I want to write to Lord Mancroft
Did you mean good speaker:Lord Mancroft?
Lord Mancroft: ...opinion polls, but we have an opportunity to take the Bill back to the original manifesto commitment, if that is what everybody is so obsessed about. I notice, however, that most manifestos have God knows how many items in them which nobody takes any notice of at all. They discard them at will when they are not interested in them, then grab them and hang their hats on them when they think...
Lord Mancroft: ...that reform may take will take interminable debates in this House for many days, weeks and years to come, but not, I hope, today. My concern is that by tinkering at the edges, slowly removing, at God’s pace, the 10% of the membership of this House that, by the way, has collectively the best record of participation whichever way you like to measure it, the Bill makes any major reform much...
Lord Mancroft: ...list of six. There are indeed differences, as my noble friend said, between the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. There has of course been a decrease in mortality, particularly infant mortality-thank God that we have far less of that than they did in those days. However, we have an increase in marriages. A friend of my father once asked him what my sisters did. He said, "They marry, long and...
Lord Mancroft: ...I have read horrible stories in the newspapers, as we all have. It appears that those people want to go off in the evening to do something and leave those dogs with a friend or a relative, who may-God forbid-sometimes have a child in the house. When something goes wrong in the heat of the late evening, the adult with whom the dog has been left-they may or may not be a responsible adult...
Lord Mancroft: ...do not know the details about these things. The bit that frightens me about all these debates is when the Government start talking about sending messages. If I were a schoolteacher, which thank God I am not—and thanks from the children, too, I should think—the first thing that I would say to every child is: do not believe any government message you are ever told by any Government. The...
Lord Mancroft: ...this policy, in Sir Alan Budd's report. He made it perfectly clear that we had, at that time, an extremely well regulated industry in this country. We still have one—the quality is there, but, my God, the quantity is there too. The amount of regulation that we have! The old Gaming Board did a very good job with 46 employees; I wonder how good a job the current Gambling Commission is...
Lord Mancroft: ...of other stock, breaking every national and international rule. That is management by the state. In anyone's book, that is unacceptable. That is how the Scottish Executive managed it. I hope to God that we never have to see that here in England. So we must have wildlife management. It is absolutely essential. It is not gold plating or a coach and horses. It is none of those things; it is...
Lord Mancroft: ...to personal abuse of those of your Lordships who hunt now or have ever hunted. Indeed, if that sort of language were used about any other minority—Muslims, gay people, black people or even Jews; God forbid, Jews—it would quite rightly result in criminal proceedings. But it is okay to abuse hunting people because we are, like Jews were in Nazi Germany, "not normal" and "undesirable" and...
Lord Mancroft: .... The only difference between the person who goes to a football stadium, sits in a seat and watches the game being played, and the person who goes hunting on a horse—both are sitting down, thank God—is that, because the field of play moves rather further in hunting, hunters require a chair with legs. But we are not participants. Clearly from what he said in Committee, the Minister...
Lord Mancroft: ...problem about night access. It would be a constructive move to find some way out of the problem without compromising the Government's principle. The Government should have their business, although God alone knows why. When noble Lords discussed this matter in Committee my noble friend Lord Jopling (who I am pleased to see is back in his place) put forward the idea that a walker, rambler or...