King Charles to make first US state visit, address Congress next month

From David Torrance on X - Mandelson 'struck out' as Privy Counsellor on Tuesday

I suspect the Lords will give it a very rough time...

Niche but interesting alert!

The Committee on Standards has made a recommendation about the register of interests of MPs' staff

It highlights the difficult balance between transparency, accountability & security interests but also possibly narrows the use of the register in an unsatisfactory way

Went to look up last year's Budget statement in Hansard and was reminded of the Deputy Speaker, Nusrat Ghani, giving the government quite the telling off about pre-announcing/pre-briefing various elements of it

Will definitely come to the next one!

I’ve almost certainly had that in my hands!

The best sort of days!

But to me, the peerage will still exist as a piece of intangible property?

As regards the peerages It seems that the Palace is relying on this provision of the Royal Warrant that establishes the Roll of the Peerage... The BBC are saying that removal from the roll of the peerage means that it cannot be used formally. Hmm... www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/RoyalWarrant...

2/ The letter reserves the right to call the Crown Estate and Treasury to attend a hearing. I would not like to be the one to answer this... "Does the current tenancy remain the most appropriate use of the Royal Lodge in light of the changed role for Prince Andrew, and, if so, on what grounds?"

1/ The Public Accounts Committee has written to the Crown Estate and the Treasury asking questions about Prince Andrew's lease of Royal Lodge. We know the answer to some of them already, the Crown Estate will bat some of them away... committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Yesterday, I chatted to @ruthfox.bsky.social and @darcyxtip.bsky.social of the @hansardsociety.bsky.social about what Parliament could do about Prince Andrew... you can listen to the Podcast at this link... pod.link/1714627828/e...

Thoughts from my @royalholloway.bsky.social colleague @craigprescott.bsky.social on how Andrew might be fully yeeted

Prince William embraces 'change for good' — but how radical will he be? | CBC News Last fall, Prince William talked about trying to do things differently, "with maybe a smaller 'r' in the Royal." What that means will emerge in time, but more recent musings from the Prince of Wales m...

. @craigprescott.bsky.social and I discussed Prince William's conversation with Eugene Levy, Princess Anne's visit to Ukraine and other recent royal news in the Royal Fascinator newsletter @cbcradiocanada.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/world/p...

Prisoner Voting is Back! And Strasbourg is still in a right old prickle. The Court doesn't want to back down on Hirst, but also doesn't want a fight with the UK. So it concluded that the particular claimant in Hora v UK could legitimately have the vote removed:

hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=002-14...

A photograph from the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, showing pallbearers carrying the coffin through the church as members of the congregation stand on either side.

The State Funeral of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was held here at the Abbey three years ago today, on 19 September 2022.

'My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God : when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?'

Five years after the Royal Family ruptured over Megxit, there are tentative signs that the King and Prince Harry are ready to end their rift trib.al/vJ0AJ5a

Harold Wilson, Oxford don and all that.

Doesn’t this reflect that there’s not been any really new ideas that you could call an “isim“ to which its supporters are “ites”? Same with the Conservatives, still harking back to Thatcher, and she became PM in ‘79 which is closer to 1945 than today!

That’s the legal name of the Home Office, to distinguish it from the Foreign Department, when they were crated in 1782 out of the Southern and Northern Departments…

I can totally imagine!

The Royal Family is in a period of mourning after the death of the Duchess of Kent, who converted to Catholicism, gave up royal duties, and brought joy to generations of children by teaching music at a school in Hull.

This is the key point of Sir Laurie Magnus's conclusions.

The BBC say she has resigned as Deputy Leader as well...

The Duchess of Kent has died.

One issue now... will she resign as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, and trigger a contest? Given the mood of the Labour party you'd imagine at least one candidate would emerge to represent those unhappy with Starmer...

I wholeheartedly agree. It’s one thing to do it to Gary Lineker at FA Cup match, another to do it at Westminster…

The Telegraph says Ms Rayner sought advice from "a conveyancer and two experts in trust law".

So how could they all get the law wrong? A 🧵
with some speculation.

(Pure speculation, but based on my experience of how clients and advisers behave.)

3/ The Ministerial Code says the following... at 2.6(a) www.gov.uk/government/p...