Erstellt am: 11. 7. 2012 - 14:19 Uhr

The Fortunes of the Unelected

Reality Check: Conservative MPs reject parliamentary reforms in GB; recovering hidden Arab Uprising assets

EPA/Kirsty Wigglesworth

Members of the House of Lords in the ceremonial ermine robes. Photo: EPA/Jamie Wiseman

Rebellion in Britain’s government

The coalition of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives and Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats has been dealt a setback in its plans to reform the upper chamber of parliament. Members of the House of Lords are not elected – they are either appointed or they inherit the role. Turning it into a mostly elected chamber is one of the main planks of the coalition deal between the Tories and the Lib Dems. Those plans received a setback on Tuesday, when the government dropped plans for a controversial vote on the reforms because some 90 Tory MPs who oppose the changes rebelled and threatened to vote against. More from our London correspondent Catherine Drew:

Tracking the hidden assets of deposed dictators

Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is gone, Egypt and Tunisia have been freed from the old regimes of Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, but where are the billions that were hidden away when they were dictators? The World Bank reckons that at most, only 1 per cent of assets stolen by corrupt politicians around the world are ever recovered, according to Robert Palmer of Global Witness, who tells us more about the challenges of finding and recovering the assets of countries freed from dictatorship: