Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, since there are not too many noble Lords present during the dinner hour I propose to start with a modest confession. After all, the noble Earl, Lord Longford, admitted that as a younger man he worked for the Conservative Party. My confession is that after 40 years as a professional economist, and 10 years into retirement, I no longer feel obliged to read all of the official...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I shall not be drawn from my main argument by a trip to the Far East and back. I have been encouraged to hear from various speakers in this debate about the way in which the high exchange rate has compelled business to be more efficient and effective in its exporting. In his reply I ask the Minister whether he will indicate at least a preliminary view on my serious proposal for...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, we have heard some good speeches. What interested me especially in the unusually cheerful speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe, was his outspoken dismissal of seeking salvation through legislation. That encourages me to cast caution to the wind. It seems to me that the case for the Bill takes only a moment's thought. If we accept limits on spending for parliamentary...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I join others in warmly thanking the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, for this opportunity to discuss this ambitious and wide-ranging topic of the economic and social effects of globalisation and its impact on fair competition, employment conditions and the environment. At the outset I confess an interest. For 30 years I spent my time at the IEA as a font of teaching on the principles of...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, it falls to me, on behalf of the whole House, to welcome the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Chesterton, to our counsels and to congratulate him on his most expert and thoughtful maiden speech. He comes to us as a Fellow of the Royal Society and currently professor in climate modelling at University College, London. I am not sure whether he will thank me for reporting that he was educated...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, in view of the noble Baroness's reference to the advertising of top jobs, and in view of the discontent some of us still feel about inciting an unseemly scramble for peerages in this way, may I suggest that she considers taking a leaf out of Iolanthe and offers her own exalted station for competitive examination?
Lord Harris of High Cross: Before I launch into a formidable speech in support of the amendment, may I ask the Minister whether the Government intend to table an amendment to meet the anxiety that the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, has expressed and which is shared by many people, including by the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, and me? I understood the Minister to say that earlier.
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, it is an unalloyed joy to follow the noble Lord, Lord Skidelsky. I found much to agree with in what he said. It has to be admitted that the Government have come a long way since 1997, recently, alas, mostly downhill. Of course New Labour created such hopes of a new era that disillusion was inevitable. Today, amid the carnage of the party battle, Labour's single consolation is that...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I very much enjoyed the contrasting opening speeches from the three main parties. I especially enjoyed the sparkling performance of the noble Baroness, Lady Hogg. I wish she had more time to tell us the extent to which this almost comically Scottish-dominated government favours the Scottish electorate. I thought that required further examination. My view runs rather more radical...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I hope that it is not necessary for me to say that my fundamental opposition to this Bill runs far wider and deeper than the narrow interest I declare as a lifelong pipe smoker and the chairman of FOREST, which is the premier European organisation that defends the rights of smokers to light up, I hope always with due courtesy and consideration. It is not necessary to be a smoker to...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I was very much cheered up at the outset of this afternoon's debate to hear from the engaging maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, that the Government occasionally check out whether earlier Acts of Parliament have had the desired effects. I thought that comparing the unchecked flood of legislation year in year out with the, should I say, "patchy performance" must be a...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, in order to test the proposition that confession is good for the soul I shall start with a couple of modest admissions. First, to my Right-wing friends I confess that five years ago in the debate on the Queen's Speech—it was the first of the new government—I offered warm congratulations to new Labour on forming their first administration. Secondly, to my Left-wing friends, I...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, if noble Lords will consult their stopwatches, I undertake to speak well short of the three minutes that I am informed are permitted in this gap. I was driven to take part with one purpose only, which was to underline something that the noble Baroness, Lady Cox, said in quoting the late Lord Jenkins's quite excellent biography of Winston Churchill. He recounts that in 1925 the great...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking my noble friend Lady Howe for initiating the debate. I much admired her bold opening speech. In place of a declaration of interest, I acknowledge my good fortune almost 60 years ago, as a working-class lad, in winning a free place from Tottenham Grammar School to Queens' College Cambridge, of which my noble friend Lord Oxburgh had the even better...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, there is clearly much to welcome in the Bill. I particularly rejoice that it proposes a further measure of liberalisation in the market by loosening or removing state regulation. We have seen that process already in telecom, as we have heard, and in energy, air travel, financial markets and similar dynamic spheres of economic activity, of which broadcasting and the printed media are...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I join other speakers in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell, for initiating this important debate. I also take the opportunity of thanking him for his quite splendid paper, A Defining Moment, published by CPS. His lucid account, clear even to a non-lawyer, helps me to withstand the daily outpouring of legalese from Brussels. In return for that enlightenment and the...
Lord Harris of High Cross: I was hesitant to intervene and would normally persist in my disciplined silence. I was for 12 years an independent national director of The Times, which ensured that ears were closed against anything I said. But, behold, I stand before the Committee as a new man. I resigned from The Times and am now two years into recovery, so I can draw on my experience during that period. I stand in awe in...
Lord Harris of High Cross: I hope that, even at this late hour, the Committee will be patient. There has been a well developed and orchestrated campaign in favour of the amendments. I can see some force in some parts of the argument. Emotionally, I often feel drawn, in the words of the noble Lord, Lord Bragg, to reconsider my position, although that is largely theatrical. Essentially, the amendments are born of fear....
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, from the Cross Benches I thank the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, for the opportunity to debate these great issues. At the same time I pay a strong tribute to him for his consistency and courage in advancing robust views that have not always been received with the rapture, even the respect, that they deserve in this House. For the life of me I cannot honestly see what objection there can...
Lord Harris of High Cross: My Lords, I believe there will be universal agreement that we have enjoyed a remarkable feast of oratory and the deployment of exceptionally wide knowledge and practical experience of the European Union. Nevertheless, wide differences still remain and some of us have to play our part in maintaining the argument. We have had a good deal of repetition but, from my point of view, not enough...