Lord West of Spithead
Main Page: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord West of Spithead's debates with the Cabinet Office
(12 years, 4 months ago)
Lords ChamberI have to admit that that was not in my brief. Perhaps I might add that Spencer Perceval was, like Wilberforce, an evangelical, and having read a little about him, I have to say that he was something of a prig. Included within his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography is the fact that in 1800 he wrote a pamphlet on Biblical prophecy in which he referred to the French Revolution as,
“a divine instrument destined to destroy popish superstitions”,
and identified Napoleon Bonaparte as the woman in Revelation, chapter 17,
“who [sits] upon a … beast … the mother of harlots … drunken with the blood of the saints”.
My Lords, does the Minister agree that a suitable memorial to the 23,000 Royal Navy sailors who died stopping the slave trade might be more warships for the Royal Navy?
I note that the noble Lord makes a very strong point, which I have no doubt he will make again on a number of occasions.