"I thank my noble friend for that and I apologise to the House for the fact that I have persistently been asking this question for the last few years. I am channelling my noble friend Lord Rooker on folic acid, and I just hope it is not going to take …..." Baroness Thornton - View Speech
"My Lords, I have put my name to this amendment in the name of the noble Lords, Lord Russell of Liverpool and Lord Young of Cookham, though not because I believe my Government are not doing a great deal about early years—I am sure my noble friend the Minister will …..." Baroness Thornton - View Speech
"I invite the noble Baroness to acknowledge that this Government, since they were elected, have committed £1 billion to school meals. It would be nice if she would mention that, as well as everything else, which I am sure we all agree about...." Baroness Thornton - View Speech
"My Lords, in many ways the test of the Government’s success in reforming public services will be whether we can crack the tough nut of children’s social care. It has been quite clear from the debates on the last three groups that this is a major challenge. I declare my …..." Baroness Thornton - View Speech
"How does the noble Lord feel that we need to make the transition to the kind of system that we want, if he is so worried about the reduction in capacity? How do you deal with the profit gouging that has gone on? If you sort of say you do …..." Baroness Thornton - View Speech
"My Lords, it was a great honour to listen to the last debate. I commend my noble friend Lord Patel for leading a wonderful debate. However, we move on, and I shall explain to the Committee why I am opposing this clause standing part.
"My Lords, I am very pleased to take part in today’s debate for two reasons, the first of which is personal. After 27 years in your Lordships’ House, I had not anticipated that I would talk about this. I failed my maths O-level four times and still managed to get …..." Baroness Thornton - View Speech
"My Lords, I declare an interest as a non-executive director of the Whittington Hospital, which is my local hospital. It has a very strong volunteer scheme and is recruiting volunteers all the time. Can my noble friend the Minister assure me that this is about enhancing the work that is …..." Baroness Thornton - View Speech
"My Lords, here we go in Committee and here we have had, probably, our first Second Reading speech from a colleague. I will not make a Second Reading speech; I will address this amendment, which I think is unnecessary. We have a perfectly sensible, comprehensive description of what this Bill …..." Baroness Thornton - View Speech