I am back in London today and there is a definite ‘first day of term’ feeling about Parliament. I have done a couple of interviews for local radio this morning and the Queens Speech will take place around 11.30am. The security arrangements have all changed with the blockades being removed and the streets around Parliament being closed to traffic and in many cases to pedestrians too.
As to what will be in the Queen’s Speech I think most measures will be welcomed and as they will all ahve been agreed with the Liberal Democrats I suspect there will not be too many Bills which are particularly controversial. Except of course the Liberal Democrat plans to try and bring about a major constitutional change in the way the House of Lords is elected and operates. There will no doubt be plenty of opportunities in the months ahead for blog posts on Lords reform so I will not start down that path today suffice to say two things. Firstly, I do not sense any great desire among the voters of Bury North for Parliament to spend months on such a matter when there are far more important issues to consider. Secondly, no one ever seems to be able to explain how the proposed reforms will improve the work of the House of Lords.
David Nuttall 
‘We will work to build a consensus for a mainly-elected second chamber to replace the current house of Lords, recognising that an efficient and effective second chamber should play an important role in our democracy and requires both legitimacy and public confidence’.
This manifesto quote explains why your party thought that replacing the House of Lords was important at the last election – and you asked us to vote for you on this basis.