Eight things from Parliament...

Lord Howe, watched by Lord Lamont and Lord Lawson

A gaggle of former chancellors converged on the red leather benches of the upper chamber on Monday to discuss a bill aiming to ensure that voters have a veto on whether to join the euro, if a future government was keen.

The nettle of the UK's previous involvement in closer monetary cooperation in Europe was given a grasping, with Lord Howe of Aberavon revealing how he had first heard the news about the government's decision to join the exchange rate mechanism from the Queen.

In good natured exchanges he was chided by his Conservative colleague Lord Lawson of Blaby for a trip down memory lane that, while "fascinating", was of "absolutely no relevance" to the debate at hand.

Sectarianism at football matches is being targeted by new measures

There were contrasting views in Holyrood on the pace of action needed to tackle sectarianism.

SNP MSP Bob Doris urged ministers to be "fleet of foot" and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill pledged to introduce an anti-sectarianism bill before the summer recess.

But Mr MacAskill faced criticism about the Scottish government's timetable, with the new convener of the Justice Committee, SNP MSP Christine Grahame, arguing that a "sunset clause", which would force future parliaments to re-examine the legislation, was necessary to mitigate the lack of scrutiny the bill will get.

Conservative backbencher Andrew Turner has lampooned the London Olympics organising committee for apparently suggesting that they had a monopoly on the usage of the number 2012.

A constituent of his had been "threatened" by the committee over her plans to include the year in the name of events she hopes to hold, Mr Turner alleged. He asked the Leader of the House of Commons if he could clarify the issue, for the sake of calendar makers amongst others.

Fridays in the House of Commons are sparsely attended, but the Private Members' Bill being debated this week, kept them occupied for four and a half hours. Christopher Chope's Employment Opportunities Bill proposed allowing people to be able to opt out of minimum wage regulations, and also allowing the rate to be lower in some regions of the UK. The ideas were rejected in a Commons vote. During the debate Conservative MP Philip Davies suggested disabled people could overcome disadvantage in the workplace by being able to offer themselves for work at below the minimum wage. "My concern," he said "about it is it prevents those people from being given the opportunity to get the first rung on the employment ladder." That idea was swiftly shot down by fellow Tory Edward Leigh, but dominated the media coverage.

In Northern Ireland a senior official revealed how he came up with an "indicative valuation" of ?200m for government-owned land near Belfast that was ultimately valued at less than ?6m. A proposal was made in 2007 to sell the land at the department of agriculture's testing station in Crossnacreevy to help pay for a farm nutrients scheme.

Northern Ireland Assembly

The permanent secretary of the agriculture department, Gerry Lavery, told MLAs he had asked one of his staff to find out how much land with planning permission was selling for in greater Belfast. Mr Lavery was given the figure of ?2.5m and said he had multiplied this by 80 acres to come up with the final figure of ?200m.

Government land and property services ultimately placed a value on the Crossnacreevy site at between ?2.28m and ?5.8m. Committee members wanted to know how the ?200m figure had come to feature in the executive's budget at the time.

Mr Lavery said it was only an indicative figure. "It was never a valuation. It has never been presented as a valuation."

After some Conservative MPs reportedly questioned the merits of increasing international development spending while cutting public services at home, the secretary of state responsible, Andrew Mitchell, launched a passionate defence of one aspect of his department's work: disaster relief operations.

Climate change and population growth were making events such as flooding, earthquakes and war "more intense and frequent", he told MPs, pledging to make the UK better prepared to deal with such emergencies, in line with the recommendations of a recent report by former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown.

Yet in the Lords, Labour accused Foreign Secretary William Hague of not doing enough to prevent violence on the border between north and south Sudan.

Following a question on the worsening situation in the region, Labour frontbencher and former Foreign Office minister Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead called on the government to provide a more assertive response to the "appalling atrocities" reportedly taking place.

The week started in the Northern Ireland Assembly with MLAs paying tribute to the Irish politician Brian Lenihan who died on 10 June 2011 at the age of 52.

They moved on to sending birthday messages to the Duke of Edinburgh, who turned 90 last week, with Unionist MLAs lavishing praise on him.

But Alliance Party MLA Trevor Lunn had the best anecdote about Prince Philip's legendary sense of humour.

The suggestion that cheques will be phased out of usage by 2018 has caused much consternation among parliamentarians.

David Ruffley, the Conservative MP for Bury St Edmunds and member of the Treasury select committee channelled his fury into a series of withering questions to the chairman of the UK payments council, the body that first mooted the move.

Round-up of the key question time links

Catch up with Prime Minister's Questions from Westminster; Alex Salmond dismissing calls for an apology during First Minister's Questions in Scotland; Carwyn Jones voicing concerns about BMI Baby airline's decision to relocate from Cardiff during First Minister's Questions in Wales.

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