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Parliament and the Legislative Process

My Lords, the hour is late and I shall be brief. However, I have to say that my noble friend Lord McNally did not quite finish the quotation:"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars,""But in ourselves, that we are underlings””." I have to say that even by the standards of the House, this has not been an underlings’ debate. I have very rarely seen such a powerful combination of ministerial and parliamentary experience. Indeed, I believe that we have heard contributions from three noble Lords who qualify for the new description of ““noble and scholarly””. I thank in particular the noble Baroness the Leader of the House for her characteristically thoughtful and very full response to the debate. As the Leader of the House she has encouraged us to become more aggressive as parliamentarians and to take charge of our own destinies, and she is right to do so. But perhaps I may say to her that in her other incarnation as a member of the Cabinet, I think that the burden of what she heard this evening, to quote the typical school report, is that the Government must try harder. On Question, Motion agreed to.