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440 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillI had not realised we were quite as democratic as that. Obviously, I am sorry for people who enjoyed it here and are going. I dare say it will happen to me before too long. But,…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillI cannot possibly interpret at this juncture the views of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Irvine—I know that the noble Lord, Lord Howard, has resurrected him during this debate.…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillI am sure that the noble Lord, Lord True, is talking about the coalition period. He was in favour of the Bill then. I assume that is what he is arguing about, not my Bill. I am…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillOf course there is a profound difference. I was not pretending it was an identical comparison, but there is no difference in the sense that, when you are chucked out of…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillWhat has changed is that there was a general election, and this was a manifesto commitment. Broadly speaking, it is a good idea to obey manifesto commitments. The longer answer to…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, I will just make a couple of points. First, we are not abolishing hereditary Peers; we are abolishing the right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillOne person asked me to answer for Viscount Cranborne and I am now expected to answer for Alastair Campbell. The noble Lord needs to ask my good friend Alastair Campbell about…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillThe noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, knows well enough that I am not always in tune with my party. No, I am opposed to a directly elected House. The House that I was most proud to be a…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillI can respond in one sentence. The reason that I caved in on that amendment, on that particular day, is that we had already been rambling on for about an hour and a half on the…03 Mar 2025HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillWell, I have been waiting to say this for a long time, but I have managed to keep quiet. It was nine years ago that I first brought in a Bill to end the system of by-elections,…03 Mar 2025HANSARDStockton and Darlington Railway: 200th AnniversaryMy Lords, is it not worth reflecting that, 200 years ago, British engineering designed and built the first steam locomotives, built a phenomenal network of railways across our…25 Feb 2025HANSARDCouncil TaxMy noble friend, with her long experience in local government, knows well enough that, when there are major reorganisations in local government, you can be absolutely certain they…03 Feb 2025HANSARDGaza: Humanitarian SituationMy Lords, among the numerous shocking statistics that have come out of Gaza is that there are now over 100,000 wounded people there, that Gaza has the highest proportion per head…30 Jan 2025HANSARDNon-domicile StatusMy Lords—28 Jan 2025HANSARDNon-domicile StatusCan I welcome very much my noble friend’s clear restatement of our commitment to this policy? It is right because it raises revenue, but it is also right in principle.28 Jan 2025HANSARDLocal Government ReorganisationAs my noble friend knows, the White Paper suggests that the optimum size for a unitary authority is a population of about 500,000. Can I get her assurance that those unitary…16 Jan 2025HANSARDGaza: Peace TalksMy Lords, I strongly welcome the possibility of an end to the killing, but is not the sad lesson of the history of this region that the world’s attention is strongly on it and the…15 Jan 2025HANSARDGaza: Humanitarian SituationCan my noble friend confirm that, since this conflict began, many reports have told us that schools have been attacked by the Israelis, involving the killing of children; that…06 Jan 2025HANSARDBritish Indian Ocean Territory: SovereigntyI very much welcome my noble friend’s assurances about the Chagossian people who, in all these discussions, must be central in view of the gross injustice inflicted upon them in…19 Dec 2024HANSARDHouse of Lords (Hereditary Peers) BillMy Lords, I think I can be forgiven for reflecting that, in five Sessions of Parliament over a period of eight years, I introduced successive Bills to deal with the outstanding…11 Dec 2024