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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, maybe it is because I am a Londoner, but I think the headquarters of the new commission should certainly be based in London. If there were an amendment raising that issue I would be sympathetic. I have to admit, however, that I start with a certain bias against this amendment, because the Mayor of London, Mr Livingstone, has been opposed from the beginning to a single commission. I think he was entirely mistaken in that. Secondly, there is a problem with what I would call ““me too-ism””. In my Equality Bill, I made a major concession to the disabled by creating a disabled committee of the commission. I did that for obvious reasons, not the least of which was that disability discrimination had been made unlawful only relatively recently and, yet, we were to lose the Disability Rights Commission. However, once you establish a disability committee, you get demands for a race committee or, as now, a demand for a Greater London committee or sub-committee or sub-sub-committee. I ask those in favour of the amendment to reflect for a moment on the new commission. It will have to deal with all the main strands of discrimination in promoting equality. It will also have to deal with the entire human rights area. It must, as we have heard, be able to reflect the knowledge and experience of people in all those areas, and it must act as a college, a collegiate and holistic body, without turning into different factions or sectional interests. It is not for Parliament to dictate to the new commissioners, who will lie on a bed of nails when they start on the new commission. They have much difficult work to do. It is not for us to dictate a committee structure of any kind to them. It seems to me that the right thing to do is to choose the right people, the right senior staff, and leave it to them to decide how to exercise their responsibilities. I say to my old friend, the noble Lord, Lord Ouseley, that I strongly oppose the philosophy behind this amendment, as I opposed the previous amendments. It would lead to Balkanisation and would lead to Greater London being treated as a country, as though it were Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Although, as I said, I am a proud born, bred and raised Londoner, I do not think that we can elevate ourselves in that way. No doubt, London is one of the most important cities in the country. It is the capital, and it should be the seat of the commission, but it certainly ought not to have a special committee for it, any more than anyone else should.