Results 1-20 of 255 for speaker:Lord Gilbert

Queen’s Speech — Debate (4th Day) (14 May 2013)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, I start by apologising to the whole House for the fact that I was not here at the beginning of yesterday’s debate. The consequences of that, I realise, fall upon Members who are here today, who have to listen to me giving the rant on transport that I was going to give yesterday. Such are the easy rules of protocol of your Lordships’ House that one is able to speak on any...

Death of a Member: Baroness Thatcher — Tributes (10 April 2013)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, I would like to begin, if it is not an impertinence to speak from this side of the House on this subject, by associating myself as vigorously as I can with the remarks of the leader of my party in this House, my noble friend Lady Royall, and my noble friend Lady Dean in condemning some of the things that are happening in other parts of the country today. I was brought up, like many...

Justice and Security Bill [HL]: Commons Amendments (26 March 2013)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, I had not intended to take part in this debate but I have been moved to do so. We have heard this evening that this debate is about the reputation of the security services. We have heard it is about 2,000 to 2,500 years of British justice and that we must of course be on our guard to make sure that we do no damage to either of those principles. However, for me the Bill is not about...

Leveson Inquiry — Motion to Take Note (11 January 2013)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, on this rather dismal day in your Lordships' House, I would like to cheer us up a bit by reflecting on the admirable maiden speech given some time ago by the noble Lord, Lord Trees. It combined wit and lucidity to our great advantage and I hope very much that we will hear from him on many future occasions. I should also like to cheer up your Lordships with what I thought was the...

Crime and Courts Bill [HL]: Report (4th Day) (12 December 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I, too, have been listening very closely to this debate, with no expertise whatever. However, I take on board the concerns of various noble Lords. Could not the matter be satisfactorily resolved by placing on the person making a decision the requirement to let the individual under suspicion know when a decision is going to be taken?

EUC Report: EU Freshwater Policy — Motion to Take Note (5 December 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I have been listening with great care to my noble friend's very instructive and lucid remarks. I declare an interest as a director of an American company that is engaged in purification of water involving the fracking process. I did not hear my noble friend say anything about fracking. The amounts of water that are going to be involved in the United States are stupendous. Perhaps he could...

China: Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament — Motion to Take Note (22 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I am provoked. Would my noble friend really like to live in Israel in a totally nuclear free world?

China: Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament — Motion to Take Note (22 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, I start by congratulating my noble friend Lord Browne on getting this important subject debated in your Lordships' House, and I do not say that with tongue in cheek in any way, because I am fully in favour of intensifying discussions on multilateral nuclear disarmament. I have long been of the view that the size of nuclear inventories on both sides of the Cold War were grotesquely...

Justice and Security Bill [HL] — Report (1st Day) (19 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: On the same point, is there an obligation on the Minister anywhere in the legislation to inform the committee that he is withholding information from it?

Justice and Security Bill [HL] — Report (1st Day) (19 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I apologise for interrupting the Minister, but surely the more important question is whether or not the Minister is required to let the committee know that he is not telling them something. If he does not tell them that he is not telling them something they will not know that they have not been told something. Anyone with any experience of ministerial office at all knows perfectly well that...

Justice and Security Bill [HL] — Report (1st Day) (19 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, the situation is considerably more complex than your Lordships have heard this afternoon. One has the impression from the debate that the only intelligence-gathering agencies are MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, and that is far from the case. We have the Defence Intelligence Agency and the intelligence work of the individual services, and a lot of other people in this country handle high-security...

Justice and Security Bill [HL] — Report (1st Day) (19 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I am grateful for the noble Baroness's support on my little, modest proposal but I am afraid that I cannot follow her on this business about any member of the House of Commons being able to stand for the chairmanship and then the Prime Minister having the right, or duty, to veto. Can she not see the possibility of the appalling public relations shambles which that could lead to? She has much...

Justice and Security Bill [HL] — Report (1st Day) (19 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I apologise for interrupting the Minister. Have the Government given any serious consideration to the possibility that the chairman of this committee, like the chairman of the PAC, should always be a member of the Opposition?

Justice and Security Bill [HL] — Report (1st Day) (19 November 2012)

Lord Gilbert: We have a long-standing convention that the chairman of the PAC is a member of the Opposition. I think that is thoroughly healthy and am just trying to find out-or tease out of the Minister-whether the Government have a view one way or another whether it would be appropriate to have a similar arrangement for this committee.

Antarctica: Centenary of Scott Expedition — Motion to Take Note (18 October 2012)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, I, too, congratulate the noble Baroness on securing this debate. I am particularly keen on thanking her because she has brought to their feet a great many women Peers. She will know very well that, for a long time, Antarctica was a territory forbidden to women. This country had a very bad reputation in that respect; it is doing better than it did; but it is not nearly good enough....

Crime and Courts Bill [HL]: Committee (4th Day) (27 June 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I am much obliged to the Minister for making reference to my remarks. All I can say is that I have listened to the debate with great care and I have not heard a single reason put forward for a retirement age for judges. Everyone says 70, 75, 80, 85-just picking figures out of the air. It is a nonsense. I am not a candidate for a position in the Supreme Court, but I see no reason at all why...

Crime and Courts Bill [HL]: Committee (4th Day) (27 June 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I hope that the Minister will explain why there should be any compulsory retirement age for Justices of the Supreme Court. I see no justification for it.

Defence: Trident Replacement Programme — Question (19 June 2012)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, is it not the case that, in order to be credible, any deterrent has to be simultaneously invulnerable and undetectable? That is clearly not the case with any Cruise system even if it is supersonic-

Defence: Trident Replacement Programme — Question (19 June 2012)

Lord Gilbert: I am sorry. It is also clearly not the case with any of the extraordinary arrangements that the Liberal party seems to be contemplating at the moment.

Falkland Islands — Statement (13 June 2012)

Lord Gilbert: My Lords, it will be within your Lordships' knowledge that unfortunately down the years we have not always enjoyed the full support of our American friends with respect to matters relating to the Falklands. The situation is slightly different now. If the reports are accurate, the present American Secretary of State is so disturbed at the irrationality of some of the decisions being made by...