The Diary

Peer pressure I overheard at Norman Fowler's party that a new list of peers will be announced next week. Will they include Malcolm Rifkind, Jack Straw and Peter Lilley, who could pass on their vast political experience in debates and committees in the Upper House? The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford did offer to store them in boxes that would be called for by any visiting scholar or enthusiast, but I didn't find that very appealing.