn’t know what to do with the sleaze of sex shops, drug dens and few affordable properties pegged to a monopoly style property system in the UK since the second world war and recovering bomb sites.

 

This continued with the refusal of the Thatcher government to build properties with the sale of council house receipts and the growth of housing benefit top up by local authorities so that some families could live in their home areas where they had settled.

 

This created a cat and mouse game where accommodation addresses and how far up the Piccadilly line from heathrow you could get.

 

The charities that then stepped into the breach were the red cross and Princes Trust that sought to mentor the youth and those who had drug problems on how to settle in the United Kingdom elsewhere and set up businesses.

 

This generated investment capital for part rent part buy housing associations around the home counties for families to relocate, reducing ghettoisation or increasing it depending on the borough.

 

Now with benefit capping, a return to housing hostels for initial employment screening and hello if EU nationals is a good idea as they could come here legally anyway.

 

They can then use the profits from Oxford and Regent Street to build houses elsewhere in the country and where there has been investment in public transport such as trams and rail to take workers to work.

 

So theres no need to collapse the stock exchange in a tit for tat revenge as occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

The problem comes when illegal squats are tolerated as their desperate ways of funding themselves and relaying funds can cause problems.

 

 

James Ware

Student finance in England

After an application through UCAS or direct to some independent universities or external unis that offer taught programmes by residential fortnights (such as some  London Business Schools). You have to make a paper or online application for student finance if your parents can’t afford to support you or you are a mature or disabled student.

Student finance is administered by Student Finance England:

Student finance England,

PO Box 210,

Darlington,

DL1 9HJ

0845 607 7577 for students to seek advice and check applications.

There are two components to the loan, the fee loan (up to £9,000 2012/13) and the combined maintenance loan / grant (grant up to £3250, loan £8382 2012/13). Once registered on a course, the University gets the fee component and once attendance is verified, you get your loan and grant.

The loan and grant count as income under DWP benefit rules so that disabled people lose there income support (£100 a fortnight) but keep their incapacity benefit (£220 a fortnight) and housing and council tax benefits. In some local authorities this is assessed on a case by case basis. Hence the continuation of the grant component of the money paid to the student in part lieu of this income support.

For NHS prescription costs (the other £2000 of the approx £5200 annual income lost with the cancellation of income support), English students on sickness benefits (IB / DLA / ESA / Universal Credit) can use form HC1 from the NHS. There is also a prescription prepayment certificate if not on these benefits at a high enough qualifying rate.

Disability Living Allowance is paid for care support but there is also the disabled student’s allowance that includes both equipment and learning support components (note taking, though this is often taken to mean accessing lecture handouts on a student portal or blackboard software).

The loans are combined at the end of the course and repaid at a personal earning income variable rate. This repayment amount increases with the amount a person earns above £21,000 a year (the average wage of a station assistant on the London Underground). The amount paid back is approx 9% of total income according to UCL.

If a student is in the fortunate position to work part time and want to study part time, they can apply for course fee grants and loans. If the Open University and disabled, some fee support / waiver is allowed if on benefits and disabled students allowance, letting you keep your state benefits (though you have to declare this with the Department of Work and Pensions and the OU would like a letter from the DWP confirming your receipt of benefits, for Housing benefit, the local authority can help at their office and council tax benefit reception). If a Four year part time intensity BA / Bsc / LLB degree at 90 credits a year part time you only get from student finance England a fee loan so would have to save for textbooks and stationery prior to the course starting and look at the feasibility of working part time.

This is opposed to 120 credits a year full time over three years or the Edinburgh / Oxford / Cambridge Masters included MA / MSC / LLM degree over four years (or the Six year Medical degrees), the disabled student keeps their benefits intact on a case by case basis or on the income reduced rate if they are working part time (such as £21 a week indefinitely income for things such as paper rounds, and £80-90 a week for a year if on transition to full time employment with disabled tax credits for those working over 16 hours a week). They get the full time student loans and grant. IF at Oxbridge (Oxford / Cambridge) they may get top up bursaries and loans for the even higher tuition fees set by the elite ‘Russell Group’ Universities. You need to check how these are repaid.

For standard tuition fee and maintenance loans if you fail to earn over £21k (nurses or social workers or bar staff / waiters) or are unemployed, you don’t pay anything back during that period. After 30 years the debt is written off.

POSTGRAD STUDY

This is funded separately by either university scholarships for the fees or fee grants from bodies such as the British Council, the Arts and Humanities funding council, Royal Society (Sciences). You have to amass your own funding and may be offered assistance by the university you apply to. You could be a warden for undergraduate students to get free accommodation if you are not privately renting on housing benefit if on a low income. Part time work is allowed if you are a part time student such as at Birkbeck or the Open University and that for mature students has included company or charity directorships on a pro rata part time salary. With The Open University it also includes full time work and distance learning.

The ecclesiastical parliaments of England

1)      General Synod of the church of England

Meets every six months once in London (Church House in the precincts of Westminster Abbey and York Minster (University campus). Sets policies and ordination criteria for the Church of England.

2)  Diocesan Synods

Sets budgets for anglican churches

3)      Area Diocesan Synods (such the General Secretary of Willesdens / Wealdstone, Bishop Peter Broadbent)

To set the budgets and admission policies of schools and advise the ‘area sees’ in urban areas. Some are appointed and ex offcio and can be seen as cliques promoting one political party (EG Tories in St Pauls Cathedral, Labour in the parishes and as Anglican.org separate websites).

4)      Deanery Synods

Where Clergy and lay elected representatives debate the policy for the locality and the implementation (or lack thereof) of General and Diocesan Synods owing to Churches Together priorities leading to light touch on other churches.

5)      Parochial Church Councils

Set the direction and mission focus for each church or group of churches.

All (allegedly) according to the laws of the Westminster parliament as it is devolved from it since the 1920s.

to ban these magazines and the way that they're produced would set the international ideal

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

composition and function of formal and informal law

Parliamentary Law making

Types of Law

•         Statute Law of Westminster and the devolved Parliaments

•         Delegated guidelines to government departments

•         Common Law

•         Ratified European Legislation and Treaties

•         International agreements and Bilateral Treaties

•         Case Law of the Courts: Judicial Precedent

•         Codification Statutes (eg Offences against the person act)

•         Orders in Council (privy Council)

Scottish Parliament

•         1997 referendum, 1998 act of parliament

•         First elections 1999.

•         SNP (secessionists) seek to hold referendum in 2014 based on an overall majority in the last elections to it.

•         Scotland has its own legal system from pre union of parliaments, preserved in the 1707 act of Union

Welsh Parliament

•         1997 referendum for secondary legislation powers

•         More recent ‘ie’ vote in favour of devolution to primary law making powers

•         Silk Commission on fiscal autonomy within sterling area

•         Past tax fiddles with alleged oil supplies prevented by new set up.

Northern Ireland Assembly

•         Northern Ireland is a successor state to the Island of Ireland Kingdom, united with Great Britain in 1801. As such Ireland had its own court structure based on county governance since Elizabeth 1st

•         It had a parliament and central courts in Dublin.

•         Northern Ireland was created by the Churchill-collins Irish peace treaty of the 1920s and had sectarian home rule till 1972 when Westminster assumed direct responsibility

•         Anglo Irish Agreement 1986

•         Good Friday Agreement 1999

•         Northern Irish Assembly referendums

•         Off on power sharing

•         Current devolved with Sinn Fein- DUP power sharing executive

•         Cross community referendums on constitutional matters such as leaving UK.

•         1998, referendum, 1999 act and 2000 first elections

GLA

•         Devolved policing and transport policy

•         Works in conjunction with the 32 London Boroughs and the Corporation of London.

•         2000-2004 and 2004-8 Ken Livingstone

•         2008-2012 and 2012- Boris Johnson Mayors

•         GLA has multi borough constituencies and top up region.

•          

Channels and Man

•         Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney Sark successor to William 1sts Duchy of Normandy

•         Isle of Man has a parliament of its own, the Tynwald.

•         Both have common citizenship with UK and liase with the Home office

Other islands

•         Falklands

•         Carribean Islands

•         Gibraltar

•         Under Foreign Office and British Consular assistance

Old Empire Parliaments

•         Statute of Westminster Act 1931

–        Irish Free State (now republic outside commonwealth see later slide)

–        Canada and Newfoundland

–        Australia

–        New Zealand

–        South Africa

The Modern Parliament

•         Commonwealth Secretariat

•         British Council

•         Council of the Isles

Conclusion

•         Is the UK a federal democracy or devolved unitary state?

•         Can EU law allow continuation of the dictum of parliamentary sovereignty?

•         Is there therefore a need for a constitutional convention and renegotiation of the European Union relationship?

Privy Council

•         Institution of UK state

•         Also judicially of some Commonwealth states as their final court of appeal.

•         Advises the crown and parliament

•         Has a secretariat as part of the Royal Palaces

•         ? Role of royals lower down the line of succession.

Council of State

•         As ERII ages and as mentioned in Queens Speech, Prince Charles the heir apparent has formed a council of state to advise him and assist his mother in Royal Duties

•         Will the Duke of Cambridge sit on this body, especially pertinent as hes soon to be a dad.

•         Composition of said council of state is at present unknown to the author (no he hasn’t got a written invite).

The order, member companion and medal of empire

•         Advises the dean of the chapel royal

•         Writes to the great and the good and in many cases is said great and good.

•         Based in St Pauls Cathedral.

•         Funded through the livery companies of the City of London upon the advice of freemen of the city of london through the court of common council.

•         ‘gateway honours’ for others in the system.

Military Honours

•         Awarded through the crown and Mod

•         Some also given to intelligence services for things such as ‘Squidgy gate’

•         Some from the time of the crusades such as knights and baronets and peerages still awarded on the advice of the crown according to criteria set out by the crown appointment commission (no you can’t walk into AandE and ask for one).

Summary of JRC consultancy article in May 2013 Modern Railways

1)      HS2 HS1 Interchange is currently inadequate but debate time is still there for a better solution.

2)      A ‘Euston Cross’ East – West Interchange underground with bi directional, dual track tunnel from Old Oak Interchange is needed. The tunnel alignment would protect the British Library and leave space for Crossrail 2, for which ‘government needs to guarantee funding’

3)      This also needs a Railway Lords interchange at Queens Park to ensure that the Trains that are going to terminate at Euston (extended station) can do so.

4)      This may affect London Over ground provision into Euston which may have to divert at Primrose Hill junction to reach Camden Road and Stratford, possible extension onto Barking  / Grays or Chingford.

5)      TfL have plans for a DLR extension to Euston from Bank so how this fits in is open to question.

6)      New link to Euston Square Station to relieve pressure.

7)      Further tunnelling from Old Oak common onto Ickenham is an option, but would need to surmount Greenford topological dip and the Northolt Grand Union Canal (J Wares opinion based on correspondence with London mayors office)

8)      The Poirots moustache junctions and stations for west and north London Line London Overground services should allow for running through. Then Stratford trains can loop through Old Oak Common to produce a peak hour service on the core route. It would also allow for Clapham Junction Trains to each Richmond direct and from that services from Windsor Riverside could also loop there to spread commuter usage and use of Brentford loop.

TV licencing and the property market and other expenses (The case of Good Money)

This might be pertinent as there is a Royal Birth and baptism scheduled soon and it will probably be on the BBC and Sky.

A TV licence is required for watching TV but not playing DVDs.  The technology for this is similar if not the same. However though the Radio licence was abolished years ago, DAB signals are similarly monitored whether radio or Television.

Confused?

To obtain a TV licence as a person in your own right as one of your own expenses when growing up costs the same as an adult (£145.50, or £5.60 cash weekly), though when you reach a certain age above the state pension 75 you qualify for a free TV licence. In the past there was a Disability qualification as well for a free TV licence though now that may be restricted to those who are registered disabled for physical or mental impairments or disabilities. It is not often discussed as in the past it was viewed as being exploitative and demeaning and perhaps encouraging untoward conduct towards those who needed the states protection.

There is an enquiry call centre with an 0300 number and a website to get a licence. Paper forms and debit card payments from Paypoint machines and in the past the post office.

When a student at a Full time uni having a TV licence for modern TV Computers and possibly the ‘app’ related download technologies may now be a necessity,  even if you don’t watch TV. Though in some towns the council tax claims aren’t made for students as under tenancy law and taxation law they were exempt previously and some local councils sought to control student populations from becoming squatters with a claim on the property they were renting and credit related fraud.

Now Housing and Council Tax benefit claims are (in England) to be made soon as part of the universal credit system.

In my opinion the best way to ensure that benefits and rent are paid on time is to ensure that you have a direct debit account and that the rent is paid monthly automatic by standing order / direct debit with a monthly payment for utilities and rent. However rents are nationally calculated for each area using estate agents and taxation data, so in Hillingdon rent is calculated to include a top up premium for council housing properties and also to cover Housing Association properties

Many Housing association properties are built more recently to a higher specification in some cases depending on building regulations changing. There should also be a fortnightly ‘food and sundries’ component. It works for me in a kind of way at present post bankruptcy.

Housing association rent is slightly higher in places because unlike a council with a larger housing stock able to contract out maintenance and repairs, they cover larger areas. These are multi borough in Greater London which further out sub contract their maintenance of their properties through the local authority, thus generating higher rents and overheads than council properties, but lower than mortgages. Thus rented housing association and local authority properties have been fewer under recent governments as they have been subsidised by part rent part buy and mortgaged component housing.

Thus to get on the national housing register and as some people have put it in the past be on the system, having both local and national registration on the housing system might be a good idea. Hence Housing benefit claims also have a grey area that is both assessed through the job centre and the local authority. Hence paperwork was difficultly managed prior to an online system and social housing provision in Greater London by sub region.

Hence with High Speed Two having a spur and as section 106 a potential Central Line extension into Uxbridge or Heathrow in tunnel via Stockley Park, any development of RAF Northolt and relocation to Heathrow for the diplomatic airbase when ‘Boris Island / Margaret Thatcher International’ is built in the Thames Estuary, planning for where you want to live to get a job is essential.

For example take medicine, Brunel Uni doesn’t at present have a medicine department but offers ancilliary professional training for social workers and chemists. There is vacant office space opposite Bucks Uni by the Crown and Treaty Pub that could be converted similarly to Greenwich School of Managements Greenford Campus. It could create a training ability, with Young people living locally getting references at Fountains Mill and from the probation service.

This would counterbalance the creation of the DLR / London Overground suburbs of Bromley and Battersea that link to Canary Wharf and provide employment in the financial sectors. Given That Uxbridge is at the end of the commuting line to the City at present the journey time is less competitive to say Watford with Croxley Rail Link and the West Coast Main line.

However the bus network can take the strain to get to Stockley Park as well.

So if I were a Year Officer today in this economic recovery and with the benefit of hindsight, how would I advise getting a job and on the housing register.

Don’t model, get a part time job at school sixth form age to cover the cost of a TV licence and have a universal credit assessment as soon as it comes in if not sooner, so speak to your GP and go to your local job centre for the application form.

I’ll put a full guide up once I’ve researched Universal credit more fully.

TV Licencing 0300 790 135

Also check with the Money Advice Service for financial advice.

Modernising church state relations for the 21^st Century: A Rome - Canterbury comparison with reference to the United Kingdom.

James A Ware

As both the Pontiff and Archbishop of Canterbury change in quick succession, a question has to be asked what the new relationship is for church state relations now that there is the United Nations and within the United Kingdom, Anglicanism is the minority church such that the 2011 census records simply Christian.

Firstly the Vatican is both a church ‘of Rome’ and the remaining state within Rome of the pre nineteenth century Papal states. As such it is a state and intergovernmental organisation at the United Nations. One of their more ancient orders of chivalry is the FD or defender of the faith, a title granted for scholasticism to Henry VIII of England for his work as a young student prior to ascending the throne. As such the relationship for UK Catholics of both churches is deep and binding.

There are thus three main Episcopal churches in the United Kingdom (including the Orthodox Church of Thyrateria and Great Britain). Canterbury is the established church of England with disestablished provinces of all Ireland, Wales and in Scotland a minority church to the Calvinist Kirk of Scotland. This is according to the Act of Union 1801. It in turn has been amended by subsequent devolved legislation that established the bi provincial General Synod and devolved canon law of the ‘provinces’ of York and Canterbury as the body devolved from the Westminster parliament to legislate for the Church of England

As the ‘gay marriage quadruple lock’ shows, Wales has a similar structure of its nine sees that is distinct and independent of state, but is still linked through the monarchy and UK Privy Council for matters that used to be common to both when Wales was divided between the provinces of York and Canterbury. Its post 1920s Primate Archbishop liaises through the Lambeth conference of Archbishops. He also does so through the Archbishops council since its ‘disestablishment’ at Westminster in the 1920s.

The Modern Irish churches of all Ireland have Cathedral shrine churches for both Roman Catholic and Anglican churches which have been discreetly lobbying for the peace process and prior to the Good Friday Agreement aided negotiations for Loyalist and Republican ceasefires. The challenge for the modern UK churches is for the equivalents of the Diocese of London and Archdiocese of Westminster in Derry and Belfast to generate employment and activities away from riots, especially as:

1)      the police service of Northern Ireland  is now non sectarian

2)      the UK state has apologised for Bloody Sunday

3)      The Island is demilitarising

4)      Both the north and republic have democratic assemblies that represent their peoples according to:

a.       The Irish Free State Treaty Act of 1921,   

b.      Statute of Westminster act 1931,

c.       Irish Republic enabling legislation in Dail Eirnan as ratified by referendum in the 1940s in the 26 counties,

d.      The Anglo Irish agreement of 1986 that recognised the seceded Irish Republic as a ‘peace partner’,

e.       And the Good Friday Agreement that created pluralistic devolution for the remaining six counties agreed by cross community referendum.

In Scotland the tripartite churches of Roman Catholic, Anglican Episcopal and Church of Scotland show that coexistence under law and devolved democracy has reduced and prevented sectarianism.

So what can the Vatican do now as to its choice of Pontiff? If he’s West African it could avoid tension and reduce conflict if the choice complements Welby, allowing for peace in the Middle East and better dialogue with the new Muslim democracies. This could possibly aid reform of Saudi Arabia and Iran with coexistence and mutual security with Israel and Palestine. A theologian from Latin America with a similar mindset might also resolve the Falklands rhetoric towards cooperation on Oil extraction based on the expected vote in favour of British sovereignty by the Islands residents themselves and show that peaceful support for new democracy in Israel and Palestine is sustainable.

As such building on the work of John Paul II and Benedict a peace partner in the Vatican aiding dialogue and international law is desirable as the College of Cardinals meet before Easter so that Christendom has a double induction and the idea of a Tri city area of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Ramallah is debated as part of the peace process. At Present Fatah wants a two state solution as does the Israeli Labour Party and they are the partner parties of Her Majesty’s Opposition in the House of Commons, under the ‘socialist international’ that coordinates work between these parties. This is therefore the parliament to ask the question and the time to resolve what assistance for peace in the Holy Land, the successor Christian states to the Christian church that fought the crusades can provide under the United Nations and international law.

Mr. James Ware

what the lib dems in hillingdon are probably proposing in 2014

On 6/2/13 the Mayor of London Boris Johnson advocated the devolution of Tax Receipts from Stamp Duty accrued in Greater London to build 1 million new affordable or social houses. This depends on whether its him or a Labour Mayor in 2016, subject to local borough authorities elected and implementing LDA development guidelines, with reference to heritage and conservation (both urban and rural) areas.

Stamp Duty: What is it?

Stamp duty is one of the historic taxes in the buying and selling of property. Administered by Solicitors as part of the conveyancing process, it produces £1.3 Billion within the region. As such the Mayor thinks that keeping this tax and devolving proceeds similar to the way the National Scottish Legislature has devolved national income tax varying powers.

What would it pay for?

It would thus pay for housing on sites by the A40 such as RAF Northolt with the RAF moving to Heathrow when the thames estuary gets built and combined with grants for housing properties to be maintained from existing stock and some grants for the remedying of derelict properties in conservation areas.

Why is this necessary?

To ensure a stable economy is developed and that expertise in construction is redeveloped for use across the UK. Also other family sized housing in the suburbs would be built as a result of this allowing for economic recovery.

Committee (House of Commons)

Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee Announcement

21 January 2013

For Immediate Release:

Committee announces new inquiry – House of Lords reform: what next?

The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee has decided to conduct an inquiry into what smaller-scale changes to the membership and structure of the House of Lords would be likely to command a consensus.    The Committee is issuing a call for written evidence that addresses some or all of the following points:

·                         The desirability, practicality and effectiveness of mechanisms for reducing the size of the House of Lords, including the following:

Ø  no longer replacing hereditary peers in the House of Lords when they die;

Ø  measures to remove persistent non-attendees;

Ø  a moratorium on new peers;

Ø  fixed-term appointments for new peers; 

Ø  a retirement age for peers.

·         The effectiveness of the current voluntary retirement scheme for peers introduced following the recommendations of the Leader’s Group on Members Leaving the House.

·         The desirability and scope of a mechanism to expel peers who have been convicted of a serious offence. 

·         The desirability, composition and remit of a Statutory Appointments Commission.

·         The scope for establishing a consensus about the principles which should determine the relative numerical strengths of the different party groups in the House of Lords, and for codifying such principles.

How to respond:

The deadline for written submissions is Tuesday 26 March 2013.  Submissions should not significantly exceed 3,000 words unless this has been cleared in advance with the Committee secretariat.  Written responses to the Committee will usually be treated as evidence to the Committee and may be published. If you object to your response being made public in a volume of evidence, please make this clear when it is submitted.

Responses should be submitted by email in Microsoft Word or rich text format to pcrc@parliament.uk

If you do not have access to email, you may send a paper copy of your response to the Clerk of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, Committee Office, First Floor, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Committee Membership is as follows:  Mr Graham Allen (Chair) (Nottingham North), Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch), Paul Flynn (Newport West), Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East), Mr Andrew Griffiths (Burton), Mr Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East), Simon Hart (Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire), Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central), Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest), Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) and Stephen Williams (Bristol West).

Specific Committee Information:  pcrc@parliament.uk 020 7219 6287

Media Information: Jessica Bridges-Palmer bridgespalmerj@parliament.uk 07917 488 447

Committee Website: www.parliament.uk/pcrc

Watch committees and parliamentary debates online:  www.parliamentlive.tv 

Publications / Reports / Reference Material: Copies of all select committee reports are available from the Parliamentary Bookshop (12 Bridge St, Westminster, 020 7219 3890) or the Stationery Office (0845 7023474).  Committee reports, press releases, evidence transcripts, Bills; research papers, a directory of MPs, plus Hansard (from 8am daily) and much more, can be found on www.parliament.uk

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House of Lords Reform: Where next

3/2/12

I am minded that tomorrow in the CofE diocesan cathedral of my birth Justin Welby (rt Rev Bishop of Durham) is to be legally inducted as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Much is made of the House of Lords having bishops of the C of E ex officio as the 26 ‘double jury’ on the basis of seniority in the post (longest term served) as the basis of the original 1215 Magna Carta reform that sought to change from Saxon gradated aristocratic witans into the House of Lords and Commons of the modern age, with an one intermediary tri chamber parliament of the house of bishops. This is the modern day inspiration for the tri chamber General Synod of the two ‘home provinces’ of the Church of England.

However in state there are two chambers of Parliament. The idea behind that is that so long as people raise the next generation well and ideally as part of the Church of England or one of its recognised denominations or faiths that advise the crown, the common ideals of tolerance are maintained. Hence the idea of the Heir to the Throne to defend faiths and none as well as being the FD title of Henry VIII.

These are only allegorical as the Tudor reforms put due process and the removal of harsh punishments from the united English and Welsh legal systems, now operating into similarly compassionate separate jurisdictions, similar to other Commonwealth jurisdictions.

Now, since 1829 for previous and current abilities and achievements, faith leaders of other churches and faiths sit in the chamber and can offer advice, especially with the end of the death penalty and compassion with legal support. This is based on the ideals of faith tolerance started in the Parliamentary Republic of Oliver Cromwell.

This is regarded as Ken Clarke’s compassionate time as Home Secretary through to tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

As such the United Kingdom has faith within its ‘senate’ and the question should be, should this continue or not? I would argue that as under the laws of state, non faith organisations exist such as Richard Dawkins and the National Secularist association,  have patrons from the Royal Family. As such all should within the ex officio component, similar to the hereditaries under a Government of Britain Bill with a codified constitution passed similar to the European Human Rights Act 1999, as amended and with a right of secession for the territories of Scotland, Wales and the six counties of Northern Ireland by develoution enabling leglislation, subsequent developments and Westminster devolved standing orders.

This should be approved by referendum after a constitutional convention as part of resolving the following issues:
Turning to the hereditaries, in the realism agenda they should be kept in the interim. IN an Age of austerity it is better that they keep their peerages linked to the crown and in an age of austerity this aids those with ability to make wealth to do so lawfully.

This requires proper parliamentary guidelines and company law to include the tax havens and financial instruments such as LIBOR regulated up to Treasury standards for the inflation target. This should be codified into the laws of the Commonwealth and IMF / World Bank to ensure that all play fair and can be held to account to deal with the threats of piracy and smuggling.

James A. Ware