Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I am privileged to follow my noble friend Lord O’Shaughnessy, and I am sure that Peers from all sides of the House will have been impressed by the thoughtful letter which the Minister has sent to us all. In it, there are a number of concessions, which will be subject to later amendments in this debate. The insertion of a sunset clause is a valuable safeguard, as are the...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I apologise for my discourtesy in not being present at the beginning of this debate. A number of years ago, with the very great help of our noble friend Lord Howe, we secured the requirement from the Commission that healthcare professionals coming to this country from the European Union be subject to language tests before registration, and not the other way round, as in the previous...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I have the rare pleasure and privilege of congratulating the Minister on her most impressive introduction of the Bill—on only her second day in the job—and addressing the challenge of a maiden speech in such style. We await her further contributions from the Dispatch Box. I welcome her as a Member of your Lordships’ House. The Government are to be commended on this Bill. Of...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I am most grateful to your Lordships for permitting me to speak in the gap. The Minister made a most impressive introductory speech to this debate. He referred to the participation of the two Irish divisions at the battle of Messines in 1917. I can add another significant fact: alongside those two Irish divisions were an Australian division and a New Zealand one. The noble Lord,...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, referred to the fact that “Sarah” had three sharia marriages. Does not this highlight the uncontrolled actions of many sharia courts and, once again, the need for legislation to require that all marriages in the United Kingdom be formally registered under the law of the respective Administrations?
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, does the Minister recognise the important contribution that cathedral choir schools play in the musical education of this country? They are the envy of many European musical countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands.
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Freyberg, for the excellent, comprehensive speech with which he opened this debate. After hearing my noble friend Lord Bethell, I am sure that many noble Lords will share my wish to hear much more from him in the future. I draw your Lordships’ attention to a little-known success story of the initiative of GPs in England—the creation of...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, the House will be very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, for instituting this debate and I crave the indulgence of noble Lords for speaking in the gap. I must also ask for a further indulgence because this speech is not totally global in character. I speak as the former chairman of a central London independent hospital. Our experience, like that of many other hospitals and...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Patel, for the leadership he has given to produce this excellent committee report. It is a tribute to him and to the quality of the report that only a week ago, the date of this debate had to be changed, but he has still produced more than 50 contributors. I shall confine my remarks to primary care and the role of general practice in England...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I think plenty of your Lordships will share the view that the one country we would not wish to be disadvantaged as a result of Brexit is Ireland. However, Ireland is already suffering: beef exports have fallen as a result of the collapse of sterling. Sadly, it is Ireland that is most likely to suffer in the coming negotiations. Had there been no progress with Ireland and Northern...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, we have a health service which is endeavouring to meet an ever-present and probably ever-growing demographic challenge. I was interested to hear the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, on the effect of the number of older people accessing the service, but there are many more people growing old and it is surely self-evident that there is bound to be an increase in waiting...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, together with the noble Lord, Lord Bew, and the noble Baroness, Lady Blood, who was recently in her place, I have just returned today from a meeting with the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Our colleagues both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic expressed their serious concerns about the rise of paramilitaries—in particular the IRA, but of course it is not the only...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, at this late hour in the debate I briefly bring to your notice a specific issue which has arisen in the GP sector of the NHS in England. The GP settlement of 2006, a far-reaching measure by the party opposite, introduced two categories of general practice: the General Medical Service, GMS, where practices continued broadly with their existing level of funding; and the Personal...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I thank noble Lords for permitting me to speak in the gap. Unfortunately, my name was put down for the debate in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, that follows and not this one, for which I must accept responsibility. Much has been said in this debate about sharia law, but I suggest that in the United Kingdom, particularly England, it is out of control. For one thing, no...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I am most grateful to my noble friend Lord Shinkwin for bringing forward this Bill. It is a courageous move. On the face of it, it restricts the options available to a mother faced with the appalling dilemma of knowing that she is carrying a seriously disabled foetus, and of having the time available for making a decision on abortion reduced under these proposals from the whole...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I too thank my noble friend Lord Elton for the work that he has put into this Bill and I appreciate the wide consultation that he has undertaken. The Bill is to be welcomed because it is a constructive attempt to address the problem of the size of the House, which dominates our thinking at present. My noble friend has made the point that it is complementary to other related measures...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, for securing the debate. I draw your Lordships’ attention to a very interesting and concise blog from Miss Clare Marx, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons. She makes three important points. The first, already voiced in many quarters, is that losing non-UK staff would, in her words, be “cataclysmic”. I totally echo the words...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I am grateful to your Lordships for permitting me to speak in the gap and I thank my noble friend Lady Mobarik for securing this debate. I returned two days ago from the meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in Malahide, near Dublin. As your Lordships will know, the assembly was created in the bad days of the 1990s to enable Back-Benchers from both sides to talk to...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, I am the last of many speakers today to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, on this, her latest contribution in her distinguished record of palliative care treatment in this country. I declare a non-pecuniary interest in having been for 11 years chairman of the hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in St John’s Wood, London, which, unusually for the hospice...
Viscount Bridgeman: My Lords, this is a timely and important Bill, and I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, for her persistence in following this matter and for her brilliant exposition today. We are fortunate to live in a democracy that enshrines the principle of equality before the law. The purpose of this Bill is to address some of the difficulties that have arisen over the relationship of...
