Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I intend to focus exclusively on Part 1 of the Bill. I shall be making a point with which the Minister is already familiar; he heard me expound it very briefly in another forum the other day. Essentially, I want to direct attention to the nature of the relationship between the incomer—the third party, which will bring in expertise and other things I shall mention—and the...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, when the Minister replies, would he be good enough to direct his attention to proposed new subsection (3), which has already been referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, and just now in the previous contribution? The Commons amendment says expressly: "The Treasury shall lay each report before the House of Commons". That is a deliberate change from the amendment that came from...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, the logic of this amendment is irresistible. It is in line with many prior policies that we have decided in other enactments. This general provision would be an enormous addition and safeguard in the Bill.
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I support the amendment put forward by the noble Baroness, Lady Knight. I want to concentrate on one single point: the human rights convention and Article 8 thereof. We are looking at three categories of cases; parents giving consent on behalf of children, consent where an adult lacks capacity and the use of existing cell lines. A Minister told us on 21 January that it was not...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, the Minister is inclined to brush aside—
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I, too, endorse that sentiment and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, on bringing this matter for debate before your Lordships' House. A country is judged by its performance regarding its prison system and penal policy. We are told by the noble Lord that prisons are in crisis and the speeches have bristled with human rights issues and personal tragedies. The Howard...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, perhaps I may tell your Lordships a story about how things were some 15 years ago, before anonymity orders became quite commonplace. I was at the Old Bailey for lunch one day and the senior judge said, "Go down to court so and so and watch the murder trial that will take place there this afternoon". The case involved the use of a gun. There was a very short opening by the...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I should like to add one word in support of the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. The circumstances do not matter, but arising from them I have had occasion to deal with a care institution, a provider of carers, a high percentage of whom come from either South Africa or Zimbabwe, which I found quite surprising. I was very startled to learn from one or two of...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I shall carry on. The last time I had really big support was at a planning inquiry, where I was booed by an entire village. I did not let it put me off then. We ought not to be doing this. There should not be a ratification or a Third Reading of a Bill that is so crippled by a shot that has gone through it. On whether we should help our Irish friends, I do not know which way they...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I support the amendment. The Foreign Secretary said in his Statement the other day: "The rules of the treaty and of the EU are clear. All 27 member states must ratify the treaty for it to come into force ... There is no question of ignoring the Irish vote or of bulldozing Irish opinion. Ireland clearly cannot be bound by changes that it has not ratified".—[ Official Report,...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I am sorry that noble Lords do not like to be told the legal position. I would have thought that the rule of law would be a welcome doctrine in this House.
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, correct me if I am wrong, but the same treaty was ultimately put to the Irish population again. The Irish were told to rethink and came up with a different verdict. That is not what we hear from Ireland today. They are not going to do it again and they will not be insulted by the idea that they might do so. Clause 4 is headed, "Increase of powers of European Parliament". It states:...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I am about to finish.
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords—
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I am the last of the four who put their names to the amendment to speak, so perhaps the noble Lord will give way. I shall not be very long. The questions I want to ask are simple: was a promise made to the electorate; is the promise still applicable; and should it be honoured? Everyone is agreed that there is no doubt that all three parties made manifesto commitments, and certainly...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords—
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, I shall be extremely brief. I was surprised to hear the noble Baroness say that full protection has been achieved by the first sentence of Article 1 of the protocol. That seems a strange statement in view of the fact that the horizontal articles were not good enough, but something that says almost exactly the same thing, but introduces the word "UK" gives complete protection. That...
Lord Neill of Bladen: My Lords, the noble and learned Lord was not here, but I expressly referred to the passage in his lecture where he said, "However, going into the treaty negotiations, it was clear that some within the United Kingdom still needed reassurance about the possible effects", and so on. I did not attribute that to the noble and learned Lord; I said that he was reporting that there were those around...
Lord Neill of Bladen: The noble and learned Lord, Lord Slynn, is here, my Lords, and he can respond. My experience would be that, once the court has given a judgment, it does not go back to its debating room and say it has made a mistake. There have been cases where it has looked again at a judgment but that is very rare. I do not think the Taff Vale case would be as good a precedent as the noble Lord supposes. I...
Lord Neill of Bladen: They are coming to an end, my Lords. I thank the Minister for his prompt. Regarding the Rasmussen case, Denmark's top constitutional court said, "Danish courts must rule that an E.C. act is inapplicable in Denmark if the extraordinary situations arise that with the required certainty it can be established that an E.C. act which has been upheld by the European Court of Justice is based on an...
