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A thread of trivia regarding Lord Hailsham, who is leading the charge against the Johnson proroguing gambit:
His father Quintin Hogg was a heriditary peer (the 2nd Viscount Hailsham) who disclaimed his peerage in 1963, then returned to the Lords as a life peer in 1970
His father Quintin Hogg was a heriditary peer (the 2nd Viscount Hailsham) who disclaimed his peerage in 1963, then returned to the Lords as a life peer in 1970
Douglas Hogg became 3rd Viscount Hailsham in 2001 on the death of his father, because first still inherit peerages even if their dads disown them (up the aristocracy!). Hogg Jr didn't join the Lords then because most heriditay peers were chucked out in 1999
He wouldn't have minded though as he was already in the Commons, having been an MP since 1979. He carried on until 2010, after public outrage about his decision to spend taxpayers money cleaning out the moat at his country pile in the 2008 expenses scandal obliged him to bow out
Cameron was keen to get him straight back to Westminster in 2011, in the upper house this time, but the Lords Appointments Committee weren't keen on having the expenses scandal posterboy elevated so quick;y
Undeterred, the 3rd Viscount Hailsham sought office under the weirdest elections available in Britain - the by-elections which now occur whenever one of the quota of hereditary peers currently in the Lords dies. The electorate is all the other hereditary peers from that party
Hailsham stood twice to win the affections of his fellow Tory hereditary aritocrats in these special super-posho by-elections and twice lost.
David Cameron, rewarding persistence if not success, came to the rescue, elevating him to a life peerage in October 2015.
His wife's in the Lords too - she's been there since 1995 having picked up a life peerage, so like her husband she's a double peer - Viscountess Hailsham and Baroness Hogg. Do they get two coats of arms each, I wonder?
Lord Hailsham III likely knows procedure in both houses very well - he's served in both, and his dad served in both too. And both his dad and grandad were Lord Chancellors, who until 2005 served as the equivalent to the Speaker in the Lords.
(Incidentally, the Lord Chancellor is the highest paid office in the land, even better paid than PM, which may explain how the Hailsham family came to own big country piles with moats in the first place)
