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Law Officers

My Lords, if my memory serves me correctly, for many years when I was in the other place, the Lord Advocate was not a Member of either House. I fear that that problem arose because no Scottish lawyer has succeeded in winning a place in the lower House and had not been appointed to this place. It was because of a dearth of talent, I suspect, that such people had not been able to achieve political office. My time is running out. The Attorney-General in previous times was nicknamed the ““bulldog of the Crown””. When Lord Elwyn-Jones was Attorney-General he preferred to call himself ““the corgi of the constitution””. I would avoid animal parallels, but say that the Attorney-General is a constitutional safeguard of some importance.