Inside The Lords: strikes, small boats and not staying up all night
As Boris creates even more peers, then promptly resigns as an MP, Claire Fox reports on a week in parliament.
Well, this week may have been rather dull in parliament, but it seems the turmoil of Westminster politics was not far beneath the surface. After filming Inside The Lords (watch the episode below), news broke that Boris Johnson and Nadine Dorries are standing down as MPs with immediate effect, triggering by-elections. Goodness, the Machiavellian machinations within the Conservative Party, as it implodes in slow motion, are unsavoury. It’s also symbolic of the mess mainstream parties are in - unable to deliver any satisfactory solutions to social challenges.
Even if Johnson is a victim of those seeking revenge for the populist demand for a political shake-up expressed in 2016 and again in 2019, the Tories squandered those opportunities themselves. And looking to the opposition for hope just brings a sinking feeling - is this the best alternative? After all, Keir Starmer's Labour faces internal dissent over the central party’s dictatorial deselection of election candidates, and has now U-turned on its flagship, if regressive, Net Zero economic policy. The whole unedifying mess hardly inspires confidence that any meaningful realignment is likely to emanate from Westminster.
My week in the Lords confirms that. I’ve only made one speech, on the Strikes Bill. In fact, I wasn’t even going to say anything at first - but when the minister suggested that the government would ‘trust employers’ to make judgements about when to force striking workers to meet minimum service levels, I did have to point out that he had a rosy view of bosses. The Strikes Bill is a terrible piece of legislation - a means for the government to try to look like they are Doing Something about the issue. In particular, the government’s claims that NHS waiting lists or train delays are down to striking workers is just a pathetic attempt at buck-passing. It doesn’t matter how annoyed you are by the disruption, we should all care about attacks on the right to strike, and defending all our liberties – from free speech to the right to protest.
There has been a lot of noise about a particularly long night for some Lords, who stayed in the chamber until the early hours discussing amendments to the Illegal Migration Bill. While I didn’t pull an all-nighter, I did look back on the debate, and noted that one Lib Dem Lord had described the bill as ‘red meat for the Red Wall’. It’s ironic that the Lib Dems - who are so keen to point out that the language used to discuss the issue can cause harm (like ‘invasion’) - are being so cavalier with their words. But perhaps it doesn’t matter to them how they refer to working-class Leave voters, who want to have a legitimate discussion about the issue of small boats and whether we can control our borders. Characterising their fellow citizens as beasts, who simply need to be fed by ‘red meat’ legislation, says more about the snobbery of these Lords than it does about the intentions of voters. The unelected House of Lords is always a challenge to democracy. With Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list just published, and even more joining the Lords, I am just hoping there will be some who do not hold the public in such contempt.
On a more positive note, I want to shout out to Debating Matters, the sixth-form debating competition run by the Ideas Matter charity. This week, they ran a championship at Durham University with six schools going head-to-head on a range of contemporary issues from surrogacy to billionaires and democracy. The great thing about DM is that it reminds you that debate is possible, even on the trickiest of issues. The final - on the motion Cancel Culture Is A Threat To Freedom Of Speech - was a masterclass in how sixth formers are able to tackle the issue better than most of the adults I know on Twitter or in the House of Lords. Watch out for a Substack from us on what else DM has been up to in the next few weeks.
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VOLUNTEER AT THE BATTLE OF IDEAS FESTIVAL
The Battle of Ideas festival is the Academy of Ideas’s annual headline event. With thousands of attendees, hundreds of speakers and over a hundred debates over two days, we need a team of enthusiastic and committed volunteers to support us for the Battle of Ideas festival 2023.
This year's Battle of Ideas festival is being held on 28 & 29 October at Church House, Westminster.
There is no age limit or qualification requirements for volunteering with us - you just have to have a passion for free speech and public debate!
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Battle of Ideas festival volunteers have access to:
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To find out more, find out more here.
Forthcoming Events at the Academy of Ideas:
Billionaires owning media companies is bad for democracy: a public debate between Debating Matters and 104 London Debaters
When: 6:45pm, TUESDAY 13 JUNE
Venue: Windsor Castle, Victoria, SW1P 1DN
Debaters: Mo Lovatt, Tom Collyer and Ethan Green
Tickets via 104 London Debaters website
‘An assault on democracy and the poor’. The Covid Consensus - Social Democratic Party’s William Clouston will host a discussion with author and academic Toby Green
When: 6:30pm, TUESDAY 13 JUNE
Venue: The Sekforde Pub, Farringdon, EC1R 0HA Â
Tickets: Free, but RSVP london@sdp.org.uk
LET KIDS BE KIDS! The Scottish government is sexualising children with its sex and gender curriculum: Children need Education not Indoctrination
When: 6:30pm, THURSDAY 15 JUNE
Venue: The Tron Church, 25 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW
Speakers: Dr Stuart Waiton, Malcolm Clark, Stuart Baird and Peigi Piper
Tickets via Eventbrite
Bookshop Barnie: Rakib Ehsan on his new book, Beyond Grievance
When: 7pm, WEDNESDAY 21 JUNE via ZOOM
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Leeds Salon: A summer solstice salon on folk horror
When: 7pm, WEDNESDAY 21 JUNE
Venue: Carriagework Theatre, Leeds
Speaker: Robert Edgar
Tickets via Leeds Salon website
East Midlands Salon: In praise of boxing
When: 7pm, THURSDAY 22 JUNE
Venue: The Brunswick Inn, Station Road, Derby, DE1 2RU
Speaker: Chris Akers
Tickets via East Midlands Salon website
Birmingham Salon: Talking liberty – Taking conscience seriously
When: 1pm, SATURDAY 24 JUNE
Venue: Map Room, Cherry Reds, 88-92 John Bright Street, B1 1BN
Speaker: Simon Curtis
Tickets via Birmingham Salon website
Liverpool Salon: Book Launch of Taking Control, Sovereignty and Democracy after Brexit.
When: 12:30pm, SATURDAY 24 JUNE
Speakers: Peter Ramsay in conversation with Pauline Hadaway
Tickets via Liverpool Salon website
If you have not already done so now is the time to book your tickets for The Academy 2023 – the annual intellectual feast from Ideas Matter. This year, we’ll be asking why today’s politics and culture seems so caught in a mood of presentism – with the past forgotten and the future cancelled.
SESSIONS INCLUDE: Why utopia matters / Is progress a thing of the past? / Remakes and originality – is culture exhausted? / Contemporary dystopia: the return of apocalyptic thinking / Reclaiming the Future from the War on the Past / The First Transhumanist? Haldane’s Daedalus 100 Years On / Forecasting failure: A short history of the future / Bronze Age Mindset: Body-building the future? / Dune: Science fiction and the end of the future.
SATURDAY 28 OCTOBER & SUNDAY 29 OCTOBER
If you’re sick of shouting at the telly, and a weekend of civil but passionate debate in-the-flesh sounds up your street, don’t hesitate: grab your ticket for the 2023 London Battle of Ideas festival in Church House, Westminster.
SESSIONS INCLUDE: Is the culture war a distraction? · From Covid to climate change: why have many people lost faith in science? · Andrew Tate and the ‘lost boys’ · Has Brexit been betrayed? · Has progress become a dirty word? · Ukraine, geopolitics and the new world order · Should we do business with China? · Taking on the technocrats: can we build a new movement? · From railways to power stations: can we ever build anything? · Is the UK really a wealthy nation? · Populism and conservatism: friends or foes? · Is immigration blamed for everything? · The tyranny of ‘lived experience’ · Extreme weather: can we adapt to climate change? · Online sleuths and vigilantes: why are we so obsessed with true crime? · What are museums for?
BUXTON BATTLE OF IDEAS FESTIVAL 2023
SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER, Devonshire Dome, 10.00am – 6.00pm
Join us for our return to the stunning Devonshire Dome in the spa town of Buxton, in the heart of the Peak District in Derbyshire, for a day of debates on politics, economics and our wider culture.