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House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill [HL]

I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken to my rather modest amendment, and particularly to my noble friend Lord Selsdon, who gave us a tour de force on the issues raised which I am sure will be read by the international accountancy profession for years to come. He made some extremely important points. The noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, accused my noble friend of filibuster. All I can say to the noble Lord is: do not tempt us because we might take you up on that challenge. The noble Lord, Lord Desai, rightly pointed out that the Liberal Party has not had any power to impose taxation for a long time and it is unlikely that it will. Of course it has the advantage that it is unlikely ever to be in Government in the future, so its Members are given an enormous freedom that the rest of us do not have. But the noble Lord made one point about domiciliation that concerned me, and that is where you are going to be buried. I think he said that when you are over 50, you must have a plot or a place to be buried. That suddenly reminded me that I am over 50 and I have absolutely no idea whether I have a plot or place to go to, and I suppose that I had better do something about it.