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Lords in loo lock-in over reform proposals
10 Mar 2004 by Malcolm Drury
Plans for abolishing the post of Lord Chancellor and setting up a Supreme Court in Britain appear to be in tatters today after several Law Lords, refusing to be cowed by Tony Blair and his government, locked and barricaded themselves in House Of Lords lavatories.
The crisis was precipitated when the House of Lords voted to halt a Bill establishing the Supreme Court and instead referred it to a special committee for further scrutiny. The Bill scraps the ancient post of Lord Chancellor and removes the Law Lords from the upper chamber. The vote was widely expected to lead to a brutal battle between the government and the House of Lords, and it appears that the Law Lords' action is the first salvo in that battle.
By the middle of the morning several of the Lords had found their way on to the roof of the building, where they have been for most of the day, bewigged and enrobed, hurling toilet rolls and Latin epithets at people below.
Speaking through the keyhole in one of the lavatories, an unidentified Law Lord told our reporter that they would not, they would not be moved, while others of the looed Lords sang "We shall overcome".
"And just let Blair try using the Parliament Act to force this nonsense through," he added. "We can stay here for a very long time if necessary and we have a lot of other things we can do."
Lord Snooty, political correspondent for The Beano, has emerged as a go-between for the Law Lords and the government. He told our reporter that the Lords had no intention of leaving their loos until the government retreated from its planned changes, and had asked for a supply of toilet paper, laxatives, brandy, Geritol, and new batteries for their hearing aids.
Constitutional expert Professor Douglas Ramsbottom of the Department of Law and Social Engineering at the University of Bootle told our reporter that to the best of his knowledge the Law Lords' actions were unprecedented, at least in Britain. "There was a case many years ago in which a member of the upper chamber was found locked in a broom cupboard, but it turned out it was an accident," he said. "The poor fellow had been led to believe that, er, how shall I put it, a young female assistant was to join him in there, but it was all a cruel hoax. Probably as well, really, as the old boy was well into his 90s and probably wouldn't have been able to cope."
Lord Hutton is not thought to be involved in the loo lock-in.
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Oi, down here!
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