European Council
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock(8 years, 5 months ago)
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The Earl of Courtown
I apologise to the noble Baroness. We have had 20 minutes of Back-Bench debate on this and we will now move on to the next Statement.
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, will the noble Lord give way? The whole House is perfectly aware of his thoughts on this matter but, in this instance, we are moving on to the other Statement now.
Trade Union Bill
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
Lord Balfe
I shall be brief. I begin where the noble Lord, Lord Hain, ended, which is with the leaked letter. The points put by the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, were extremely well made. There are clearly a whole number of issues within the Bill. If we are to believe the leaked letter, which I probably do, and as we are not going to vote tonight, I hope that the Minister will look very carefully at all these amendments with a view to coming back and assuring the House that, if we asked to sustain our opposition to them, she has firm advice from the Attorney-General that that will stand up in court. I am not afraid of our occasionally going to the Supreme Court to clarify matters—I think it is probably necessary in a devolution settlement—but we should be on firm ground. If we do go to the Supreme Court, we should have a recommendation from the Attorney-General that he is quite satisfied that legally we are in the right in what we do.
When it comes to things such as deductions of contributions at source, about which at another opportunity I shall make some very clear points, if devolution means anything, surely it does not mean that we are going to ask Cardiff hospital, for example, to stop deducting the subscriptions of their union members if that is done at no cost to public funds and is seen as beneficial to industrial relations in Wales. What does devolution mean if simple things like that cannot happen? Maybe they cannot happen but, if that is the case, I hope that the Minister will be prepared to publish and share with us the views of our Attorney-General as to why this is a sound clause.
The Earl of Courtown
My Lords, I think that it is the turn of the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, whose name is added to the amendment.
Sudan
Debate between Earl of Courtown and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock(9 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)
Does the Minister accept that the problem of refugees relates not just to people fleeing oppression in Syria? There are refugees from many countries in Africa, including Sudan. Does he agree with what Peter Sutherland said at the weekend: that this is a problem not just for the European Union but for the whole world, and that other countries including Australia, Canada and the United States ought to be mobilised to help in the way that we did for the Vietnamese boat people?
The Earl of Courtown
I did not read the piece that the noble Lord mentioned, but it is a matter for the whole world. Some refugees from Sudan come from Sudan but others travel through it from Eritrea and other countries.