Lord Tordoff: My Lords, some years ago I had the pleasure of visiting the islands with the South Atlantic Council, under the aegis of the noble Viscount, Lord Montgomery. On that visit, there were a number of people from industry and the arts with various connections here. In particular, there were two colleagues of mine from the oil side of the Anglo-Dutch company which I served for many years. They made...
Lord Tordoff: With all due respect to the Minister, he should not keep popping up and down. We are at the Report stage of the Bill and people should speak only once. I understand the pressure on him to intervene after what the noble Lord has just said, but this feels more like a Committee stage than a Report stage to me.
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, I like to keep the traditions of the House going, but I must say that "the noble and learned Lord" really is a bit odd, is it not? We had two Nobel prize winners in this House at one time, but they were not "noble and learned", they were just "noble". That illustrates the futility of this whole business. Of course, "learned in the law" is what it says, but we do not say that. I am...
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, I disagree with my noble friend. This is an appropriate time because we do not have a Secretary of State. I have one other thing to add: I totally support the Motion and the amendment, but I wonder whether it should not be 20 minutes rather than 15 minutes. We can perhaps come back to that in the next Parliament. Amendment to the Motion agreed. Motion, as amended, agreed.
Lord Tordoff: Will the noble Lord forgive me? It seems to me that at the moment we do not have a Motion before the House to debate. Until we get to that stage, people should not be making speeches.
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, to follow on from the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Grocott-I think it is our turn here, and it is now 30 minutes.
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, in contradiction to my noble friend, the people who decide are your Lordships. A recommendation comes from the committee but the final decision rests with your Lordships. I disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Alton. He makes a very good case: undoubtedly there is considerable expertise in your Lordships' House on matters of foreign affairs, as there is on the law. If we were to...
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, as one raised on water from Thirlmere-and I have never enjoyed better water in my life-and who met his wife in that part of the world some 60-odd years ago, I find it particularly horrific that this situation has arisen. The noble Lord, Lord Taylor, raised the question of Bailey bridges. Do they still exist? How many have we got in the country? There will be an awful lot of...
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, as a former member of your Lordships' Science and Technology Committee which undertook a study into space technology many years ago, I ask the Minister whether he agrees that there are dangers in sending people into space. It may be glamorous but it can be very polluting. The decision of your Lordships' Select Committee was that unmanned space experiments were far more valuable than...
Lord Tordoff: My Lords—
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, I know that the noble Lord wishes to keep this debate short, but I believe that the House is getting a little tired of the protestations of the noble Lord, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, year on year. What he said today suggests that there is a fault not with the Select Committee but with the House itself and that the Government are failing to take notice of what this House, working on...
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, is that not an outrage?
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, I hope that the noble Lord will forgive me if I draw his attention to the Companion. Paragraph 4.44 states: "In debates where there are no formal time limits, members opening or winding up, from either side, are expected to keep within 20 minutes. Other speakers are expected to keep within 15 minutes". I fear that the noble Lord has now been speaking for 23 minutes and a number of...
Lord Tordoff: Before the noble Lord answers, perhaps I may say that I am a bit baffled. Although I came somewhat late to the debate, I see that it has taken 57 minutes so far to decide whether the clause should say "month" or "year". I also detect that a number of Second Reading speeches are being made. Perhaps the noble Lord could give brief answers—if possible—to the questions, and then we could move...
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, I noted that in reply to the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Jones, the Minister said that he did not wish to go into those matters at the moment. It was not clear to me—and it may not have been clear to the House—whether that meant he knew what the answers were and would prefer to wait, or whether he did not know what the answers were.
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, really. If the noble Lord will forgive me, I would like to remind the House that this is Report stage and not the first day of Committee. People should have stopped intervening by this stage. I know it is important, but if people wish to change the rules of the House they can do so in the usual way. This is getting totally out of hand.
Lord Tordoff: As the noble Lord, Lord Alton, will also be speaking to Amendment No. 6A, I should draw the Committee's attention to an error in the Marshalled List. It says "leave out from 'authorise' to the end of line 19"; it should say "to end of line 18".
Lord Tordoff: It is not proper for me to intervene, but this is Committee stage and, as I understand it, there is no restriction on Members of your Lordships' House intervening at any stage.
Lord Tordoff: My Lords, were Amendment No. 55 to be agreed, I should not be able to call Amendments No. 56 to 58 because of pre-emption.
Lord Tordoff: In calling Amendment No. 243, I should point out to the Committee that, were it to be agreed to, I should not be able to call Amendment No. 244 because of pre-emption.
