Contributions
12 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDRetirement and Participation CommitteeMy Lords, listening to the noble Lord, Lord Case, is of course a special moment for an old teacher like me. I thank him and other noble Lords, including the most Reverend Primate…18 May 2026HANSARDKing’s SpeechMy Lords, listening to the noble Lord, Lord Case, is of course a special moment for an old teacher like me. I thank him and other noble Lords, including the most reverend Primate…18 May 2026HANSARDStrategic Defence Review 2025My Lords, I thank my friend, the noble Lord, Lord, Lord Soames, for his kind words. It is a delight to be back, even as a kind of sandwich filling between him and another friend,…18 Jul 2025HANSARDSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) BillMy Lords, to understand a nation and its people, you need a feel for the inner bundle of practices, characteristics and states of mind that create the image that a country carries…29 Jan 2024HANSARDLord Chancellor and Law Officers (Constitution Committee Report)My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their welcome back; it is an undiluted pleasure to be with you all again. It is funny what one misses. There is serious business, of course, but…20 Jul 2023HANSARDThe Union (Constitution Committee Report)My Lords, it is a great honour to follow a fellow historian, the noble Lord, Lord Verdirame, to welcome him to your Lordships’ House and to praise his lustrous maiden speech. His…20 Jan 2023HANSARDCabinet Manual: Revision (Constitution Committee Report)My Lords, I declare my membership of your Lordships’ Constitution Committee. In addition, I must declare an eccentricity, for I am one of a tiny number of people in the kingdom…16 Dec 2022HANSARDBBC and Public Service BroadcastingMy Lords, I declare a pair of interests. First, since the early 1980s I have made a number of programmes, mainly for BBC Radios 3 and 4, working with as gifted a set of producers…05 Mar 2020HANSARDQueen’s SpeechMy Lords, to borrow a line from PG Wodehouse, it is always easy to distinguish between a ray of sunshine and the imminent return of the European Union withdrawal Bill. Yet fuelled…08 Jan 2020HANSARDUK Foreign Policy in a Shifting World Order (International Relations Committee Report)My Lords, last month, I learned what was for me a new concept when for the first time scientists managed to photograph the rim of a black hole. The astrophysicists called it an…21 May 2019HANSARDBrexitMy Lords, I am rendered almost speechless, but I shall try. I have no desire to add to the reservoir of recrimination into which so many words have been poured because of Brexit.…25 Mar 2019HANSARDBrexit: Withdrawal Agreement and Political DeclarationMy Lords, in a celebrated article in the Times to mark the unveiling of a statue of the great Benjamin Disraeli in Parliament Square on the second anniversary of his death, the…09 Jan 2019