RANDOM PHOTOGRAPHS... AND THE HOUSE OF LORDS MAY BE IN TROUBLE

Ah, that's why...we were wondering.

Certainly, he didn't quite get that one right, did he? H

Actually, that didn't quite work out either, did it?

Still they have faithful friends of the highest moral character who share British values.

I'm not sure that the Saudis or Chinese go THIS far with the shared values, but they more or less are with us.

That didn't exactly work out, did it?

Probably should have listened to this guy

Back to Dave again...

I've been somewhat amused today by the threats of the Tories to do something about the House of Lords. Normally the only thing the Tories want to do with lords is create more. But this is different.

You see, it seems that, to their credit, the Liberals intend to join the SNP and the Labour Party in voting against Osborne's cuts to working tax credits. Now that won't make much of a difference in the House of Commons as they have very few MPs, but it WILL make a difference in the Lords where they have a ridiculously high number of seats for a minor party. 

Given that the Tories don't have a majority in the upper house this means that it is possible that Osborne's bill will be defeated in the Lords. The proposed legislation is not a part of the finance bill (which the Lords cannot alter), nor was it in the Conservative manifesto (which would have meant that Lords' objections could simply have been overturned in the Commons).

Indeed if I remember rightly  it was another of these things that Cameron had promised that they would NO do, until they did them.

So, this means that quite legitimately (if the lords has any legitimacy at all...and the Tories think it does) the upper house can delay the implementation of Gideon's wicked plans to starve strivers out of their house and home and drum up business for Trussell Trust (Every Town Should Have One).

Or at least that is the theory. But never underestimate a Bullingdon Boy backed into a corner.

Not wishing to be thwarted by their estwhile partners in crime, the Libdems, the Conservatives appear to be threatening to suspend the House of Lords if they vote the legislation down.

So far, so weird.

Some things struck me as particularly interesting about this. 

First of all, not that it's important, but the rash of new Tory Lords, will have hardly managed to claim a few thousand pounds in expenses and settle down to their new blood colour, before they will find themselves wageless...  and heaved out of their posh dining rooms.

So just as Mrs Moan, Grand Duchess of Mayfair was getting her feet under the table, there she will be out of a job and IDS will have her down the dole tout de suite!

Secondly, the unionist parties and their faithful journos have been accusing Scotland of being a one party state... and when challenged about the complete ridiculousness of that accusation (given the facts of the case) they have complained that, despite all these stats, the single chamber system, set up in Edinburgh, designed to ensure that Labour would always be in coalition with the Liberals...and the "corrupted" committee system (so they seem to think), means that there is no proper scrutiny of policy.

Unlike, they say, the London parliament which has a second chamber.

Or at least they do till the Tories take the huff and suspend them.

People say that you REALLY couldn't make this up... but in the case of the the British Constitution that's exactly what they do!