Here is the latest nomination in our series highlighting people David Cameron should consider appointing to the House of Lords.
If you would like to nominate someone, please email Jonathan Isaby with your suggestion, ideally including key arguments for
the nomination as well as biographical information. The sources of nominations will be treated confidentially where
requested.
No. 12: Sir Tim Rice
One man whom I have long thought would be great to have in the House of Lords is the lyricist, author and all-round good egg, Sir Tim Rice.
In 1997 his regular songwriting partner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, was appointed a Conservative peer - although he has not been the most regular of contributors in the Lords and has since distanced himself from the Tories. "It's hilarious that people think of me as aligned with Conservatives and Conservative peers," Lord Lloyd-Webber told the Daily Telegraph on 26th May 2007. "The fact is that I've voted for this Government more than I ever have the Conservatives."
Sir Tim, on the other hand, is a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative who was for many years an active President of his local Conservative Association in Richmond Park.
He has previously joked that his "Neanderthal views" put him out of kilter with David Cameron's Conservative Party. "There are far more votes to be gained from stern disapproval of global warming and renewing my massive subscription to the NHS than in escape from Europe and tax cuts," he wrote in The Spectator in February 2007.
But as far as I'm concerned, he is a Great British success story who would have much to contribute to the Upper House, and not just in the fields of culture, the arts, media and sport, where his expertise lies.
Jonathan Isaby
> Yesterday's nomination: Andy Street
