Lord Lucas
Ralph Lucas (Lord Lucas of Crudwell & Dingwall) read physics at Balliol College, Oxford and then took articles as a chartered accountant. He worked for S G Warburg & Co from 1976 to 1988.
He served as a government whip in the House of Lords from 1994 to 1997, and was spokesman for education and agriculture. He remains an active backbencher, taking a particular interest (besides parking regulation) in education, liberty, electronic government, planning and finance. He also runs The Good Schools Guide.
Lord Lucas also chairs the Enforcement Law Reform Group, and the London Motorists Action Group. He told the BBC Radio 4's iPM programme recently that the enforcement of incorrectly signed parking areas "...is something that seems to me to be close to theft, and it probably would be adjudged as theft if one could ever get it to court."
"So it is extremely difficult to get local authorities to behave properly on this. There doesn't seem to be an ombudsman who will take this seriously and central government really just treats this as part of the tax-raising system."
"It just generally makes people's lives that bit more miserable"
Ralph's links: Wikipedia Lords of the Blog The Independent| The iPM interview in full on SplashCast |