Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I join those who have expressed words of welcome to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, on his return to the government Front Bench. He is my old roommate from Cambridge and I think that I was almost in short trousers when he first went into government. I am delighted to see him back. Do Her Majesty's Government have any plans to try once again to persuade the United States to recognise...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords-
Lord Grenfell: My Lords-
Lord Grenfell: My Lords-
Lord Grenfell: I am most indebted to the Leader of the House. It is almost as difficult to get into an Oral Question these days as getting into Fort Knox used to be. In light of the composition of this very cosy committee, if I may characterise it as that, the exclusion from which of all Back Benchers I find discouraging-to put it ridiculously mildly-can the noble Lord assure us that we will be given plenty...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord the Leader of the House for introducing this debate. I have to confess that I am somewhat irritated by the fact that we are invited to take note of the case for reform of the House of Lords, as though that were on the coalition's agenda. It is not. What is on the agenda is the abolition of the House and its replacement with something entirely...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, France's heritage is rich in frescos, as we all know. If there is to be an international search for a good method of doing it, could we have some guarantee that the French would not be excluded on political grounds?
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I have a lot of sympathy for what the noble Lord, Lord Methuen, has said in his amendment, but I wish to address the question of the all-party parliamentary groups, of which I am a great supporter. The country groups-I do not exclude the others but my experience is with the country groups and I declare an interest as an officer of three of them-are great added value for your...
Lord Grenfell: The noble Lord says that this could become limitless, but I am not sure that that is really a fair argument. The question is whether, when Members of this House visit another capital on an exchange visit to other parliaments, the effect of that is the same as if they were going there representing the House. I am not quite sure why the noble Lord feels that this might be a limitless affair. It...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, does the Minister agree that there is a temptation in some quarters to dismiss North Korea's pronouncements as sabre rattling, when history has taught us that the step from sabre rattling to sabre thrusting can sometimes be very short and unexpected? Does the Minister also agree that it is the habit of unstable dictators who feel that they are not being taken seriously to act...
Lord Grenfell: Will the Minister give us an assurance to allay our fears, in light of what has recently been said by the Electoral Commission, as I understand it, that this House will be given the time to debate the Bill on the May referendum? It appears that if there is to be a referendum in May there will be a shortage of time in which to have a proper debate and to make amendments. I have heard that this...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I declare an interest as someone who appeared before the decolonisation committee many times in the 1970s, defending the World Bank's position that it could not lend money to the PLO because it was not a sovereign state. Does the Minister agree that the empty-chair policy is not very enlightened? As we have heard, many Commonwealth countries are members of that committee. Would it...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I am thrilled to join this succession of tweeters. The abolition-that is what it would be-of the House and its replacement by an elected second Chamber would be a constitutional upheaval, the outcome of which cannot conceivably leave us with an unchanged relationship between the two Houses. The 2008 White Paper advised us that a reformed second Chamber would almost certainly be more...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Owen. He has given us much food for thought in his authoritative speech, and from the perspective of these Benches I might say some marching orders as well. I liked what he said about the coalition Government walking into what I would call a heffalump trap by naming the date for the referendum. The other reason I think they have...
Lord Grenfell: Will the Minister give me an assurance that those who are digging for victory in their allotments are free to plant genetically modified crops without fear of them being ripped out at dead of night or even by the light of day?
Lord Grenfell: Does the increase proposed in the European Union budget violate the current financial framework or is it within the limits that were set?
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, will the noble Lord the Leader of the House concede that pleading resource constraint does not constitute a credible argument against publishing as many Bills as possible in draft? Does he recall what the Liaison Committee in another place concluded in 2001 in its report, Shifting the Balance: Unfinished Business? It said: "We repeat our view that the benefits in terms of better...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I put two brief questions to the noble Lord the Leader of the House. We now know that from now on the EU budget must reflect what we are doing in our own countries. Let us suppose that the debt and deficit position in this country and others in Europe is put back on a sustainable path. Would that mean that a Conservative or a Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government would continue...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Dalits. Now that the Delhi state government have finally acknowledged this diversion of funds which should have gone to projects such as schools, healthcare centres and, most importantly, the eradication of the demeaning manual scavenging which is the means of livelihood for so many of the Dalits, does the...
Lord Grenfell: My Lords, when the last Government set out their vision of what an elected second Chamber would be like, they imagined, "A second chamber that is more assertive than the current House of Lords", to quote from their July 2008 White Paper. Such a reformed Chamber, "operating against the background of the current arrangements for its powers, would not threaten primacy". That is precisely the...