A Few Quick Notes 277

-Today seemed pretty nice, though I didn't have chance to make it outside to experience it in person until after 11:00 PM tonight.

-While doing some research earlier this evening I happened to come across a blog called Lords of the Blog. It seems that the contributors to this blog are Peers and that it is updated on a relatively regular basis. I was somewhat surprised to find such a blog, I know I would have a hard time imagining that Canadian or American Senators participating in such a venture.

The blog links to a number of blogs of other British politicians, including the mayor of London, and former Conservative MP, Boris Johnson. I am much less surprised to see that Boris Johnson has a blog, though I was surprised to see how frequently he posts. I would have imagined that being the Mayor of a major European city would have slowed his blogging down to nothing more than a trickle, though this doesn't seem to be the case.

-Several moments prior to coming upon the previously mentioned blogs, I happened to be looking through the House of Lords Hansard from March 22, 2004 when I came across the following quote from Lord Peston

"in the committees that I have chaired or been a member of, that we proceed by consensus. I have never chaired a committee in which I have allowed a vote. Of course, I do not believe in votes anyway, I believe in reason."

I was a little surprised to learn that Lord Peston was a Labour peer, and that he is a life peer rather than a hereditary peer.

-A few minutes ago I had to make a late night trip to the grocery store to pick up some Fisherman's Friend throat lozenges. Based on the degree that this first was has given me I am starting to wonder why I didn't make the the trip earlier today. Unfortunately, I am not really starting to feel out of it. I guess I should probably try to get some sleep soon.

-A few days ago I started reading Alligator by Lisa Moore (I found this author profile by an acquaintance of mine). So far, which is about 100 pages, I am quite impressed. It has kind of put me in the mood to read more Newfoundland fiction. As I have Percy Janes' House of Hate and Michael Winter's The Big Why I should be set for some time, if this the reading path I chose to take. An alternate path would be to acquire the third book in Evenlyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, Unconditional Surrender, and finish that set of books off.

Blog-off
Cameron: 32
Neil: 1

MPs?

Just a few moments ago I happened to see the descriptors following the names of various national politicians.

After the names of those individuals who were members of the House of Commons the letters 'MP' appeared. After the Senator's name it said 'Senator.'

In many ways this seems somewhat strange because both Senators and members of the House of Commons are members of Parliament. How is it that common usage has developed in such a way that only members of the House of Commons are referred to in this way?

Presumably this has something to do with the corresponding usage practices that have developed in the UK, though it might be interesting to know if this has always been the case. I wonder if there has been a time when Lords were known as MPs?

Surely all of you are equally as concerned with this question and will likely lose some amount of sleep in the coming days, at least on until some sort of resolution has been reached.