The number of coastguard centres being closed by the Government has been reduced from 11 to eight, the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said yesterday.

Peers are being warned they could be forced to sit through the night – and have their half-term break delayed – if they continue to thwart moves to hold a referendum on electoral reform.

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has clashed with George Osborne for the first time in the House of Commons.

A 15-day stand-off in the House of Lords over the Government's constitutional reform plans appeared to be at an end last night after the Coalition announced a "package of concessions" to break the deadlock.

As Lord Sugar of Clapton serves his apprenticeship in the House of Lords, records show he has voted only three times in the past year.

The postcode is another triumph of pioneering British bureaucracy. Sir Rowland "Penny Post" Hill split London into ten compass-point districts in 1856; the current code took 15 years to arrive after its trial in Norwich in 1959.

Once upon a time, wealthy men would pay to get into the House of Lords. Now they give up their seats in the legislature to avoid paying their fair share of tax to the Exchequer. Yesterday we learnt that three Conservative peers – Lord Bagri, Lord Laidlaw and Lord McAlpine – have resigned their seats, rather than rescind their privileged non-domiciled tax status. So much for noblesse oblige.

Members of the House of Lords have had their allowances cut for the first time, following the parliamentary expenses scandal. In future, they will be able to claim a maximum of £300 a day, instead of the present £335.50, and will lose a range of perks.

Peers face a 15% cut in their allowances under a new House of Lords expenses scheme being unveiled today.

Today: The 11 cultural institutions nominated for this year's Art Fund Prize, from the Ashmolean in Oxford to the Ulster Museum in Belfast, are staging a Love Your Museum weekend, with special events and activities (artfundprize.org.uk). The event coincides with National Museum Weekend in Holland, with over 500 institutions offering free or reduced admission (holland.com/uk).

In his obituary of the MP David Taylor (29 December), Tam Dalyell wrote, "In 2006, in my capacity as Father of the House of Commons, I was invited by the England Central Woodlands Project to open one of their new forest developments, part of which was in the North-West Leicestershire constituency."

Flying the flag for patriotism

*Andrew Rosindell the Conservative MP for Romford, is known as the candidate who first won his seat campaigning with a bulldog dressed in a Union flag.

I was on the South Bank of the Thames trying to compose a shot of the Houses of Parliament last week when two police officers stopped me.