Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I have voted against a three-line whip on earlier amendments of this kind, and will do so again today on this amendment, or any others like it. I entirely agree with the Minister in all respects. The Bill is now fit for purpose and represents a fair compromise. Without making a meal of it, I regard the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord McNally, and similar ones, as unnecessary...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: My Lords, it is a great pleasure on this occasion to speak after my noble friend Lord McNally and to agree with him. I am very glad to do so. Although he does not think much of lawyers, he would make a wonderful lawyer—and I mean that as a compliment. So far as this amendment is concerned, although the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, went back to the proclamations in explaining its...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I wonder whether I will win the sympathy of the House by saying that I am not going to make a speech. All I want to say is that I have given notice to my Chief Whip, as a cuckoo in the nest, that I cannot support these amendments and that if there is a Division I shall vote against them. The only other point I wish to make was made by the noble Lord, Lord Black, in passing, at the conclusion...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I just to make something quite clear. I hope that the noble and learned Lord is not suggesting that I am saying that everything is fine.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: Is the noble Earl aware that there are some, including myself, who believe that Section 40 is unlawful and contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, since it imposes a burden on a newspaper to pay the costs of proceedings even if it is successful, and is discriminatory and arbitrary?
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty's Government with which EU agencies they intend to remain involved after Brexit; and in each case, on what terms.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to extend civil partnership to opposite sex couples.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Low, for giving way. I rise to answer the question that he put to the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, on what he thought of the amendment. Speaking for myself, I cannot think of any objection to including the Impress code as well as the IPSO code. In my speech, I did not say anything about the IPSO code because I thought it was inappropriate in this debate. I...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: My Lords, we had rather strong debates in Committee and I am not going to repeat any part of those. I have thought about how I could best help the House at this stage, and I think it is by stating what I believe the law to be and why Amendment 50A, if carried, would put the Bill in breach of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights. When the Bill was first introduced,...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 9 November (HL2598), what steps they are taking, if any, to improve the protection of British Muslim women in family law.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 1 November (HL2213), what are the terms and conditions of appointments of members to the board of the Equality and Human Rights Commission; and what sanctions may be imposed if those conditions are breached.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: My Lords, at present, European citizens resident in this country have their basic rights protected by the European Court of Justice. The Government intend to take that basic right away and, as I understand it, substitute our own courts, with a rather vague and difficult to understand obligation relating to the Luxembourg court. Will the Government accept that in doing all that, they are...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to ask the Law Commission to examine how to improve the protection of British Muslim women in marriage law.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: The relevance of what I have just said is that Max Mosley, who funds Impress, is fanatical in his desire for a privacy law that involves prior restraints. That simply indicates a complete lack of balance in his approach.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I was not discussing personalities, but what happened in the case in Strasbourg. I was about to say that, ironically, the Strasbourg court of human rights had regard to the editors’ code in the course of giving its judgment, so it certainly regarded the old editors’ code as relevant for that purpose. The Explanatory Notes to the Bill state: “Article 85 of the GDPR requires Member States...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: My Lords, I have tried to explain that the objection to the post-Leveson deal was that it was punitive and unfair. That is why the press chose, as is its right, not to be part of it. It chose instead a system of self-regulation with a very independent Court of Appeal judge, who, when he took office, made it clear that he would insist upon the system working properly and independently, as he...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: My Lords, I am not here on behalf of IPSO; I am not counsel for IPSO. I have simply tried to explain historically why we are where we are and the arguments the press made in the past that I was party to at the time, as was the noble Lord, Lord Pannick. If there are points to be made about the way in which IPSO works, no doubt they will be made by Members of the House. I stand corrected by the...
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I do not understand the question. It depends on which regime we are talking about. Right now, there would be no advantages.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I have been very careful not to traduce Impress or Max Mosley, nor will I seek to defend Alan Moses. We are not concerned with individual personalities; we are concerned with a political problem.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: I shall be corrected in due course if I am wrong, but it think the position is that the editors’ code was the code that was formulated under the PCC, and then when Sir Alan Moses became chair of IPSO I think the code was then amended to strengthen it—but I shall be corrected if that turns out to be mistaken.
