Lord Williams of Oystermouth: My Lords, it would be all too easy to see this admirable and welcome Bill in terms simply of its financial implications. The truth is that its significance is a great deal broader. Many international voluntary agencies—I declare my interest as chair of the trustees of Christian Aid and patron of the Africa Prisons Project—are working, and will continue to work, not only to alleviate...
Lord Williams of Oystermouth: I echo the gratitude expressed by other noble Lords to the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, for securing this discussion on a profoundly significant and timely question. It is a particular privilege to begin my recycled life in your Lordships' House by speaking on this subject. I note, as have other noble Lords, the wholly distinctive character of the Commonwealth as a family of independent nations...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, this has indeed been a very rich debate. I am profoundly grateful to all those in your Lordships' House who have taken the trouble to be here today, not only on a Friday-and a Friday not long before Christmas-but on a Friday whose climatic conditions are clearly in evidence in the growing number of scarves and wraps appearing round the Benches. It would be impossible to respond to...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I am most grateful for the opportunity afforded to raise the pressing and still largely ignored question of the well-being of older citizens in our country. I doubt very much whether, in your Lordships' House, I need to underline the fact that those over, say, 62 are readily capable of making a contribution to society. I think that we may take as read declarations of personal...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I am very grateful for the opportunity to ask a question in this particular context, because I think the plight of the Congo is well known to everyone in this House. The issue of regional co-operation has already been flagged indirectly in what has been said. One of the questions I would like to ask is to do with what Her Majesty's Government are doing to foster a broader regional...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, like all of us, I am much indebted to the noble Lord, Lord Sacks, for initiating this important discussion and doing so in this particularly auspicious year. It is a pleasure to pay tribute to someone who has done so much to maintain a credible and challenging presence for religious perspectives in the public sphere. When people speak as though religion were automatically a problem...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, we often hear questions these days as to what gives this nation its identity. We rightly point to our history, our language and, not least, our long and deep commitment to the rule of law. But as we become more visibly diverse, as we take on board more dimensions of our history, more languages spoken in our schools, more complex discussions of equality before the law, one feature of...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I am deeply grateful for a debate that in both variety and quality has not disappointed expectations. Despite that variety, a number of unifying factors have emerged in the discussion, some of which have already been enumerated by the Minister. Not the least among those was the admiration widely expressed for the work of Canon Andrew White in Baghdad, and I am happy to associate...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, many people these days have a short and skewed historical memory. It is all too easy to go along with the assumption that Christianity is an import to the Middle East rather than an export from it. Because the truth is that for two millennia the Christian presence in the Middle East has been an integral part of successive civilisations- a dominant presence in the Byzantine era, a...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: Would the Minister agree that part of the underlying problem in the situation that we have seen unfolding recently is a prolonged failure on the part of the security forces to guarantee the safety of Christian personnel and property, not only in the Aswan province in recent months but over a longer period? It seems clear to many of us that this is bringing Muslims and Christians in Egypt...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, together with all Members of your Lordships' House, I wish to associate myself with the tributes that have been paid to the work of the police force in recent days, and to the work of the emergency services. These are people who have put themselves at risk in a very costly way in order to minimise the risk to others. And we are reminded by what we have seen in recent days of the...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, the Government will be aware of the Church's continuing acute interest in this subject not least because of an open letter to all party leaders that was sent before the general election touching this question. What are Her Majesty's Government's plans to keep monitoring the psychological and mental medical impact of detention upon children and families and, also, the impact of some...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I must begin with an apology to your Lordships for the fact that an inflexible diary means that I must infringe the convention of this House by not being able to guarantee that I shall be here at the end of this debate. I am truly sorry for that, but I wish to be here to support my right reverend brother and to congratulate him on securing this significant debate, and I am eager to...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, given the historic role of this Chamber as representing the interests of non-partisan civil society, will the Minister give us some assurance that the proposals before us do not represent an increase in underlining the partisan character of this House? I speak of course with some interest from these Benches and with the Cross Benches in mind.
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I am very happy to declare an interest both as vice-president of the Children's Society and as patron of this inquiry. I am delighted that my right reverend brother has secured this debate. The report paints a very sobering picture of a society that has become clumsy and neglectful in the priority it gives to the central task of civilised humanity: the task of inducting children...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I am grateful for the quality of today's debate, and particularly grateful that noble Lords have of their charity forborne to point out one embarrassingly obvious error in my opening remarks, which I identified when consulting my notes. I referred to the percentage offered by payday lenders—cash down in return for a cheque—as 7 to 8 per cent rather than 70 to 80 per cent. That...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: rose to call attention to the impact on the family of economic inequality, credit and indebtedness; and to move for Papers. My Lords, I declare an interest as president of the Children's Society, the Church Urban Fund and the Family Welfare Association and as vice-president of Barnardo's. Thanks to the discussions so ably initiated by the noble Earl, your Lordships will need no reminding from...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I take it that the Minister would agree that it is quite indefensible that different standards should prevail in our national criteria to do with the care and protection of children and in the criminal justice system. I invite him also to agree that that means that the use of strip-searching and segregation in the criminal justice system for children is something that needs a very...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I begin by apologising to the House for the fact that I am obliged to leave the Chamber before five o'clock this afternoon. I want just to echo some of the anxieties that have been raised in the past few minutes. I share entirely the unease of the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, about the phrase, "the human end of the spectrum", which seems to introduce a very unhelpful element of...
the Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, I have listened very carefully to the remarks made by the Minister and others about the procedural gravity of the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones; but I feel the need to speak to the reasons that have made me deeply sympathetic to that amendment and to the concerns underlying it. They are both particular and general. The particular reasons have already been detailed...