Lord Trimble: My Lords, I had thought of intervening during the speech of the noble Lord, Lord O'Neill, but it occurred to me that the comments I was going to make would not be appropriate to address to him, as they relate to earlier speeches. I want to share with noble Lords the fact that a few moments ago I received a text message from my younger son, who is a university student. He told me that he is...
Lord Trimble: I congratulate the noble Lord and the Speaker's Conference on the deliberations that he mentioned. However, it arrived at a result that coincided exactly with that which had been agreed as a political deal between Jim Molyneaux and the Labour Government before it was set up.
Lord Trimble: The noble Lord refers to this as a "hallowed principle of our constitution", but it was not applied to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly or the Northern Ireland Assembly. My noble and learned friend Lord Wallace said, with regard to the Scottish Parliament, that there were some really arcane discussions, which he said he might reveal to us some time, that resulted in the rather...
Lord Trimble: I am afraid that the noble and learned Lord has misunderstood the point that I was making, which was with regard not to the number of Westminster Members from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but to the size of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly, which is a different matter.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, on having secured this debate on such an important topic-and perhaps I may follow that with an apology. She made some references to the maritime incident involving the MV "Mavi Marmara" and other vessels. Unfortunately I will not say anything-I do not feel able to say anything-on that subject because, as noble Lords may know, I am...
Lord Trimble: My Lords-
Lord Trimble: My Lords, my noble friend is quite right to say with regard to the proposed new bailout proposals that they affect only the eurozone and do not affect us, so there is no change in our position and no need to consider a referendum on the issue. However, it is probably worth pointing out that, with regard to the eurozone, the proposed changes would be very substantial indeed. The new proposals...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, will the Minister please think about this point again? The offence as currently on the statute book is very tightly drawn and, consequently, means that policemen engaged in a situation will be very cautious in their approach to things. We might like to take into account the experience in Northern Ireland, where, for decades, it was an offence simply to wear a mask in public, and it...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, surely the Minister can tell us the Government's position and policy on this. It is all very well to say that the Members in another House might or might not take a view but I trust that Her Majesty's Government have a view and advice to give the House.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on obtaining this debate. I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, on her maiden speech. My contribution will focus on an institution that ought to be a major engine for the promotion of human rights: the United Nations Human Rights Council. We should start by acknowledging that the United Nations, through its original human...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, the Minister may be interested to know that after the 1992 general election I attended a meeting in the Home Office as a representative of the Ulster Unionist Party. In the margins of that meeting there was an interesting discussion involving the representatives of two other parties, who discussed the prevalence of electoral fraud in certain regions of England among certain sections...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, coming back to the original Question, does my noble friend the Minister agree that an increase in the money supply would be highly desirable from the point of view of the recovery? If there has been no increase in the money supply because of the inter-relationship between debt management and quantitative easing, is that not something that should be looked at again?
Lord Trimble: Further to the point made earlier by my noble friend Lord Higgins, I draw the attention of the Leader of the House to what happened under the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates whereby on occasions Germany revalued the deutschmark upwards, thus taking account of the changes between it and other countries on competitiveness. Surely what we need in the eurozone is some mechanism of...
Lord Trimble: To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have made to members of the European Union to protect the British economy from the financial situation in the eurozone.
Lord Trimble: My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his Answer, and I draw attention to my entry in the register of interests. I have two points to raise with him. Funds have been established to try and help countries in the EU that are in difficulties, but one of the underlying causes of those difficulties is the loss of competitiveness. Is that likely to be solved before the money and time run out? If it...
Lord Trimble: My Lords, the Leader of the House is right in saying that it is clear that on Bloody Sunday 14 innocent people were killed, that the killings were all individually wrong and that mistakes were made in the planning and conduct of the operation. As he also says, however, lessons were learnt, and we saw the fruits of those lessons over the years. The noble Lord is also right to point to the...
Lord Trimble: My Lords-
Lord Trimble: Further to earlier comments about what the constitutional reform Bill should be cut down to, there seems to be consensus on the Civil Service bit and the IPSA bit. I also mention non-doms. If we had those three things together, we would be happy.
Lord Trimble: I am sorry to interrupt the noble Lord. I am a bit puzzled about the arrangement with these countries in Latin America. The noble Lord is now referring to it as a tax information agreement; yet earlier today we were told that it was a double-taxation relief treaty. Can he explain exactly what it is?
Lord Trimble: My Lords-