Contributions
1,156 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillI appreciate the noble Lord’s impatience; I was going to come to that point, so bear with me. Part of my problem with his amendment—I have not quite finished dealing with the…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillThose four Cross-Benchers have come through the route of public service, and there is still obviously the expectation that HOLAC would have its appointments done separately. I…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, I will take one more intervention. I have listened with great care to noble Lords and have not intervened on anybody, and I want to respond to those who have spoken. I…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, once again, we have had a wide-ranging and very helpful debate. I can think of no other legislation before this House or the other place where there is more interest in…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillThat is not my assurance; it is the assurance from the House of Lords Commission, from Members of all parties across the House.02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillI do not think so, not directly. However, if the committee is looking at retirement and participation, we would want to ensure that, post any decisions that it takes and actions…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillIf it helps the noble Lord, I think he is talking about some 25 years ago. I am talking about a rather shorter period of time —a matter of months—to set up a Select Committee. He…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, I listened to the noble Baroness with increasing incredulity. Even she had a smile on her face as she came up with some of that. I thank my noble friend for his points.…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, that is always in the hands of the electorate when they have the manifesto published before them. But again, on the retirement age, we have set that out as a clearly…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, we have had a bit of a rehash of a debate that we had previously in Committee on a similar amendment. Amendment 2 today is almost identical to the previous amendment,…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillThe noble Lord says this is not about all nominations but just those from the Prime Minister. However, the only other nominations other than the HOLAC-appointed ones come through…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, there is a whole issue around this because the SNP has no representation in your Lordships’ House either. The noble Lord has spoken about Nigel Farage being offered a…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillThe noble Lord has tabled an amendment and is offering it at this point now, although, had he been in the House when this was debated, I doubt he would have voted differently at…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillI would say no, because the danger is that the issues get wider and wider, and no decision is taken. Looking at these things in bite-size chunks in order to reach a conclusion and…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillIt does not, because that is not the legislation we are talking about. That is a decision of this House, and I find it very difficult to understand why anybody would want to…02 Jul 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, there was an opportunity for this House. Had we not had the by-elections since 1999, there would have been far fewer hereditary Peers in this House then. Since my noble…02 Jul 2025HANSARDG7 and NATO SummitsThe noble Lord will not be surprised that I fundamentally disagree with the point he made. Every time our Government have made a commitment to defence spending, we have kept that…01 Jul 2025HANSARDG7 and NATO SummitsMy Lords, I do not know whether the noble Lord was in the House when Kneecap was raised previously, but I strongly condemned their behaviour at that time and continue to do so. On…01 Jul 2025HANSARDG7 and NATO SummitsI am grateful to the noble Lord. Certainly, his impressions of the leadership that the Prime Minister has shown chimes with what I have heard from other people at similar…01 Jul 2025HANSARDG7 and NATO SummitsThe noble Baroness is absolutely right. Noble Lords may recall that, when this issue was raised in the House in a Question that I answered a few weeks ago, I said that we had…01 Jul 2025