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Equality Bill

My Lords, I was interested to hear the comments from the Liberal Democrat Front Bench. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, referred to the Equality and Human Rights Commission and outside bodies urging us to rethink and change our minds. I take on board those comments, but the noble Lord will also be aware that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, gave an explanation for his change of mind. If I recall, that change came from his having dinner over Christmas with some Irish, left-wing-leaning friends—not the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Clearly he is listening to other bodies and friends to change his mind. The central point in this matter is that socio-economic disadvantage is a severe issue. There is no doubt about that. I take issue with the Minister on socio-economic disadvantage. It has got worse under this Government. The gap between the richest and poorest has got wider. Social mobility has got worse. I quoted the statistics earlier. I am extremely familiar with the Hugo Young lecture to which the Minister referred. The lecture, given by my right honourable friend the leader of the Opposition, was extremely good and I am grateful that she referred to it. It effectively pointed out that socio-economic inequalities are dealt with by following a certain policy direction and above all by having political will, which I would say the current Government do not appear to have. When you have policies and a benefit system that effectively keep families apart, of course you are going to have worse socio-economic disadvantage in those communities, but you cannot deal with socio-economic inequality by legislating it away in the 13th year at the end of a tired Government.