The past and present are set to come together as it appears that the British House of Lords (upper house of the Parliament of the UK) will soon be able to employ iPads as well as other web-connected mobile devices during their debates.

 

According to The Telegraph, members of the House of Lords were previously not allowed to utilise any electronic devices. This restriction has been deemed as “incomplete, outdated and contradictory” by a report by the Lords Administration and Works Committee.

 

A new proposal set out within the report, will see Lords being enabled to refer to handheld electronic devices during debates, the likes of Tablet PCs, smartphones as well as ebook readers, so long as these are set to silent. Notebooks, however, will stay outlawed.

 

Not only will the Lords be restricted in terms of the type of internet-connected devices they can use, but also with regarding to the sites that they are allowed to browse. According to the report, these sites will include Parliamentary papers as well as supporting documents maintaining to business that is put before the House. We guess that rules out YouTube and Facebook then.