‘Tough new rules to kick misbehaving peers out of the House of Lords have been dropped because of opposition from members of the un-elected second chamber.’
Daily Telegraph, 2nd March 2017
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The calls for Sir Philip Green to have his knighthood removed have been made strongly by both the press and by MPs – with Dennis Skinner referring to him pithily as a ‘billionaire spiv’. The former BHS owner has been subjected to strong criticism following the difficulties now being faced with respect to the retailers’ pension provisions. Sir Philip Green is said to have profited at BHS and its workers’ expense.’
4 KBW, 3rd January 2017
Source: www.4kbw.net
‘While Lord Cormack refused to place a number on the amount of peers the Lords should have, he said the upper chamber ‘should be no bigger than the Commons’.’
The Independent, 3rd December 2016
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Shami Chakrabarti will be forced to appear before MPs to answer questions about whether she was offered a peerage before completing a report into Labour anti-Semitism subsequently described as a “whitewash”.’
Daily Telegraph, 16th October 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘David Cameron is to face a Commons inquiry into his resignation honours list, which has been widely criticised for the way he used it to reward friends and financial backers.’
The Independent, 9th August 2016
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Former Tory peer accused of submitting false expenses has been formally acquitted after parliament made an unexpected intervention in the case. Lord Hanningfield, who served a jail sentence for expenses fraud in 2011, was accused in Southwark crown court of claiming around £3,300 in House of Lords allowances in July 2013 to which he was not entitled.’
The Guardian, 18th July 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A retired accountant from Buckinghamshire is to be made a baronet in a landmark ruling set to shake the foundations of the British system of hereditary titles by opening them up to challenge through DNA tests for the first time.’
Daily Telegraph, 20th June 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Lord Janner faced allegations that he had abused 30 victims from the mid-1950s until the late 1980s, the first preliminary hearing of a public inquiry into child abuse has heard.’
The Guardian, 9th March 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘The press has been awash with reports of the recent case in which Lord Bingham, the son of the 7th Earl of Lucan, obtained a Court Order which finally allowed him to succeed to the title held by his father – who had been missing for over 40 years following the death of a former nanny. The case attracted frenzied press coverage in 1974 when the family nanny, Sandra Rivett, was found dead at the home of Lord Lucan’s estranged wife in Belgravia. Suspected of her murder, Lord Lucan fled and was never seen again. However, this was only the beginning of the saga for the family. Over the ensuing years there were regular reports of sightings of the fugitive peer. None were confirmed, and an alternative theory was that he had committed suicide shortly after the murder.’
Park Square Barristers,
Source: www.parksquarebarristers.co.uk
‘Lord Lucan is now presumed to be dead, a High Court judge has ruled. A death certificate has been issued 42 years after the peer vanished when his children’s nanny Sandra Rivett was bludgeoned to death in London.’
BBC News, 3rd February 2015
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A formal application to obtain a death certificate for Lord Lucan, who disappeared more than 40 years ago after the murder of his children’s nanny, will be heard by a London court on Wednesday.’
The Guardian, 3rd February 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Norman Murray Pringle, an accountant living in High Wycombe, is attempting to prove his aristocratic entitlement as the next baronet of Stichill.’
Daily Telegraph, 25th November 2015
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Today is the deadline for any objections to the issuing of a death certificate for Lord Lucan, which would allow George Bingham, his son and heir, to become the 8th Earl.’
Daily Telegraph, 6th November 2015
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘DNA evidence could be used for the first time to resolve a feud over a hereditary title after the Queen personally intervened in the case.’
Daily Telegraph, 11th October 2015
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
House of Lords (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 published
Source: www.legislation.gov.uk
‘Documents released to Mail on Sunday reveal Margaret Thatcher knew of child abuse allegations against Rochdale MP before he was given knighthood.’
The Guardian, 8th March 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘Married gay couples can now have their own coat of arms after archaic rules dating back hundreds of years were brought into the 21st Century.’
The Independent, 8th May 2014
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘On Friday 28 February Dan Byles’ Private Member’s Bill on Lords reform completed its Commons passage. It is now in the Lords, and will be sponsored by David Steel. The bill, which allows retirement from the Lords and expulsion of non-attendees and serious criminals, has been presented as a small, uncontroversial “housekeeping” measure. But as already argued in an earlier blog post, as currently drafted it would in fact introduce a very major change that would alter the Lords fundamentally, and in very undesirable ways.’
UK Constitutional Law Association, 6th March 2014
Source: www.ukconstitutionallaw.org/blog
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