Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to begin directly importing Turkish Cypriot products, including fresh produce, to the UK from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, is not this the latest example of where the international community has accorded the ayatollahs the dignity of being a sovereign state and been repaid with the export of violence? Iran has continued to sponsor terrorist militias in central Asia, in Lebanon, in Gaza and in the Balkans, even striking as far afield as Buenos Aires. Would we not find it better policy to say that we...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, we currently give three-quarters of local councils their grants from the centre. It is a higher figure than for anywhere in Europe, except tiny Malta, hence the assumption on all sides is that the solvency of local authorities is ultimately for central government. Does the Minister not agree that it would be healthier for democracy if local councils raised a higher proportion of...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, the bridge has now been closed for longer that it took to build. The total cost of that construction between 1884 and 1887 was £82,117—less in equivalent terms than the £10 million grant to which my noble friend the Minister just referred. When did this country become bureaucratically incapable of building anything?
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, after that speech, I should begin by declaring a few non-interests. I am not a hereditary Peer. I am not a landowner unless you count a small garden about half the size of this Chamber on the Hampshire/Berkshire border. I am not a trophy hunter, nor do I oppose the import of all trophies. However, I speak in support of my noble friend Lord Caithness’s amendment. I go back to where...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, I am very grateful for my noble friend’s reply to the noble Lord, Lord Krebs. The definition of ultra-processed foods to which I think noble Lords on all sides are referring comes from the recent book, Ultra-Processed People. It is food that is “wrapped in plastic and has …one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen”. I suspect that is true of the contents of...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, I am very grateful to noble Lords on all sides who contributed to this part of the debate. I echo the words of my noble friend Lord Leicester—this is what we are here for: finding compromises, and that is what we have done on this issue. This compromise goes too far for some of us and not far enough for others, but all sides can at least live with it. It seems to me that that is...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, I rise to oppose Clause 1 standing part of this Bill. It is the first time I have ever done anything like this, so I hope noble Lords will bear with me if I get anything wrong. My impression until now has been that when people oppose these clauses, they do so in a theatrical or perfunctory way. In other words, they declare their opposition as a prelude to them bellyaching about the...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, the essence of climate change is that it is global and does not recognise borders. It is very disappointing that we have so many calls for responses that are essentially protectionist, introverted and selfish. Will my noble friend confirm that, just because our allies in the United States—and indeed in the European Union—are going down the road towards protectionism, carbon...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, I was one of the earliest proponents of this recall mechanism, in 2008. The then leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, liked the idea and put it in the 2010 manifesto—but then the rats got at it. Instead of it being a mechanism through which ordinary constituents could demand a recall, we had to have an initial procedure whereby the Privileges Committee, in effect, picked out...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for taking the time. I cannot imagine that anyone in this House likes the Rwanda scheme from first principles. It is cumbersome, it is expensive. I have listened to a lot of the criticism from various Benches, and a lot of it hit home, but what I have not heard is a credible alternative. We are in this situation because there has been this steady...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, when the Government announced a windfall tax on energy companies, the Treasury said it would bring in £42 billion. That sounded great. In March this year, the OBR revised that figure down to £26 billion, and now the first independent study, by Wood Mackenzie, says it will be £16 billion. These are not small figures, but it is a small example of what I think is going wrong with...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: The benefits of Horizon are frequently asserted but very rarely demonstrated. Often those assertions come from those who have a vested interest, having been recipients under the old system, as indeed the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, was just honest enough to admit in the form in which she put her question. Will my noble friend the Minister tell me whether the Government have done any...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, I declare my interest as a visiting professor at Buckingham University, many of whose customers are adult learners. What a pleasure it is to follow those two outstanding maiden speeches. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Sheffield spoke about his scholarly immersion and his pastoral immersion, although he did not call it that, and gave us a distilled version of all the things...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, consider the tale of two African countries. In the late 1970s, as we have just heard, Kenya banned the hunting of elephants and the sale of tusks and saw an upsurge of poaching to such a degree that elephants were almost wiped out in that country. At almost exactly the same time, Zimbabwe—or Rhodesia, as it still was for a couple more years—made elephants the property of...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, it is an immense pleasure to follow the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, and to have the privilege of being the first to congratulate him on introducing this Question with such skill, knowledge, empathy and thoroughness. In the short time I have, I will focus on one of the things he said: the way in which what we still think of as atypical jobs are ceasing to be atypical. I look at my...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, I wonder whether the Normandy landings would have been so successful had they all been obliged to have baby-changing facilities on every vessel. This idea of state regulation for baby changing takes the nanny state to a literal level. Can my noble friend the Minister confirm that, in the other place, the Government were elected on a manifesto promising minimal regulation, and that...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: My Lords, during the first lockdown we had some 40,000 fewer cancer diagnoses than we would have expected during a normal period. Cancer develops slowly and we cannot yet calculate the lethality, but will my noble friend the Minister consider, before we ever contemplate another policy of mass house arrest, the long-term consequences for health of people being confined to home? It may be, as...
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that members of Pakistan’s main opposition, Pakistan Tehreek Insaf, have been detained without legal representation.
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere: To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with other Commonwealth governments regarding Pakistan's compliance with the Commonwealth Charter.
