Lord Trimble: My Lords, the noble Lord no doubt inadvertently omitted to refer to the experience of the single transferable vote in Northern Ireland, where there has been no shortage of extremists elected by virtue of the system.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I welcome very much what the Minister has said about the mutual sector, particularly his desire to support it, but is it not rather unfortunate that in recent months a mutual society has collapsed because of the current financial problems and has not had any significant help from the Government? I am referring of course to the Presbyterian Mutual Society which, alone among all the...
Lord Trimble: To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are considering with regard to the protection of depositors in the Presbyterian Mutual Society.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, the Minister has talked about incitement, and reference has been made to the possibility of counterprotests. These are public order matters. The criterion that the Minister should be operating under is public security, which is a different thing.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Cohen, said that the most significant recommendation in our committee's report is that regional policy should concentrate on the poorer areas. The implication of that is that the convergence objective alone should be pursued, with the so-called competitiveness objective no longer existing, because, while an objective of competitiveness might seem attractive,...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, will the noble Baroness look carefully at the novel proposals for what is called "information recovery", which is part of the matter touched on by the noble Baroness speaking for the Liberal Democrats? This could require the production of documents and compel witnesses to attend and give evidence at what is, in effect, a trial held in secret, without a jury and without all the...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, if the Government are as lukewarm towards a rapid reaction force as the Minister suggests, I wonder what they were saying at the presidency meeting in December which agreed among other things that there should be the goal for 2010 of deploying, or being capable of deploying, "two rapid response operations of limited duration using ... the EU's battle groups".
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I am sure that the Minister will agree that, in electoral matters, it is desirable that there should not be any great divergence in the size of constituencies and that, if there were a significant variation in certain parts of the kingdom, that would have an unfortunate effect. Would it not be much better if there were, as it were, a single UK electoral quota and efforts were made...
Lord Trimble: To ask Her Majesty's Government what proposals they have to consult on the advice received from the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission concerning a possible bill of rights for Northern Ireland.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. I draw attention to the fact that my wife is a member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The noble Baroness will know that my wife, together with another member of the commission, dissented from its report on a matter of principle: that the commission had failed to abide by its remit to advise on rights that reflected the particular...
Lord Trimble: My Lords—
Lord Trimble: My Lords, during the December meeting of the European Council, when these matters were considered, did it cross the minds of the Commission or Ministers present that one of the main reasons why the Irish people rejected the treaty was because they were moving into a severe recession—more severe than ours, largely because of their membership of the euro—during which they are receiving...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, there are rumours to the effect that in the region of £4 million has been paid to accountants for the valuation of the assets of Northern Rock, plus a further sum with regard to Granite, and total audit fees of £12 million. Are these figures correct? If they are, what was done in terms of tendering for this contract and could it not have been done more cheaply?
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I noticed that the Minister, in referring to international agencies, did not mention the European Union. May I suggest that he looks closely at the suggestions for added regulation coming from the EU that, if not checked, could have the result of driving all the banks offshore?
Lord Trimble: My Lords, can the Minister turn his attention not to countries but to programmes? Can he confirm that the highest incidence of accounting problems exists with regard to the cohesion fund and the new rural development fund? Does that not indicate that those programmes ought to be looked at again?
Lord Trimble: My Lords, would it not be appropriate for the Government to consider whether their own officials have behaved properly in this matter? Hiding behind the Financial Services Agency gives the distinct impression of a guilty conscience.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, it is unfortunate that our involvement in the Basra region is drawing to a close amid such recrimination, as has been mentioned here. Will the Minister tell us whether it is now recognised in the Ministry of Defence that it was a grievous mistake to enter into the sort of deals that the troops did with militias in Basra and that the lesson will be drawn for other situations?
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I too, welcome the fact that we have another debate on this issue. I must confess that I began to worry when I saw in the Motion put down by the noble Lord, Lord Dykes, reference to "new initiatives". One thing that we do not need is a new initiative. We want the existing initiatives to make progress. That is what we should focus on. We should also remember that difficult though it...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, did the Minister not hear the mayor on the "Today" programme this morning describe the suggestion that he wanted to spin out the appointment for some ulterior motive as "piffle"?
Lord Trimble: My Lords, like other noble Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, on securing this debate. I also congratulate the many noble Lords who took part and managed to keep within the time limit in a quite remarkable way. That is worthy of note. There was a considerable advantage in having a time limit, which the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice—whose contribution I enjoyed—might...