Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Judge

Friday 9th September 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, it is only a matter of weeks since your Lordships’ House met to pay tribute to the Queen on the occasion of her Platinum Jubilee. On that occasion, we knew that the Queen was already in frail health, but nobody contemplated that her reign had such a short period ahead of it. Because the Queen is the only monarch most people have known and was a permanent, reassuring presence in a challenging and rapidly changing world, her death has clearly come to millions as a great shock. For all but the oldest among us, a hitherto ever-present feature of British life has been removed and a deep sense of loss is felt not just by my generation, but by many of our children and grandchildren, for whom one might have thought that the Queen was a distant and possibly irrelevant figure.

What was the basis of this universal appeal? I suggest that it is because she demonstrated qualities that appeal across and down the ages. She was constant. As the world changed, as Prime Ministers and Presidents came and went, she exuded a sense of serenity and calm and, in times of national trauma and tragedy, a sense that these difficulties were surmountable, that they should be met with fortitude and that they would pass. She was unwavering in her commitment to the service of the nation and to her duty to represent its traditions and values, but she was sensitive to changing times, realising that the monarchy too had to change—had to be more open, more accessible and more accountable for everything it did. She was empathetic. For someone whose daily life was as different as it is possible to be from that of the vast majority of her subjects, she had an ability to communicate with them as individuals, to put them at ease and to make them feel truly special.

She had a great sense of humour. This no doubt helped her deal with the vagaries of her own life, but she used it effortlessly to defuse potentially difficult situations and to put the thousands of people she met at ease. She had a zest for life and for the role she had been allotted. Just look at the picture taken earlier this week as she met the new Prime Minister. That smile was genuine and heartwarming. Finally, she appealed to people’s better natures. Every year in her Christmas broadcast, she championed the values of community, generosity, kindness and service to others. We politicians share these values, but the nature of political debate means that we rarely articulate them. The country also shares them and looked to the Queen to champion them, which she unfailingly did.

These qualities were underpinned by two constants in her own life. The first, as we heard, was her marriage to Prince Philip, whom she repeatedly called her rock. For anyone who saw them together, there was no doubting that this was indeed the case. The second was her religious faith. This not only provided a source of strength and comfort for her but underpinned her approach to being the monarch. There is, in the Book of Common Prayer, the evocative concept of an individual’s “bounden duty”. The Queen applied this concept not only to her spiritual life but to her public role. She understood the importance of that duty for a monarch and she fulfilled her duties, one might say, religiously—literally to the end of her life.

As we remember the Queen, we also have in our thoughts, His Majesty King Charles—how strange it is to be using those words—Prince William and all other members of the Royal Family. We send them our condolences and good wishes for the difficult days ahead. We have lived our lives in the Elizabethan age, and how fortunate we have been to do so.

[Lord Judge (CB)]

My Lords, on behalf of the Cross Benches, I want to associate myself which each of the three very moving speeches that the House has listened to. In a sense, there is nothing more to be added; yet, we do need to reflect and think about the things we have heard and perhaps you will allow me to just add a little to it.

Tributes: Sir David Amess MP

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Judge

Monday 18th October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, I begin by joining the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition in expressing my condolences and those of my colleagues to the family and personal friends of Sir David, and to his wider family, the constituents of Southend West.

For Liberal Democrats of my generation, the point at which Sir David first made an impression on us was general election polling day in 1992. I was with Paddy Ashdown in his cottage near Yeovil on polling night. Michael Buerk had a BBC camera in the street outside. The opinion polls were suggesting a hung Parliament and we were, naturally, extremely excited at this prospect—until the first result of the evening came in from a Conservative seat, namely Basildon, when the smiling features of Sir David confounded the predictions of the exit polls and our hopes. Michael Buerk folded up his equipment and slunk away. Sir David’s delight counterpoised our disappointment.

In the years since, I have had little personal contact with Sir David, but a surprising number of my colleagues in your Lordships’ House have—in work ranging from the Industry and Parliament Trust and the Iran Freedom Movement to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fire Safety and Rescue. They share the common reflection that he was a lovely person: courteous, entertaining and completely devoted to serving the public good and his constituents. In short, he had exactly the qualities that people wish to see in their elected representatives. He will certainly be greatly missed equally in Westminster and Southend.

Today, as we remember Sir David, our minds inevitably turn to the murder of Jo Cox, the deadly attack involving my colleague and noble friend Lord Jones of Cheltenham and the attack on Stephen Timms. After each of these terrible incidents, there was understandable soul searching on why the attack happened and how similar attacks might be avoided in future; and the same thoughts are in our minds today. It is obviously appropriate that there will be a review of the security of MPs to see what additional measures might be taken that are consistent with MPs being able to continue to meet their constituents and hear their concerns.

We in your Lordships’ House are in a somewhat more fortunate position than our MP colleagues. Although, like them, we may receive abusive emails—or at least I do, every time I make a speech about Brexit—threats to our physical safety are, I believe, pretty rare. We will therefore largely be bystanders in the formal security review. But, for anybody involved in politics at any level, this tragedy should give us pause to consider how we conduct ourselves and the contribution we make to the heat generated by public debate. As we do, we might start by heeding the words of the Amess family and thinking about how to embody them in the way we go about our business. The family have said that they want people to

“set aside their differences and show kindness and love to all … be tolerant and try to understand.”

In politics it is not always possible to set aside differences altogether—but it is always possible to show kindness and consideration to all. There could be no better way of respecting the memory of Sir David than to make tolerance and kindness our watchwords as we face the challenges of the months ahead.

[Lord Judge (CB)]

My Lords, so many noble Lords know Sir David—or knew Sir David—that I shall be brief. On behalf of the Cross Benches, we respectfully and mournfully join in and associate ourselves with the expressions of condolence and sympathy to Lady Amess and her family on what is, obviously, a calamitous loss— made, I suspect, much more poignant by the time when it happened, the occasion when it happened and the cruel circumstances in which it happened.

An MP for 40 years was cut down while doing his job—an MP who, by all accounts, had that wonderful additional attribute, beyond serving the needs of every one of his constituents, of having an independent mind. Everything I have read about him tells me that he did. He was his own person, and we need Members of Parliament like that.

As I say, I did not know him. I know that the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of York will be speaking soon, and he was a personal friend, so noble Lords will want to hear from him and not me, but I must add something. Can we think about the way in which we deal with these issues ourselves? Can we reflect on the impact on the House of Commons, rather than on this place? Can we reflect—and I do, with sympathy and concern for the other place—on the troublesome paradox that it seems to require a catastrophic disaster, such as this murder or the murder of Jo Cox, to bring back to mind, and highlight before the public, the societal contribution and the contribution to the welfare of the nation that is going on with 650 elected Members of Parliament sitting in the other place? We owe them rather more, do we not, than a fleeting acknowledgement on an emotionally induced occasion? If we could retain, recover or find a way for the public to appreciate what our Members of Parliament do, we would be living in a much happier society. You do not have to agree with your MP, but you do have to respect him or her.

For today, though, noble Lords have heard enough from me. Our thoughts from these Benches are with Sir David’s family, his wife and his friends, many of whom are in this Chamber; and let us not overlook the unhappy people who were there, very close to the scene at the time.

Clerk of the Parliaments

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Judge

Tuesday 13th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the Leader of the House and the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, in paying tribute to Ed Ollard for his work as Clerk of the Parliaments and his long career in your Lordships’ House.

To the outside world, I am sure that the House of Lords looks a rather timeless place, where tradition counts for everything and nothing ever changes. During Ed’s career, and particularly during his time as Clerk of the Parliaments, very much has changed. When he started work here, there were approximately 250 life Peers and 450 hereditary Peers. Among Peers with political affiliations, the Conservatives had almost exactly twice as many as Labour and ourselves combined. Even when I joined in 1997, I was told by our then Chief Whip not to expect to be able to do anything or change anything because of this overhang of such a huge Conservative majority. How things have changed: the removal of most of the hereditaries, the greater politicisation of the House and the willingness to challenge not just the Government of the day but the way we do things have transformed the nature of the Lords. The pandemic has brought with it revolutionary changes in the way in which we conduct our business, which a little over a year ago could not have even been contemplated.

During his time as senior clerk, and most particularly Clerk of the Parliaments, Ed has had to manage these fundamental changes of procedure and the way we operate in the Chamber. He has also had to confront, as a result of the Ellenbogen report, the need for widespread change in the way we do things outside the Chamber, while preparing us, I hope, for the rigours of the R&R process. I worked closely with Ed since he became Clerk of the Parliaments, and have seen at first hand, to quote from the Motion before us today,

“the zeal, ability, diligence, and integrity”

with which he has undertaken this role. He embodies the best traditions of the British Civil Service and has set high standards for professionalism and probity, for which we should all be very grateful. Personally, I have been immensely grateful for the consideration he gave me when I contacted him on the most disparate range of issues, one of which, for at least one member of my group on that day, was the most important thing in their life, but certainly not the most important thing in his. He will have a worthy successor in Simon Burton, with whom I look forward to working as closely as I have with Ed.

In his interview in the House magazine, Ed says that his plans for the future consist of going to the beach as soon as Covid restrictions allow. On the assumption that he did not only have UK beaches in mind, I am sure that he is aware that the places that are likely to open up their beaches soonest include Caribbean islands and the Maldives. I have, therefore, attempted to picture Ed suitably attired, perhaps in a floral shirt, sipping an umbrella-topped cocktail in one of those places. I am afraid that my imagination has failed me, but I hope that on whichever beach he chooses, he enjoys a very well-deserved break now and a very long and full retirement thereafter.

[Lord Judge (CB)]

My Lords, this is the second time in less than 24 hours that I have stood up to say that I agree with everything that has been said by everybody who has spoken before me, and, more importantly, all of them have agreed with each other. Long may it continue, making Simon Burton’s role so much easier to perform. Can we hang on to that?

I will not repeat the many admirable qualities that Ed Ollard has brought to this office. I join the others who have spoken on behalf of the Cross-Benchers and enthusiastically adopt what they have said, but there is something that this House seems not to know about Ed Ollard. He is a master of quizzes. Did your Lordships know that he has been given a trophy as the champion quiz man in this place? It is a lovely little cup that was presented to him by members of the staff. He knows all sorts of outrageously stupid things, meaning that he has a mind crammed full of completely useless intelligence. However, I have set him a few questions for his retirement. Which institution has been described in the past as “addled”, “drunken”, “mad”, “merciless”, “useless” and, just but once, “good”? I am sure that he knows the answer to that. Then there is a trick question. How many Members of the House of Lords can stand on the head of a pin? Well, he has spotted the trick there, but here is one that even he will need a whole week to get round to answering: how long is a piece of string?

I do not anticipate much of an answer, but I do anticipate the continuing accumulation of this wonderful, useless knowledge, so that when teams are being picked—remember when we were small, we all lined up and hoped that we would be picked for the best team—Ed Ollard will always be picked first for any quiz. He will have time to learn more and more of what it is lovely to think of as fulfilling knowledge as well as trivia.

United Kingdom Internal Market Bill

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Judge

Consideration of Commons amendments
Monday 14th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Judge (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I speak to Clause 43A. Consistent with the Minister’s undertaking last week, this new clause is not tainted with the admitted unlawfulness that marked Clauses 44, 45 and 47. By way of a footnote, in view of the Minister’s observation, I will say that those clauses should never have been there in the first place. As the Minister has explained, this clause is concerned with the issuing of guidance by the Secretary of State in relation to Article 10 of the Northern Ireland protocol, and any subsequent implementation of that guidance. Either process must pay full attention to the decisions and recommendations of the joint committee, itself established under Article 164 of the withdrawal agreement. Non-compliance, if it were to arise, would, if necessary, be justiciable.

There is nothing further that I can say in relation to this clause. It seems to be a very sensible solution to a difficult problem.

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, this is the last knockings on Part 5 of the Bill. It has been a sad and sorry saga from beginning to end. The Government understandably drew huge opprobrium, both domestically and internationally, for being prepared to break the law. They have now withdrawn in the best way they can, but the truth is that they have done so with their tail between their legs. I am extremely pleased that we have reached this point, but sorry that the Government ever put Part 5 in the Bill in the first place and that it needed your Lordships’ House to help kick it out.

Clerk of the Parliaments

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Judge

Wednesday 30th September 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, as other noble Lords have said, this is extremely sensible timing. Ed Ollard, unlike most of his predecessors, however distinguished, will be remembered for change and for that we are extremely grateful. The time will come for us to pay proper tributes, but the process that has been outlined is sensible. It will give us a chance to think about the options going forward. We hope that Ed will enjoy his remaining few months as much as I know he has enjoyed the previous few months.

[Lord Judge (CB)]

My Lords, I agree and, for the time being, have nothing to add.