Business of the House

Lord Davies of Stamford Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, I know that these matters have been considered on previous occasions in the Procedure Committee and there are valid arguments on both sides regarding the proposal made by my noble friend. All I can say is that today the time limit is seven minutes, which is considered to be ample time to set out one’s arguments. Perhaps I may quote my noble friend Lord Patten who remarked on one occasion, in a Question for Short Debate, that after speaking for five minutes in another place he had barely cleared his throat. Here we are perhaps capable of putting our arguments succinctly and forcefully in a remarkably compact amount of time.

[Lord Davies of Stamford (Lab)]

My Lords, the constant refrain that the House does not have enough time for interventions and that the House does not have enough time to give people a decent number of minutes to express their views in a debate comes ill from a Government who keep on telling us that we are not needed and that we ought to have more holidays and more time off.

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns]

My Lords, the noble Lord often intervenes with some amusing remarks. That was amusing but not accurate.

Motion agreed.