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Labour leader Ed Miliband calls for an independent review of the regulation and practices of newspapers after the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
UN Security Council members call for restraint and dialogue between protesters and authorities in Yemen, but talks on the crisis end without agreement.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Devices intended to “kill or maim” were sent to Neil Lennon, Trish Godman and Paul McBride QC Parcel bombs have been sent to Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two other high profile fans of the club.
Sources have told the BBC that the devices were “viable” and appeared to have been intended to “kill or maim”.
Mr Lennon’s lawyer, Paul McBride QC, and former deputy presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, Trish Godman, were also targeted.
The devices were found at various locations in the west of Scotland in the past month.
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said: “Let us be quite clear – there is a major police investigation under way to ensure that the individual or individuals concerned are identified and apprehended, and then brought to book with the full force of the law.
“We will not tolerate this sort of criminality in Scotland, and as an indication of the seriousness with which we view these developments the Cabinet sub-committee met last Saturday to ensure that the police investigation has every possible support to come to a successful conclusion.”
The first suspect package was intercepted by the Royal Mail in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, on 26 March and was addressed to Neil Lennon at Celtic’s training ground in nearby Lennoxtown.
Two days later a device was delivered to Labour politician Ms Godman’s constituency office in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire. Her staff were suspicious of the package and contacted Strathclyde Police.
Detectives initially treated the two parcels as “elaborate hoaxes” designed to cause distress rather than serious injury but further analysis has led to them being reclassified as “viable explosive devices”.
The third package was addressed to Mr McBride at the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh.
It is believed to have been posted in Ayrshire before being found in a letter box by a postal worker on Friday and taken to a Royal Mail sorting office in Kilwinning, where police were contacted.
“This now is terrorism, purely and simply. It’s got nothing to do with football and the background of the summit and the Old Firm game etc”
Michael Kelly Former director of Celtic Football Club
Detectives are also investigating another package addressed to Neil Lennon which was found at a sorting office in Saltcoats, North Ayrshire, on 4 March but this has not been confirmed as an explosive device.
It is understood that specialist anti-terrorist officers are involved in the investigation but a source close to the inquiry said they were “not linking this to any terrorist organisation”.
Henry McDonald, Ireland Correspondent for The Guardian, said that made sense: “I think in terms of the main loyalist terror organisations that are now on ceasefire and say they’ve decommissioned, I think they’d be frankly embarrassed by this kind of thing.
“They would regard it as a thing of the past and rather as an irritant and an embarrassment to loyalism so I suspect it’s an individual or individuals who maybe had bomb-making experience in the past who are disgruntled and looking for hate figures.”
For the past decade Neil Lennon has been such a figure.
The 39-year-old Catholic from Lurgan, County Armagh, has endured threats, abuse and violence.
He stopped playing international football for Northern Ireland in 2002 after a death threat, said to be from loyalist paramilitaries.
Lennon has also been the victim of a street attack in Glasgow and several other death threats since joining Celtic in 2000.
In January this year bullets addressed to the Celtic manager were intercepted at a sorting office in Glasgow. They appeared to have been sent from an address in Northern Ireland.
Earlier this week, media organisations, including the BBC, agreed to a police request not to broadcast details of the bomb incidents while officers carried out inquires.
Michael Kelly, a former director of Celtic Football Club said: “This now is terrorism, purely and simply. It’s got nothing to do with football and the background of the summit and the Old Firm game etc.
“It’s up to the police to refocus their targets on these people and to catch them.”
The BBC has been told that the three individuals appear to have been targeted after they featured, on separate occasions, in media coverage.
Mr McBride is one of the highest-profile QCs in Scotland and a well-known Celtic fan.
The Scottish Cup replay between Celtic and Rangers in March was ill-tempered He has acted for the club and Mr Lennon on several occasions during disputes with the Scottish Football Association (SFA).
The advocate has also been highly critical of the SFA in its dealings with Mr Lennon and Celtic.
Ms Godman has a lower public profile than Mr Lennon or Mr McBride but is well known in political circles as an avid Celtic fan.
Until dissolution of the Scottish Parliament last month, she was deputy presiding officer and the Labour MSP for West Renfrewshire.
On her last day as an MSP she was pictured in the Holyrood chamber wearing a Celtic football top.
Rangers and Celtic meet for the final time this season at Ibrox this weekend in a match which could prove crucial in deciding the Scottish Premier League title.
It is understood that senior police officers are concerned about a potential rise in tension ahead of the game on Easter Sunday.
Last month an ill-tempered Scottish Cup clash between the two sides led to political intervention.
The match saw three red cards, several touch-line and tunnel confrontations and 34 arrests inside Celtic Park and 187 outside.
After the final whistle, Mr Lennon and Rangers assistant manager Ally McCoist were involved in a confrontation.
Strathclyde Police requested a Scottish government-led summit after describing scenes at the game, which Celtic won 1-0, as “shameful”.
Both clubs subsequently agreed to an action plan to tackle Old Firm-related disorder.
The fallout from the controversial match continued, however, when the Celtic manager subsequently received a two-match ban for his actions.
McCoist had an initial two-match ban overturned, while two of his players, El-Hadji Diouf and Madjid Bougherra, were fined over their sendings off.
This prompted highly-critical comments from Mr McBride towards the SFA.
The advocate accused the organisation of being “dysfunctional”, “dishonest” and “biased” against Celtic.
In response the governing body described the QC’s remarks as “wild” and “inaccurate” and threatened to sue for defamation.
The BBC understands there have since been moves by both sides to resolve the matter out of court.
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Two million holes are dug in our roads each year, the LGA says. Botched roadworks are costing taxpayers in England and Wales £70m a year, the Local Government Association says.
It says councils are being left with the bill after contractors for utility companies fail to properly repair road surfaces they have dug up.
Workers dug two million holes last year and about 360,000 jobs were not properly completed, often leaving roads in a worse state, the LGA says.
The utility industry said controls over repairs were being tightened.
This was in response to an LGA suggestion that utility companies should pay a bond before starting any work, which could then be used to cover the cost of any subsequent repairs or delays.
The utility industry said any extra regulations would increase the cost of carrying out the work.
The LGA, which represents 419 local authorities in England and Wales, also wants councils to be given further powers to ensure roadworks are timed to cause minimum disruption to motorists.
“Contractors should not be allowed to get away with botching road repairs and then leaving council taxpayers to foot the bill”
Peter Box Local Government Association
Councillor Peter Box, chairman of the LGA’s economy and transport board, said: “Roadworks are a pet hate of all motorists.”
The LGA estimates that last year about 360,000 roadworks were not completed to the agreed specification, with work either over-running or roads not being restored to their original state.
Mr Box said: “Contractors should not be allowed to get away with botching road repairs and then leaving council taxpayers to foot the bill.
“Councils face the joint challenge of managing the toughest spending cuts in living memory and tackling a £10.5bn backlog in road maintenance.
“It is only right that companies which drill and dig up our roads pay their fair share towards fixing the damage.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Prince Charles has been next in line to the throne for more than 59 years Prince Charles has become the longest-serving heir apparent in British history.
The previous record, of 59 years, two months and 13 days, was set by his great-great-grandfather, King Edward VII, Clarence House said.
The Prince of Wales became heir apparent at the age of three when his mother, Princess Elizabeth, acceded the throne on 6 February 1952.
Charles, now 62, was nine when he was given the title the Prince of Wales.
Edward VII was born the heir apparent on 9 November 1841 as his mother, Queen Victoria, was already on the throne.
He took over as King when she died on 22 January 1901.
The heir apparent, currently always the eldest son of a sovereign, is the next in line to the throne and their right to succeed cannot be altered by the birth of another.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recently said that the government would consider changing the laws on royal succession to remove the right of male heirs to succeed before older female siblings.
He said both he and David Cameron were “sympathetic” to changing rules which seemed “a little old fashioned”.
But he added that it was not straightforward, because the decision would have to be approved by all Commonwealth countries.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The legs would have spanned up to 15cm, front to back (scale-bar: 5mm) Scientists have described a Chinese spider they say is the biggest fossilised arachnid yet found.
The female, which lived about 165 million years ago, belongs to a collection of spiders well known today – the golden orb weavers.
These creatures make webs from a very tough and distinctively golden silk.
The researchers tell the journal Biology Letters that Nephila jurassica, as they have called their specimen, would have had a leg span of some 15cm.
“She is the largest known fossil spider,” said Professor Paul Selden from the University of Kansas, US.
“Her body is not the biggest, but if you add in her long legs then she’s the largest,” he told BBC News.
Today’s Nephila species are found around the globe in tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Until this new fossil turned up in Inner Mongolia, the most ancient example from this grouping, or genus, was about 35 million years old.
So, this discovery pushes the existence of the Nephila back to the Jurassic Period, making them the longest ranging spider genus known.
No-one can say for sure how this particular arachnid met her end, but she may have succumbed to a natural catastrophe.
The spider was encased in volcanic ash at the bottom of what would have been a lake. Perhaps the ash fall from an eruption pulled her from her web and smothered her. Whatever the circumstances of the spider’s end, the preservation of detail today is exquisite.
“You see not just the hairs on the legs but little things like the trichobothria which are very, very fine. They’re used to detect air vibrations. There’s a very distinct group of them and they’re a very distinct size which is typical of this genus, Nephila,” Professor Selden explained.
A modern female golden orb weaver with a small male in close attendance Nephila females today weave some of the largest orb webs known, up to 1.5m in diameter. The great prowess of the females stands in stark contrast to the rather diminutive males of the genus. Their small form make the females look like giants.
This disparity in size is an example of what biologists refer to as extreme sexual dimorphism.
Professor Selden and his colleagues are keen to find out whether this characteristic holds true for the ancient Nephila, too.
“The previous oldest Nephilid is a male from the Cretaceous Period found in Spain. That male is normal sized, whereas in the present day the females are giants,” the Kansas scientist said.
“So, it looks like we may have this dimorphism going back this great length of time. We’d like to find a male in the deposit to confirm this. All the evidence would suggest the male would be normal size, but we haven’t yet located one.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The National Trust said vaccinating badgers was a “practical step forward” Badgers in a bovine tuberculosis “hotspot” on a National Trust estate in Devon are to be vaccinated as part of a four-year scheme, the trust says.
The scheme, which is to cost the trust £80,000 a year, will take place on the 6,400-acre Killerton estate in Exeter.
It aims to see if vaccination can be a viable alternative to culling badgers, which spread TB to cattle.
The work, which starts in May, will see government experts catch the animals, inject them and then catalogue them.
The trust said vaccinating badgers was a “practical step forward” after recent field studies which showed it worked to reduce TB in the wild animals.
Almost 35,000 cattle were slaughtered last year as part of efforts to control bovine TB, which is a particular problem in areas including Wales and the South West of England.
Six months ago the government revealed plans to allow farmers to cull badgers as part of a series of “science-led” measures to deal with TB.
However, a bid to introduce a cull in Wales has been held up by legal action and the final go-ahead in England has also been delayed.
Eighteen tenant farmers will participate in the trust’s programme. It will cover an area of almost 5,000 acres of farmland on the estate.
Staff from the Food and Environment Research Agency will catch, inject the mark caught animals to ensure they do not get re-injected.
Injecting the vaccine is currently the only way to administer it, although research and development of an oral vaccine which can be fed in bait to the animals is ongoing.
Mark Harold, director of the trust in the South West, said: “In many areas of the UK there are clearly practical problems in implementing an effective cull on badgers to reduce bovine TB in cattle.
“In these instances, vaccinations of badgers would appear to be the most effective ways of controlling the wildlife reservoir of the disease.
“This programme will show how badger vaccination can be deployed over a large area, and will pave the way for more widespread use of vaccination as an effective alternative to culling.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Damage from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is still being counted A year after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon the cost of the human and environmental disaster is still being counted.
For BP, the company at the heart of the disaster, the effects have had a deep and widespread impact.
On the eve of the explosion BP’s chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg had a letter for shareholders.
It was all about “a revitalised BP”, with the company trumpeting better finances than its rivals, but also big improvements in, of all things, its safety record.
No one has celebrated BP’s safety record since.
This year’s annual letter to shareholders had Mr Svanberg strike a very different tone.
He said that “after a very troubled and demanding 12 months BP is a changed company” .
“The Gulf of Mexico is the most profitable part of the world for BP”
Fadel Gheit Oppenheimer
In fact the company has become synonymous with everything that is dangerous about oil exploration.
And that is just the beginning of the damage to its reputation.
Never mind the mud. In America, BP’s name sometimes seems to have been dragged through each one of the four to five million barrels of oil that were spilled into the ocean, live on TV.
BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward was forced to resign in the aftermath of the disaster Such was the immediate harm to its reputation that many began to question whether the company could survive in America in its existing form.
A former cabinet secretary called for BP’s US operations to be nationalised.
Congress passed legislation restricting BP’s business here and many assumed that a sale of its assets in the Gulf of Mexico was on the cards.
So what will this eventually cost?
Well, like the effects of the oil spill itself, there are different ways of counting.
One might start with the loss of one boss.
Before the spill BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward, was getting plaudits for BP’s financial strength and its improved safety record.
The Wall Street Journal wrote articles contrasting the “well-tanned” Tony Hayward who “welcomed press…with a smile and bonhomie” with his more uptight counterparts at other, less profitable oil companies.
The oilspill has had a huge impact on communities around the Gulf of Mexico By the time Deepwater Horizon had finished dumping its toxic load onto America’s shores Mr Hayward was the most vilified business leader anyone could remember.
His eventual resignation was no surprise.
Then there’s the financial cost – BP’s accounts for 2010 put aside $41bn to pay for the spill, two and a half times more than BP’s entire profit in 2009.
While it’s true it might cover all the costs, it very well might not with the meter is still running, particularly on the legal fees.
One of the biggest costs could be the fine levied by the Environmental Protection Agency as the EPA sets its fines on a per-barrel basis.
So BP will be fined between $1100 and $4300 for every barrel that was spilled.
Once everyone’s agreed on how many barrels that was then the fine will be set according to how negligent BP is deemed to have been.
In short, if the company is found to have been grossly negligent and something like 4.5 million was spilled, that’s a fine of over $19bn.
Another year’s profit lost?
Despite this disaster, the Gulf of Mexico will remain a vital source of oil for the US in the future Admittedly that’s a worst-case scenario for the biggest single civil case, but with hundreds of other cases behind that, the company itself admits it has no useful way of forecasting the total legal bill.
So with a shattered reputation, a lost CEO and costs in the untold billions, it’s hardly surprising BP describes itself as a changed company.
But in certain crucial respects BP has not changed, because it never did get out of the US oil exploration business.
The breathless talk of leaving the US from last summer has gone, BP executives always knew as they fought the gruelling PR battles of 2010 is that the Gulf of Mexico is just too lucrative to leave.
As oil analyst Fadel Gheit from Oppenheimer says: “The Gulf of Mexico is the most profitable part of the world for BP.”
Mr Gheit offers a simplified calculation to illustrate this.
He says that if, for the sake of round numbers, you assume BP sells oil at $100 per barrel, a barrel from the Gulf can be broken down as follows:
BP pays $20 of the $100 to the US government in royalties – i.e. for the right to extract the oil in the first place.
It then spends something like $25 getting the oil out of the ground (in truth, Mr Gheit says, BP is much more efficient than this.)
The US government then taxes BP’s earnings at a rate of 34%.
All of which means that BP is left with a little over $36 dollars of profit for every $100 barrel it gets from the Gulf of Mexico.
Contrast that with Russia where BP is so energetically trying to secure its future.
Mr Gheit says that if BP gets $15 a barrel from Russian oil it is “extremely lucky”.
It’s also clear from such arithmetic that billions of dollars are at stake for the US government.
The extent of the oilspill’s effect on wildlife in the region are still not yet clear Given the bitter arguments over spending and debt, the US government needs all the billions it can find.
Then there’s the other pressing economic problem of unemployment.
A jobless rate of 8.8% does not give politicians any reason to turn down an industry that’s ready to hire thousands, in the region that suffered the worst hardship.
The government has every incentive for the big oil companies to get back to work in the Gulf.
Drilling permits there are being issued again, albeit slowly. BP hasn’t been granted any yet, but analysts expect it will be by the end of 2011.
So fast forward another year and the “changed” company that is BP may be in a strikingly similar position to the one it was in on the eve of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
It will doubtless once more be emphasising the safety of its operations.
The most lucrative part of its business may well be in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thousands of people on the Gulf Coast may rely on it for their livelihoods, and it will again provide a vital source of revenue and energy for the US.
In most vital respects, as a business, it turns out that BP might not be that changed by the Deepwater horizon disaster.
That doesn’t belittle the scale of the human and environmental catastrophe so much as it reflects the size and importance of BP.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The civilian death toll has been high in Misrata, the rebels’ last stronghold in western Libya Libya’s foreign minister says a British plan to send a military team to advise rebels fighting Col Gaddafi would harm chances of peace in the country.
A UK military presence in rebel-held Benghazi would “prolong” fighting, Abdul Ati al-Obeidi told the BBC.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the move complied with a UN resolution to protect civilians in Libya, which forbids foreign occupation forces.
The team is set to provide logistics and intelligence training in Benghazi.
The BBC understands about 10 UK officers and a similar number from France will be despatched on the mission.
Libya is embroiled in a two-month uprising by rebels based in the eastern city of Benghazi to end Col Gaddafi’s 42-year rule.
Following the fall of presidents in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, Libya’s revolt has developed into an armed conflict, with rebels pitted against pro-Gaddafi forces for control over territory.
Misrata, the rebels’ last stronghold in the west, has faced weeks of heavy bombardment.
Mr Obeidi proposed that there should be a ceasefire followed by an interim period of maybe six months to prepare for an election which would be supervised by the UN, as proposed by the African Union roadmap.
“We think any military presence is a step backwards and we are sure that if this bombing stopped and there is a real ceasefire we could have a dialogue among all Libyans about what they want – democracy, political reform, constitution, election. This could not be done with what is going on now,” said Mr Obeidi.
He said the election would cover “whatever issue is raised by Libyans”, and that anything could be on the table, including, he implied, the future of Col Gaddafi as leader.
Countries he had visited had been supportive about a suggested ceasefire and helping the humanitarian effort, Mr Obeidi added, but pointed to the UK, France and Italy as being unhelpful.
Mr Obeidi said everything possible was being done to help international aid organisations give help to people in Misrata.
William Hague: “This is not British ground combat forces going in… this is fully in line with the UN resolution”
UN Security Council Resolution 1973, passed in March, authorised “all necessary measures short of occupation” to protect civilians.
Nato is currently in charge of the no-fly zone and coalition operations have been largely confined to air attacks.
Mr Hague stressed the officers being sent to the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi would not be involved in any fighting.
They would be drawn from experienced British military officers and charged with supporting and advising the NTC [opposition National Transitional Council] on how to “improve their military organisational structures, communications and logistics”.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said France is opposed to the idea of sending coalition ground troops into Libya, or even special forces to guide air strikes, to break the military stalemate.
Brig Gen Mark Van Uhm, chief of Allied operations, said almost 2,800 sorties had been flown over Libya, destroying more than a third of Col Gaddafi’s military assets.
He said the situation on the ground remained fluid and was changing daily.
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A plane carrying First Lady Michelle Obama had to abort a landing near Washington DC after an apparent air traffic controller’s error.
The aircraft carrying her came within three miles of a military cargo jet, rather than the minimum five-mile distance set by US aviation officials.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the planes “were never in any danger”. Both landed safely.
The FAA is investigating Tuesday’s alert as a possible controller’s error.
It was the latest in a series of episodes involving apparent lapses by air traffic controllers.
Several controllers and supervisors have been suspended by the FAA since late March over incidents involving workers sleeping on the job, almost all of them during overnight shifts.
Another controller was suspended on Monday for watching a film when he was supposed to be monitoring aircraft in Ohio, the FAA said.
On Tuesday, air traffic controllers at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland ordered the Boeing 737 carrying Mrs Obama to abort its planned landing after it came within three miles of a C-17 cargo plane.
Under FAA rules, a minimum separation of five miles was required between the C-17 and the next plane to avoid dangerous turbulence from the cargo jet’s wake.
The Boeing 737 was instructed to perform a “go around” and subsequently landed safely, the FAA said in a statement, without naming Mrs Obama as a passenger.
The FAA is investigating the incident as a possible mistake by controllers at a regional radar facility in Warrenton, Virginia.
The presidential aircraft Air Force One and other government planes are based at Andrews. The air space around the military base is administered by the civilian FAA.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
A woman in the US has become engaged to her boyfriend after he proposed via the crossword puzzle of a national newspaper.
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Mohamed Bouazizi’s mother keeps a passport-sized photo of her late son Proceedings have been dropped against a policewoman accused of abusing Mohamed Bouazizi, the market vendor whose suicide provoked Tunisia’s revolution.
The case against Fadia Hamdi was dropped at the start of her trial in Sidi Bouzid after his mother withdrew her complaint, Tunisian media report.
Mannoubiya Bouazizi said she wanted to promote reconciliation.
Ms Hamdi denies slapping her son when police seized his goods, a move that drove Bouazizi to set himself on fire.
Speaking to Tunisia’s TAP news agency, his mother said: “It was a difficult but well-thought out decision to avoid hatred and… [to] help reconcile the residents of Sidi Bouzid.”
Her son died in hospital of his burns on 5 January, nearly three weeks after his self-immolation in front of the governor’s office Sidi Bouzid.
“All the money in the world can’t replace the loss of Mohamed who sacrificed himself for freedom and for dignity,” his brother Salem said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press news agency.
Tunisia’s ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali had Ms Hamdi arrested just before he fled abroad in January, in an apparent bid to quell national outrage over Bouazizi’s fate.
In court, the policewoman insisted she was innocent. “I did not slap him,” she said.
Her lawyer, Besma Nasri, described the case as “a purely political affair”.
Hundreds of people outside the court cheered as the charges were dropped, shouting “freedom, freedom”, and saying Ms Hamdi had been used as a scapegoat.
The main square in the Tunisian capital Tunis has been renamed after Mohamed Bouazizi.
Mr Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia, is currently wanted in his home country on 18 different charges, including voluntary manslaughter and drug-trafficking, and a caretaker government is in power in Tunisia.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By James Landale
There are now nearly 800 peers entitled to attend and vote in the House of Lords David Cameron has been told by a cross-party group of senior peers that the House of Lords is “full” and he must stop creating new members.
The prime minister has created more peers more quickly than any of his post-war predecessors, having ennobled 117 people in less than a year.
The House of Lords now has 792 members who are entitled to attend and vote.
The peers warn that this number is “unsustainable” and is damaging the effectiveness of the Lords.
The warning comes in a report from the independent Constitution Unit at University College London and has been endorsed by 13 peers from all parties.
They include former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler; former Speaker Baroness Boothroyd; the convenor of the independent crossbenchers, Baroness De Souza; former Labour leader of the Lords Baroness Jay; former Tory Cabinet ministers Lord Forsyth and Lord Mackay of Clashfern; former Labour cabinet minister Lord Adonis; former Liberal leader Lord Steel of Aikwood; and former Master of the Rolls Lord Woolf.
They warn that the House of Lords is now overcrowded with members competing for seats in the chamber and office space outside.
They say there is a “fractious atmosphere” with many peers frustrated at their inability to take part in debates and they warn that the rapid influx of new peers – particularly ex-MPs – has had a negative impact on the Lords’ non-partisan ethos and courteous atmosphere.
“Any further increase in size could fundamentally undermine the chamber’s ability to do its job”
Constitution Unit report
They are calling for an immediate moratorium on new appointments, a new cap so that the Lords never has more than 750 members, a new mechanism that would allow peers to retire, and fresh curbs on the power of a prime minister to appoint so many peers in the first place.
“Peers are faced with working in overcrowded conditions, with limited access to computers and telephones, and little or no space for staff,” the Constitution Unit report said. “This is far from conducive to effective working.”
“Many more peers are seeking to contribute to debates, ask questions, and become members of committees. This has created a more fractious atmosphere in the chamber, and growing frustration amongst members who cannot contribute effectively.”
The only prime minister who came close to the rate of ennoblement seen over the past year was Tony Blair, who created 70 peers in his first year of office in 1997-98.
The report said the arrival of so many new peers in such a short space of time had had a “negative impact” upon the culture of the upper chamber.
“In the past, members of the House of Lords have been added only gradually, and become socialised in the chamber’s practices and conventions,” it noted.
“Most obviously, the chamber is known for having a non-partisan ethos, and a courteous atmosphere.
“It has been widely noted – in the media as well as within Parliament itself – that the influx of a large number of new members, including many former MPs, has resulted in changed behaviour.
“The House of Lords’ effective functioning has already been compromised by the recent rapid rise in membership, in ways which are damaging its effectiveness. Any further increase in size could fundamentally undermine the chamber’s ability to do its job.”
A committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is expected to publish a draft bill on proposed reform of the Lords in the next few months but any changes agreed are unlikely to come into effect for some time.
The coalition government is committed to reducing the size of the House of Commons from 650 to 600 MPs at the next election.
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Nearly three million people are awaiting a court ruling which could have an impact on compensation for past loan insurance sales.
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Witness to Syria protests: “The shooting is hammering down on us like rain”
Syria’s government has lifted the country’s decades-old state of emergency as protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad continue.
The state security court, which handled the trials of political prisoners, has been abolished while a new law allowing peaceful protests has been approved.
The repeal of the emergency law was a key demand of protesters.
Earlier, unverified footage from the western city of Homs appeared to show security forces opening fire.
It was only a few days ago that Homs began to appear in media coverage of the ongoing protests in Syria, although it wasn’t far behind Deraa in joining the current wave of protests against President Assad’s regime.
The city of Homs lies in central Syria, approximately 180km (111 miles) north of Damascus. It is the main city in the province of Homs, the largest in Syria and the third most populous, with more than a million residents.
As in Deraa, the governor of Homs is very close to President Assad, and this has played a major role in fuelling protests in both cities.
The latest protests took place mainly in the city of Homs and also in the nearby cities of al-Rastan and Talbeesa.
In the beginning, the protesters had a number of specific demands, but the deadly reaction of the authorities fuelled their anger. Those taking part in the second wave of protests are calling for the fall of the regime.
The country’s interior minister has urged people to refrain from taking part in rallies in the interests of safety and stability.
Mohammed Ibrahim al-Shaar told people “to refrain from taking part in all marches, demonstrations or sit-ins under any banner whatsoever”, in remarks carried by the official news agency, Sana.
He warned that if demonstrations were held, “the laws in force in Syria will be applied in the interest of the safety of the people and the stability of the country”.
The BBC’s Owen Bennet-Jones says the apparently contradictory moves suggest that a major debate is going on at highest levels of Syrian politics.
The indications are that the lifting of the state of emergency will not be enough to satisfy the protesters, our correspondent adds.
Activists say about 200 Syrians have died in weeks of unrest challenging the rule of President Assad.
Witnesses in Homs, the country’s third-largest city, said security forces had opened fire early on Tuesday to disperse a mass anti-government protest there.
At least 5,000 demonstrators occupied Clock Square in Homs on Monday after mass funerals for about 12 protesters reportedly killed by security forces at the weekend.
Security forces swarmed into the main square before dawn. Witnesses said security forces told them through loudhailers to leave, before firing tear gas, then live ammunition.
A protester called Omar told BBC Arabic that he had seen one person shot dead.
“Listen to the shooting,” he said. “Can you hear it? It’s hammering on us like rain.
Another demonstrator in Homs told the Associated Press news agency by telephone: “I saw people on the ground, some shot in their feet, some in the stomach.”
On Saturday, Mr Assad promised an imminent end to the state of emergency, which has been in place for 48 years. The authorities have also been freeing political prisoners – another key demand of the protesters.
But Syria’s unprecedented wave of unrest shows no sign of abating.
The government has said an “armed insurrection” by Salafist groups is taking place in Homs and further north in Baniyas.
Salafism is a strict form of Sunni Islam which many Arab governments equate with militant groups like al-Qaeda.
Sana news agency has also been reporting on events in Homs.
It said three army officers, including a brigadier general, together with his two sons and a nephew, were killed on Sunday by “armed criminal gangs” which then mutilated the bodies.
State TV carried footage of large crowds expressing support for President Assad at their funerals.
Demonstrations against Mr Assad’s ruling Baath Party spread after breaking out in the southern city of Deraa in mid-March.
The unrest poses the gravest threat to his rule since he succeeded his father Hafez al-Assad 11 years ago.
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