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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, I rise briefly to support the amendment tabled by my noble friend, Lord Alli. I promise the House that I will try not to speak quite so frequently on the same evening during the normal course of events. However, this group of amendments is important and raises an important point of principle. I know that the Government are sympathetic to the spirit behind the amendments, but the view that they appear to have taken up to now is that the time is not yet ripe for such measures. I simply remind my noble friends on the Front Bench of the splendid Cornford aphorism that the time is likely to be rotten before it is ripe. The problems of discrimination are here and now. They are happening today. They will happen tomorrow. They will happen the day after tomorrow. If we delayed until the day after the day after the day after tomorrow, discrimination will have taken place that we could have prevented. I hope that my noble friends on the Front Bench will take away these amendments and will think very seriously about how their principles can indeed be enshrined in the Bill before it finally departs from this House.