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Parliament and the Public

My Lords, it is a privilege to follow the noble Lord in the debate that he has initiated. I am sure that the whole House will want to congratulate him on the production of the report and on the initiation of this debate—and on choosing a Labour Party day for what is essentially a Cross Bench and cross-party topic. The main focus of the report is, understandably, how the public see and learn about what we do, and what we can do to make that better. I do not dissent from that, nor any of the points made by the noble Lord in his speech. I am very glad about the first sentence of the first chapter of the report. It states:"““A more effective Parliament would make a greater contribution than anything else to a renewal of British democracy””." In other words, the substance of what we do and how we do it is probably even more important than how that is perceived and how we communicate it. I have one reservation about the scope of the report itself. I believe that the noble Lord has acknowledged elsewhere that it pays very little attention to your Lordships’ House as a distinct component of Parliament. The report reflects the paradox spelt out by Emma Crewe in her engaging recent book Lords of Parliament in which she says:"““The Lords is considered by many—particularly MPs and especially members of the Government—a political backwater and is neglected by political journalists””." Yet, she adds:"““The only effective opposition in Parliament comes from the unelected chamber””." Last night’s events put a slightly different edge on that, but the substance is the same. Despite the substantial improvement in recent years—in the Information Office, for example—in the extent to which we present what goes on in this House, it remains the case that far too little is known and understood about it. Here, we illustrate more than other places what is so much and so often happening in the presentation of Parliament as a history lesson. My rooms are at the other end of the Royal Gallery and every day I pass the guide presenting the history of this place. His report talks about it as a heritage tour. I get the impression that people learn more about the wives of Henry VIII and the strange activities of Black Rod than about what we actually do here.