Contributions
824 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI completely agree with my noble friend, which is why it is important to understand the implications of this. If, as I suspect, a number of amendments to the Bill will be tabled…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseBenches opposite may laugh, but that is highly disrespectful to a Prime Minister who has worked extremely hard on this. The Prime Minister can be criticised for many things—04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI hear the noble Lord, but to put the onus on my noble friend Lord Forsyth to delay the debate on his very important reports issued last year is unfair. We are in this position…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseThe noble Lord may well find some commonality in some of the things that each of us says about our Motion, but they are distinct Motions that deserve to be considered in their own…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI thank my noble friend for that intervention. He reminds me of the importance of his debate, and indeed I am speaking in that debate. It is not just about the 50,000 people who…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI am sorry that the noble Lord thinks they are an obstruction to today’s business, but today’s business has been forced on us by the Benches opposite—it seems without any…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI have to disagree with my noble friend on that. We have to trust that the Prime Minister means what she says.04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI am not entirely uncritical of the Prime Minister, and in particular of her handling of Brexit. Anybody who has heard me speak before will know that.04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI thank my noble friend for that. I had reached the end of reading through Standing Order 46, which is an important foundational part of our procedures. I remind noble Lords that…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseIndeed, but there are important issues of process that we do need to address. I was saying that the Prime Minister had not always made a success of Brexit to date, but she has…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseThe reason we do this is that the other place does not do a very good job of scrutinising legislation. There are a lot of reasons for that. Compared with the normal proceedings of…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI fully hear what the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, says, but I have a right to be heard on the Motion that I have put on the Order Paper. A considerable amount of the time has been…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseNo: they are on different amendments to the Motion so they are different issues.04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseMy noble friend makes very good points. I hope that the Front Bench opposite is reflecting on them. The House is being asked to handle this Bill on a one-day basis and, in effect,…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI remind the noble Lord that it was a majority of one in the other place. I do not think that the other place can be proud of the length of time it devoted to this legislation…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI am not giving way at the moment. I am going to make some progress if the noble Baroness does not mind.04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseI have given way many times, so I am not giving way any further. I need to make some progress. I think we can agree that some acceleration is necessary; we have done that in the…04 Apr 2019HANSARDBusiness of the HouseThere are no national security issues. All the examples that have been given of expedited procedures have involved agreement between all parties. The fact that a lot of people in…04 Apr 2019HANSARDEuropean Union (Withdrawal) (No. 5) BillMy Lords, I am not going to give the speech that I had planned to give at this late stage of the evening. I was nearly goaded into picking it up again by the typically hard-line…04 Apr 2019HANSARDEuropean Union (Withdrawal) (No. 5) BillThere are two swallows.04 Apr 2019