Thursday, March 18, 2010

Whatever happened to the Interim Peers List? (part 1)

My mind was drawn to the question of the Interim Peers Panel last night, whilst doing some research for a Liberal Youth count. So, as a service to historians, I thought that I'd look back at the 1999 election, and see what happened to some of the fifty eminent Liberal Democrats who were successful.

In order of election, with the stage at which they were successful (those who got a peerage are highlighted in Lords colours);
  1. David Bellotti - stage 1
  2. Ramesh Dewan - stage 1
  3. Tony Greaves - stage 1 (31 March 2000)
  4. Rupert Redesdale -stage 1 (31 March 2000)
  5. Roger Roberts - stage 1 (30 April 2004)
  6. Lindsay Granshaw - stage 29 (31 March 2000)
  7. Viv Bingham - stage 57
  8. Jane Bonham-Carter - stage 79 (30 April 2004)
  9. Elizabeth Shields - stage 84
  10. Alex Wilcock - stage 85
  11. Joan Walmsley - stage 91 (31 March 2000)
  12. Ros Scott - stage 98 (31 March 2000)
  13. Fiona Hall - stage 100
  14. Candy Piercey - stage 108
  15. Flo Clucas - stage 115
  16. Philip Goldenberg - stage 119
  17. Monroe Palmer - stage 121
  18. Sharon Bowles - stage 122
  19. Jonathan Fryer - stage 124
  20. Val Cox - stage 125
  21. Flick Rea - stage 125
  22. Michael Steed - stage 128
  23. David Williams - stage 128
  24. John Tilley - stage 131
  25. Sue Baring - stage 132
  26. Hilary Stephenson - stage 132
  27. Atul Vadher - stage 132
  28. Paula Yates - stage 132
  29. Robert Adamson - stage 133
  30. Michael Anderson - stage 133
  31. Sarah Boad - stage 135
  32. David Boyle - stage 135
  33. Alan Butt Philip - stage 135
  34. Ruth Coleman - stage 135
  35. Gordon Lishman - stage 135
  36. Keith House - stage 136
  37. Bill Le Breton - stage 136
  38. Dee Doocey - stage 139
  39. Iain King - stage 139
  40. Rowland Morgan - stage 139
  41. Alison Willott - stage 139
  42. Ralph Bancroft - stage 140
  43. Frances David - stage 140
  44. Jock Gallagher - stage 140
  45. Josephine Hayes - stage 140
  46. Matthew Oakeshott - stage 140 (31 March 2000)
  47. David Shutt - stage 140 (31 March 2000)
  48. Paul Tilsley - stage 140
  49. James Walsh - stage 140
  50. Joanne Whitehouse - stage 140
So, we see that nine of the fifty got a peerage, seven of them from the top twelve. The future Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay and Lord Shutt of Greetland, just scraped in, but as they're apparently amongst the twenty-five most influential Liberal Democrats, they would probably be judged to have been worth it.

An interesting sidenote is the position of one Alex Wilcock. I wonder how different the world would have been if you'd been ennobled, Alex. Would that have brought us the Honourable Millennium Elephant? Also, the two contenders at numbers 13 and 18 didn't do too badly, gaining seats in the European Parliament in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

2 comments:

youngdegsy said...

Mark

Nice bit of research. The interim list was a bit of an obsession of mine, and reminds me of the frequent efforts of Donnachadh McCarthy to have the proposal debated in the first place, and then enforced by the Parliamentary Ombudsman (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3617328.stm), before he flounced out of the Party. I even drafted the amendment debated in 2004 calling for a new list to be elected by members in the European regions, to try and address the London and South-East centric nature of the 1999 list.

I still think that, until the Lords are properly elected (which the Tories will have no interest in promoting), all we can do is make sure our own procedures are properly democratic, and re-constitute the list every electoral cycle on a regional basis.

Jennie Rigg said...

Lord Daddy Alex? That would be worth a king's ransom in Doctor Who DVDs...