Earl of Onslow dies aged 73

Earl of Onslow in the House of Lords

I've just noticed this on the BBC website.

"The hereditary peer, the Earl of Onslow, has died, House of Lords speaker Baroness Hayman has announced. The 73-year-old peer had been a member of the House for 40 years and last spoke in the chamber on 29 March. A self-styled "disloyal" Conservative, he was known for his colourful bow ties and outspoken views on issues such as drugs, which he called to be legalised."

Nick Clegg is currently unveiling plans for a second chamber populated by 300 members, 80% of which could be elected. Who might get to choose the candidates, I wonder? Maybe they will be those who failed for the other place.

Lord Onslow saw humbug, spoke up against it, and was not afraid to speak his mind. I'd far rather have a 100 of him than one of Clegg's nominees! Let the dust settle on the House of Commons, with all its recent travails, before we get to pontificate on the House of Lords. Anyway, who is so desperate for this supposed reform? Most people are worried about their immediate futures.

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Earl of Onslow is ill

Quentin Letts has a good turn of phrase usually. Spot on with is observations. I didn't know that the Earl of Onslow was very ill. He is a doughty fighter for causes, an exemplary example of a hereditary peer and a very good antidote to the type of nonentities that Nick Clegg is so very keen on replacing him with. I do hope the Earl of Onslow gets better soon.

This is what I spotted in Letts' column today in the Daily Mail.

Quietly, the Church of England has gone electronic. It has been running an internet prayer wall during Lent (sayoneforme.org) and hundreds of supplications show us a vulnerable side of humanity not often reported. If you have any prayers to spare, please say one not for me. Say it for one of our great parliamentary characters, the Earl of Onslow. He is desperately ill, but has continued with his duties and only the other day attended a committee meeting in his wheelchair.

Duty isn't much commended these days. It's more greasy poles and expansive expenses.

Update: 17/05/11 http://ardenforester.blogspot.com/2011/05/earl-of-onslow-dies-aged-73.html

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No Playboy at playtime for the boys in Baghdad

Censorship? No, it's more about decency. That's what Paul Broun unveiled in his House bill last week (April 16). The upstanding Congressman from Georgia says his Military Honor and Decency Act would amend a provision of the 1997 Defense Authorization Act that banned sales of “sexually explicit material” on military bases. Paul's all worried about the morals of the boys fighting the insurgents and renegades in Iraq and elsewhere.

“Allowing sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes, feeding a base addiction, eroding the family as the primary building block of society, and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad,” Broun said. Now don't you hold back, Paul! You tell those guys that reading this stuff can make them go barmy and bawdy, and even belligerent. One part of the provision states that if a print publication is a periodical, it would be considered sexually explicit if “it regularly features or gives prominence to nudity or sexual or excretory activities or organs in a lascivious way.” Nudity lascivious, then? Too much control, Paul. Too much of you bothering about other people's private business.

The same thing's happening in Britain. Some New Labour control freaks want to add all sorts of stuff to the catch-all Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. Thankfully we have such people as the Earl of Onslow to look out for us and our freedoms. Commenting on the definition of "extreme pornographic images" during a debate on the bill, the Earl said -

"My Lords, are we not facing the terrible problem of definition? Where you have a definition that says that an extreme pornographic image is an image which is, "(a) pornographic, and (b) an extreme image", that is like saying a dog is a dog or a horse is a horse; it gets you absolutely nowhere.

There is a wonderful museum in Paris, the Musée d’Orsay, which is full of the most beautiful pictures. One of them was commissioned by the Turkish ambassador in around 1860. It is a close-up painting of a lady’s genitalia, and I believe it is called the Mother of the World—

Lord Faulkner of Worcester: “L’Origine du Monde”.

The Earl of Onslow: I thank the noble Lord. My bet is that the Turkish ambassador commissioned that painting for sexual arousal, and yet there it is, displayed in the Musée d’Orsay. Some Greek vases have pictures of Priapus on them. If Priapus was to do the things he is threatening to do, it is fairly likely, because of the size of what he has got, that they would result in serious injury to a person’s bits and pieces. We are here in the problem of definition.

I wonder what the Congressman thinks of such a painting. Would he include it in his bill? Paul Broun should ponder on definition, because it will be a problem for him as much as anyone else.

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