"My Lords, first, I declare my long-standing interest in Persimmon plc, a middle-market mass housebuilder. This position has given me a ringside seat to observe the vicissitudes that have beset house building and planning over decades, with their cycles of ups and downs which no one has ever managed to …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, I listened with great care to what the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, said, and I should begin by saying I agree with all the words of regret in her amendment. It seems clear to me that, in recent responses to public inquiries, delay, obfuscation, the rewriting and scrambling …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, it has become something of a trope to call the first day of the third week in January—that is today—Blue Monday, when people feel at their lowest and nothing much works. Sometimes people make that accusation of migration policy. When I got to work today, I was cheered, …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, I take a pretty broad view of the phrase “domestic abuse”, for it includes not just men and women battering each other, using emotional abuse or battering children, but sometimes partners jointly abusing the elderly, the frail and confused men and women of some age. I have been …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"One aspect of the great productivity mystery and great productivity debate that I want to draw to the attention of the House is the relationship between productivity and the growing practice of working from home, which I think deserves close scrutiny. There is no divine right which says you can …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, we are all lucky to have been here to listen to the notable maiden speech by my noble friend Lord Goodman of Wycombe. On the grounds of transparency, I must tell noble Lords that I have known him for many decades, and we are friends. Over those many …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, there is a lot of evidence that, once a certain standard of living is reached—economic security in particular—good relationships, happy families, and friends and community quite often follow, although not always necessarily, and both of these depend on skills and on the effort made by all of us …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, of the three key words in the very thought-provoking Motion before us, and following the provoking and thought-provoking speech we have just heard from the noble Lord, I intend to home in on productivity linked to how degree apprenticeships can fit into getting us a more productive country. …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, I hope that during this debate, and indeed all the days of debate that we face on the King’s Speech, we will not hear too much of what we are endlessly told about new legislation and new measures: “This is the biggest and most important new measure in …..." Lord Patten - View Speech
"My Lords, I will make three points about this very serious and demanding issue. First, dealing with it may take a much longer time than any of us would like; secondly, identifying early, or identifying at all, those likely to abuse or kill is one of the greatest challenges that …..." Lord Patten - View Speech