Disraeli Room

"... I was invited to record a phone-in with TalkSport recently because their three million listeners, who tend to be male and from a lower socio-economic background, have been spontaneously talking about going off-grid.  “I’ve had enough of this,” they are saying on the late-night chat shows. “I’m going off-grid.” At first it was one or two a month, my interviewer told me.  But now it's a few every week ..." 

"... What could be more egalitarian than having both the 17th Duke of Norfolk, who is also the 36th Earl of Arundel, and the successful daughter of a middle-class grocer raised to a Baroness share the upper house and be equalised in status in the House in Lords, and in the country in general as subjects of a common monarch? Why should class-based meritocracy (one that rewards achievement with the prospect of social class mobility) be less respect-worthy than income-based meritocracy, when it is the latter wherein much of our problems begin and end? ..."

"... If the new generation are guilty of anything, it may be that their expectations are too high - because not only have they inherited the cost of the previous generations’ lifestyle, but also many of their ambitions. For the new generation to succeed, they will need to first demand these changes but must also seek to maintain them through participation in a way that is equitable, consistent and most importantly, realistic ..."

"... A wholly elected House of Lords would challenge the supremacy of the House of Commons enabling it to justifiably claim authority to hold government to account and to represent the people. For the public, this might endow the Lords and Commons with equal legitimacy. The houses would cease to complement each other and would start to compete, with the Lords more likely to exercise its full powers. Put simply, two wholly elected chambers runs contrary to the correct operation of our parliamentary system and would require a complete re-evaluation of the function and purpose of the House of Lords ..."

"... Following the removal of all but 92 of the hereditary peers in 1999 (there is surely some irony that the 92 hereditary peers are the only democratically elected element in the upper house!), the House of Lords has become noticeably more confident and effective. With an increased sense of legitimacy, the Lords has defeated government legislation more than 500 times since 1999 and has become more insistent upon legislative amendment, which is good for democracy and for the quality of legislation ..."