My Lords, I have learned much from the debate so far, and we will learn a lot from the speeches still to come. It is a particular pleasure to speak after the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull. I am conscious that I am somewhat outside my comfort zone in speaking today, and so I will speak principally as a v…
My Lords, I commend the Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee on producing such a comprehensive and well-considered report. I also pay tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Murphy, for his independent review, which was carried out with the levels of diligence and common sense for which he has been renowned …
My Lords, this is an important report, not least because we are the only committee with the bespoke role of looking at the relationships between the United Kingdom and the EU. There was mainly consensus in this report, notwithstanding appendix 9, as my noble friend Lord Frost said, which contains th…
My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in this debate. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, for bringing it, and all noble Lords who have spoken. We have had some interesting contributions that have ranged from careers advice to archaeology. I think everybody agrees that waste crime is out of cont…
My Lords, I apologise for speaking in the gap on this important report. I, too, thank the committee, the clerks and our policy analyst.
For too long, nitrogen has remained the invisible pollutant, a silent driver of environmental degradation. While nitrogen is fundamental to life and food productio…
My Lords, in his remarks, the noble Lord, Lord Hannan, has tried to pre-empt the comments that I was about to make. I remember well the Falklands War in 1982. I remember many negotiations with Spain about Gibraltar. I remember the struggles with China over Hong Kong. I remember discussions about the…
My Lords, I will say at the outset that I do not see the need for the amendments we are discussing. However, I do think that responding to and respecting the wishes and interests of the Chagossians is one of the most important and difficult issues facing the Governments of both the United Kingdom an…
My Lords, after the history lesson from the noble Lord, Lord Hannan, I am tempted to recount my time in Malta in the 1950s or my visit to Djibouti in 1965, but I will resist that temptation—at least this evening.
As I said at Second Reading, I support this necessary and sensible Bill, but I want to…
The noble Lord said that we should pursue international law. Does he accept that we have, under the International Court of Justice, an opt-out for disputes between ourselves and Commonwealth countries—or was he going to mention that anyway?
My Lords, there is pretty stiff competition for the accolade “worst Bill of this Session”, but this Bill is right up there in contention.
The Chagos Islands are linked to Mauritius only by virtue of the fact that they were both once administered as part of one colony. There is no historical, geogra…
My Lords, this amendment shows that there are ways in which the rights of children could be protected. The debate so far has shown that we believe it to be extraordinarily important that the rights of children in these circumstances should be protected. I am therefore very glad that the amendment ha…
My Lords, this is a small but very important Bill. Most of the important issues it raises have already been spoken to by noble Lords, but some of them bear repetition.
To my mind, this is yet another Bill that, depressingly, seeks to make indents in our constitutional, judicial and democratic right…
My Lords, first, I declare my interest as a chief engineer working for AtkinsRéalis. I thank the committee’s chair, the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, for all her work in steering the committee through this inquiry and for her excellent introduction to the debate. I also thank the committee and its s…