Lord Parekh: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Russell-Johnston, for this extremely important debate on what is on all accounts an unacceptable and abominable practice. When we talk about honour killing it might be useful to spend a minute or two trying to understand what it entails. We would all agree that honour killing is killing that is motivated by, or legitimised in terms of, a sense of honour....
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lord Turnberg for initiating this very timely and important debate with characteristic understanding and passion. The decline in the numbers of clinical academic staff is striking and also worrying. As my noble friend pointed out, since 2000 there has been a 12 per cent drop in the number of clinical academics, amounting to as high as 42 per cent among...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, in the light of the July attacks in London and the knowledge that we have acquired about terrorist methods and networks, a Bill such as this is needed and I have no general difficulty with it. But I do have four sources of unease and I should like to spend the next five or so minutes articulating them. I have some difficulty with the whole idea of detention without charge for 28...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I welcome this long overdue NHS Redress Bill, whose advantages seem to me to be obvious. It reduces legal costs. In 2004–05, the cost of clinical negligence was about £503 million, of which £150 million—just under a third—went on legal costs. The smaller the claim, the larger was the percentage of legal costs. The Bill should also avoid complicated complaints procedures,...
Lord Parekh: I happen to be one of those on these Benches who have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I feel extremely sympathetic to the Bill. However, realising that the Bill contains deep ambiguities, I am also sympathetic to the amendment tabled by the noble Lords, Lord Hunt of Wirral and Lord Lester of Herne Hill. I support the Bill for a variety of reasons. People have talked freely about the...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I welcome the Equality Bill and the proposed Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Like many Members of this distinguished House I wish that the commission had been set up after the Equality Act was enacted, because this is what we have done with almost all the other commissions that I can think of: the Commission for Racial Equality or the Equal Opportunities Commission. I...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, both those points are valid, and if I had more time I would love to debate them with the noble Lord. In order not to duck the issue, I shall make two quick responses. Although human rights recognise in some cases the need for and possibility of positive discrimination, I have seen several cases in the United States and other jurisdictions where they have been so interpreted—either...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, in my brief contribution I want to concentrate on three issues. I have chosen these issues because they have been touched upon only briefly, if at all. I do not want to talk about the Bills that will come before us, because we will talk about them when the occasion arises, so I shall use this occasion to flag up three important issues mentioned briefly in the Queen's Speech. The...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Norton, for introducing this debate with his usual erudition and wisdom. We need to be clear why it is important that we should increase public engagement with Parliament. It is not a question of political cosmetics, nor is it a question of how best we can sell ourselves to the people, but it goes to the very heart of the kind of political...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I welcome the report and thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and his colleagues for their efforts in putting it together. It contains some extremely interesting ideas that—I very much hope that they will be tried on an experimental basis—if adopted would make your Lordships' House even more efficient and effective. Some of these interesting ideas have already been mentioned. I...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Whitaker for introducing this extremely important debate relating to the abolition of poverty in developing countries. This is one area in which the Labour Government have done a great deal of which to be proud. They have untied the aid budget so that poor countries receiving aid from us remain free to buy goods and services from the most cost-effective...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I begin by thanking the right reverend Prelate for initiating this fascinating debate. Whenever we talk about religion, we need to bear two things in mind. First, every religion has two opposite tendencies. Religion is dogmatic and is bound to remain so because it believes that God's will is revealed in scriptures that human reason is not at liberty to alter. Therefore, every...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Wright of Richmond, for proposing and brilliantly opening this extremely important and timely debate on foreign policy priorities. Before I make my own contribution, I want to say how much I enjoyed the witty and wise speech of the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, and how much I look forward to his contributions in the years to come. The foreign policy of any...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I begin by thanking my noble friend Lord Ahmed for raising this important subject this evening. In international affairs, the United Nations, unlike the League of Nations, which preceded it, enjoys considerable moral and political authority and has, over the years, become a major source of legitimacy. The actions of a state are generally accepted as right and carry a good deal of...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, our system of higher education has gone through so many different reforms over the years that it has almost become a patchwork based on no consistent set of principles. When I came across the Bill, I therefore asked myself three questions of the kind that one must ask about any education Bill that aims to rationalise our system of education. First, does it promote excellence—does...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I, too, am deeply obligated to the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury for initiating this extremely important debate. In his eloquent speech, he referred to Winston Churchill's remark to the effect that the quality of a nation's prisons is a barometer of its moral fibre. I should like to supplement that with a similar remark by Mahatma Gandhi who, unlike Churchill,...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I see the need for the Bill and welcome many parts of it, but I am uneasy about several other parts. I shall concentrate briefly on three disturbing features of the Bill. Many noble Lords have spoken eloquently about the unified appeal system and the ouster of judicial review that is proposed in the Bill. I share their unease. We must all acknowledge the problems involved with...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, although it may sound a rather strange thing to say, it is a little too early to comment properly on the Hutton report. So much has been written and said about it, from so many different points of view, that it has become difficult to appreciate the report in all its complexity. We therefore need a little distance in time. Now that the Government have set up a new inquiry on the...
Lord Parekh: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Patten, for proposing today's timely and topical debate and for his interesting and somewhat polemical speech. Our media are a mixed bag. Our quality press and the BBC are world class and inferior to none, but our tabloid press leaves much to be desired. It has little interest in major political events of the world and, when it condescends to take notice...
Lord Parekh: asked Her Majesty's Government: How they intend to respond to the recent revelation of racism within the police force.