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House of Lords: Peers' Car Park

My Lords, if there is one thing that this whole debate has told us, it is the ridiculous way in which this whole thing has been handled. Not a single word has been said in reply to the detailed comments made by my noble friend Lord Peston; we are just told that we should not discuss it, as the right reverend Prelate and others have said. However, nobody has answered in detail the points made by my noble friend Lord Peston. Of course we can discuss it. The idea that terrorists are idiots and think that you can get in only by taxi is so absurd that it does not bear contemplation for a moment. On 7 February, when the committee met and reviewed this as I had previously asked, the Chairman of Committees eventually told me that he had answered the point. How did he do it? It had been done in a Written Statement, deliberately to prevent us discussing it. That is why this House has never had an opportunity to debate this issue. We are told now, once again, briefly, that we should not discuss security. Yet nobody has said why we should not discuss security. I am glad that I have opened this discussion and I hope that the matter will be handled in future rather better than it has been so far. An answer has never been given to us. When I am told that all the Chief Whips agree I immediately want to disagree. If they all agree then I know that something is wrong. They also do it secretly. When I described it as a secret I upset the Chairman of Committees—but what else was it? We were not told what they had discussed. I have never known a committee report to be answered by Written Statement. Eventually he had to tell me that the answer was there in a Written Statement. That is how it was done. I am delighted to have had the opportunity of, I hope, eventually changing this whole process, and I hope that the matter is handled rather better in future. As I say, we have had a Black Rod in this House one way or the other since 1361. None of them felt it necessary to do what has been done today. They have put the fear of God into the committee—not into me but into the committee. I hope that no Member of this House thinks for a moment that they will not be affected by what the Chairman of Committees has said. However, I thank noble Lords who have spoken. With their permission, I beg leave to withdraw the Motion. Motion withdrawn.