Lord Lipsey: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that what the public want from the Passport Agency is a prompt, efficient and courteous service? Unfortunately, the public have not always been able to get that of late. However, if the public receive such a service, the extra price they are being asked to pay--which amounts to only about a penny a week over the lifetime of a passport--is a price well...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, it is knocking on for a quarter of a century since I penned the only words which ever had currency beyond the family kitchen. Those words, famous or infamous according to taste, were, "The party is over." They were delivered by Anthony Crosland, the Secretary of State for the Environment, to whom I was speech writer. I remember the occasion vividly to this day. We were in the...
Lord Lipsey: I hope that my noble friend will find the rest of the speech as much to his taste. However, on the basis of a conversation I had with him the other day, I am not sure he will. I want to turn to elected mayors--a concept for which I have long had considerable enthusiasm--and particularly to the system of election. The Government have opted for a good system for the election of the mayor; it is...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, does my noble and learned friend agree that it is amazing, given the range of responsibilities of a modern Prime Minister, not that the number of staff at No. 10 is so big, but that it is so small?
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, the speech of the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, reflects what has been a theme of today's debate; namely, that speakers have been talking on subjects they really know about. Furthermore, that applies too to the wonderful maiden speech of my noble friend Lord Mackenzie of Culkein. There is only one part of the Bill of which I have particular knowledge, and that concerns the care of the...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, does my noble friend the Leader of the House agree that the day that this House starts conducting a systematic, frontal attack on the legislative proposals of the elected government, that day this House will be signing its death warrant?
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, will the Minister agree with me that, although nowadays the English are of course a most peaceable people, they can nevertheless be provoked to violence by insensitive, poor, unthinking, unlistening government, such as the kind of government that provoked the Poll Tax riots in 1989, a tax of which--as I remember--the noble Lord, Lord Baker, was such a fervent advocate?
Lord Lipsey: asked Her Majesty's Government: (a) How many responses they received to their consultation document on residential care home standards Fit for the Future?; (b) Whether they will publish a summary of those responses; (c) What plans they have to refine their estimates of the cost to care homes providers of the proposed new standards in the light of the consultation; (d) Whether their proposals...
Lord Lipsey: I cannot begin to match the depth of expertise with which the noble and learned Lord, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, addressed the Committee. In part I rise for that reason. I am not a lawyer. I became interested in this subject only when I read the Second Reading debate and noted the degree to which it had been dominated by the perspective of the lawyer. Lawyers are enormously wise, learned and...
Lord Lipsey: If noble Lords opposite do not believe that to be true, they are living in a rather different world from the reality as described to me by the many criminal lawyers with whom I have discussed this matter.
Lord Lipsey: The noble Lord was not growling at me at the time and therefore I did not include him. However, I take the point that he makes. I believe that there are people who do that, though they end up gravely disappointed by it. I believe that all black jurors are as fair as white jurors. However, there is a tendency to do that and I do not think that we should encourage it.
Lord Lipsey: I have many friends in professions such as social work, and others who defend black defendants. I have tried to gather as many sources of information as I can. I bow to the expertise of the noble Lord in this matter. I do not know in how many criminal cases the noble Lord has defended black people in recent times; no doubt he will tell the Committee when he speaks. More fundamentally, if...
Lord Lipsey: Unlike the noble, Lord Tope, I have spent much of my life thinking about electoral systems. I was going to suggest that we all put on our anoraks for the next hour! However, having listened to this afternoon's debate, I find that there is a subject still more "anorakial", if I may coin that word, than electoral reform, and that is local government reform. That is a subject discussed with...
Lord Lipsey: I am sorry to detain the Committee at this point. I shall do so briefly. I oppose the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Tope, although I sympathise with many of his arguments. My opposition is on two grounds. One is the doctrine of "unripe time". We are presently in the rather turbulent aftermath of the first PR elections held in Scotland and Wales and under the new system for Europe....
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, I greet the Bill with a pang in my heart. The interest I have to declare is as a member of the board of one of the existing SROs, the Personal Investment Authority. It has provided me with much interest and much onerous work over the years. In that sense I am sorry that your Lordships' House will abolish it through this Bill. However, I go along with the existing consensus. I should...
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, the whole House will feel gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Clifton, for bringing forward this subject for debate today. A goodly number of us delayed our holiday to express our gratitude in person and those who opted for deferred gratitude will see it expressed on their behalf when they receive the Official Report in the morning. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord...
Lord Lipsey: asked Her Majesty's Government: (a) when they plan to announce their response to the Royal Commission on long-term care of the elderly; (b) whether they have received any representations on the Royal Commission's report; and, if so, how many; and (c) whether any such representations opposed the regulation of long-term care insurance; and, if so, how many.
Lord Lipsey: My Lords, I am most grateful. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that it absolutely refutes the calumnies that Labour has in some way tried to fix the election for the mayor of London that it has, for the principled reason he has just outlined, chosen the electoral system that just gives the outside squeak of a chance to an independent Livingstone candidate? Is my noble friend preparing...
Lord Lipsey: asked Her Majesty's Government: Whether they have sought or received views on the regulation of long-term care insurance from: (a) the insurance industry; (b) the Personal Investment Authority; (c) the Financial Services Authority; (d) organisations representing elderly people; and (e) the Consumers Association; and, if so, what they were; and Further to the statement by Lord McIntosh of...
Lord Lipsey: asked Her Majesty's Government: (a) what value is put on work time and leisure time respectively in the cost-benefit analysis of new road-building schemes; and (b) whether the same values are used in assessing whether permission should be given to those who wish to dig up roads; and, if not, why not.
