Saturday, May 20, 2017 7:30pm

Herefordshire’s cross-bench peer, Lord Lisvane, is the former Clerk of the House of Commons – its most senior official, who with his staff of 2,000, effectively ran the House and its workings from 2011 – 2014.

He began his career at the House when Edward Heath was Prime Minister, and retired during David Cameron’s Administration (with six other Prime Ministers in between!). He was knighted in 2012, received a peerage on retirement (only the third Clerk of the House to do so) and now sits as an independent Crossbencher in the House of Lords. In his last years at the House of Commons, he worked with the controversial Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.

He also featured in the BBC documentary, ‘Inside the Commons’. Lord Lisvane will tell us bizarre and hilarious stories; of odd and surprising facts about Parliament; and explanations of the impenetrable mysteries of a Gothic fantasy palace on the banks of the Thames. Robert Lisvane is an expert but irreverent guide through Westminster's turbulent centuries. Kings and commoners, the great and the not-so-good, statesmen and headsmen are dealt with by withering insults, wit and laughter, and an extraordinary cast of characters, from Charles I to Churchill.

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