House of Lords: Behaviour in the Chamber

Debate between Lord Geddes and Lord Strathclyde

Thursday 21st June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, I very much welcome the assertiveness of the House. However, there have been instances in the past of Peers intervening in an opening speech and then leaving the Chamber, not intending to speak themselves. This is something which I think we should all deprecate and is not part of the normal traditions of this House. I wish to make two comments about Question Time. I think that the behaviour in the House over recent months has been very good and I have had to intervene on very few occasions. I comprehensively disagree with what the noble Lord, Lord Richard, says: we have a very good system of understanding which side should speak next. The statistics demonstrate that at Question Time Labour Peers probably speak more than is their fair share.

[Lord Geddes]

Will my noble friend confirm to the House yet again that there is no such person as a noble Minister?

[Lord Strathclyde]

Yes, my Lords.

Procedure of the House (Proposal 5)

Debate between Lord Geddes and Lord Strathclyde

Tuesday 8th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Strathclyde)]

My Lords, I think so, too. I shall see whether we can make this happen. There may be some extremely good, logical reason why the Statement is not made available earlier, but if it can be changed then I think that it should.

[Lord Geddes]

My Lords, I should like to add one point that I do not think has been mentioned. The final words of the proposal are almost the most important. They say that,

“statements should not be made the occasion for an immediate debate”.

If this proposal is carried, I hope that the House will bear that in mind.

Motion agreed.

Companion to the Standing Orders

Debate between Lord Geddes and Lord Strathclyde

Tuesday 25th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, I can assure the noble Lord from personal observation that there were very few Members of the House of Lords—of all parties— present at the Conservative Party conference. They were far more likely to be attending to their duties in your Lordships’ House. It is true that the Chief Whip has announced that the House will sit next year during the week of the Conservative Party conference, but this is in large part due to representations that have been made to me and others from all parts of the House that they would rather come back earlier in October than sit in September, as we did this year.

[Lord Geddes]

Will my noble friend confirm that there is no such person in this House as “the noble Minister”? There is “the noble Lord the Minister and “the Minister” but there is no such person as “the noble Minister”.

[Lord Strathclyde]

My Lords, I can confirm that my noble friend is entirely correct.

Peers

Debate between Lord Geddes and Lord Strathclyde

Tuesday 21st December 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Geddes]

My Lords, is there not an implication in the style of “working Peer” that those of us who are not deemed to be such are idle?

[Lord Strathclyde]

That was certainly the view in the 1950s when the term was first introduced. I do not think that it is necessary to use the phrase “working Peer” any more. It is certainly not one that I will use from now on and I shall encourage others not to use it either. I do not think that Peers should encourage being described either as working or non-working Peers.