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House of Lords Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may contribute briefly. I have found this debate most interesting; there has been not a moment of boredom in it, and one cannot always say that. We are not here to entertain ourselves but it has been a fascinating afternoon. I have a later amendment, and I fought shy of incorporating the concept of senate into it because I was not sure that there would be enough agreement. The combination of my noble friend’s amendment and the noble Lord’s Bill has brought out a broad measure of support for the word ““senate””. It would be dangerous to say that we are all agreed on the proposal because many would say that we are not. However, one thing that has come out of the debate so far is that the terms ““senate”” and ““senator”” are strongly in contention. Having said that, I understand what my noble friend is seeking to do in her amendment. I do not agree with the thrust of it, but she has probably achieved her aim in airing the issue. I suggest that if we are going to have any change to the name of ourselves as individuals or to the name of the House, then senate would be the odds-on favourite, provided that the change of name occurs when there is a change in the composition of the House. If we do it without changing the structure of the House—and this is not the amendment on which to debate that—it will be silly. When we come to changing the way in which the House moves to stage 2 or stage 3, I think the title ““senate”” will be a good one.