European Council

Debate between Lord Higgins and Lord Campbell-Savours

Monday 23rd March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Higgins (Con)]

My Lords—

Procedure of the House (Proposal 5)

Debate between Lord Higgins and Lord Campbell-Savours

Tuesday 8th November 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

My Lords, the Motion actually reads,

“‘may’ (with the agreement of the usual channels)”.

One must assume that the usual channels would have this matter in mind when deciding. Therefore I do not see any problem at all.

[Lord Higgins]

My Lords, I understand very well the case against reading out extremely long Statements. None the less, I believe that the repetition of Statements in this House is very important because very often they get much more detailed expert scrutiny than in the other place.

As far as television is concerned, it is rather regrettable. As far as I can establish they televise the original Statement in the Commons but virtually never show the Statement being repeated in this House. That is perhaps a point which ought to be taken on board.

Having said that, I think that there is also an important matter of timing—if it is an extremely long Statement, which is then going to be in the Printed Paper Office, one is going to need some time to read and digest it before the Statement is then bounced suddenly into this Chamber. At the very least, while one would not necessarily move a manuscript amendment, those dealing with this discretionary practice should certainly allow at least an hour and a half—and I would have thought two hours—between the Statement being available in the Printed Paper Office and it being taken on the Floor of the House.

Economy: Growth

Debate between Lord Higgins and Lord Campbell-Savours

Tuesday 11th October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Higgins]

My Lords—

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

My Lords, are there any lessons to be learnt from the early 1930s when public expenditure was cut?

[Baroness Wilcox]

We are making policies for now, looking forward. I am not sure, looking backwards, that there are too many lessons to be learnt from recent years.