On 27 February, the Lords debated and passed legislation to defer elections in Northern Ireland that are now due since there is no immediate prospect of restoring devolution.
On 23 February, in a debate in the Lords on police and crime panels—bodies created in 2012 to scrutinise the work of police and crime commissioners—Alistair Lexden took the Home Office to task for making no effort to stop the gross misconduct hearing against a disgraced police chief, Mike Veale,
It was reported recently that the Countess of Swinton had won a seat on her local council in North Yorkshire as a Lib Dem. Alistair Lexden, Conservative Party historian, felt that there were lessons to be learnt.
In an obituary published in The Daily Telegraph on 17 February, Alistair Lexden looked back at the career of Richard Thorpe, the superb biographer of three Conservative prime ministers. In accordance with custom, the obituary appeared without attribution to its writer.
That is the question that Alistair Lexden and cross-party colleagues in the Lords will be considering between now and November as members of a special education inquiry committee established this month.
In the Lords on 6 February, Alistair Lexden continued his campaign to bring Mike Veale, the discredited police chief, to book. Since his vendetta against Sir Edward Heath in 2015-17, Veale has been at the centre of a series of scandals.
The date was 1902. The Tory Government in question was led by Arthur Balfour. Its cover-up saved a rich Liberal peer and other prominent public figures from disgrace.
