"My Lords, my goodness, what an education we have had tonight, across such a broad range of topics and ages. My remarks may fall short in that regard, but during the thankfully now concluded debates on the hereditary presence in this House, I tabled an amendment that, in line with …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
On participation, I initially felt that a more detailed approach could be taken, with a weighted metric across all the diverse forms of participation. We might come back to that in the future, because the participation request is, I am afraid, in practice an attendance amount. I …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"I know the Minister agrees with me that one of the reasons why the water industry got into such a mess was because it was so poorly regulated. A lot of the issues, such as overlaying debt, are simply a result of the regulator not being up to the job. …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"My Lords, these interventions are all very commendable, but are the Government going to get behind the idea of letting those agencies fighting fraud on our behalf retain more of the money they recover so that they can exponentially increase their effectiveness?..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"My Lords, the Question is about access to ethical banking. We are frequently told during Prayers in this House about the evils of the person who lends money on usury. Can the Minister have a stab at defining ethical banking?..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"My Lords, I join in the shower of congratulations on the noble Lord, Lord Alton, for sponsoring the Bill, which I support, and for his many years of work in this field. The Bill is not about labelling current or past actions as genocide; that often passionately contentious area diverts …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"While a close season is certainly a good idea, I have previously recounted in this House the case of a farming family who, sadly, feel obliged to kill all the hares on their land—because, otherwise, gangs running lucrative betting on illegal hare-coursing crash through their gates, destroy their hedges and …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"I agree with the Minister that debt overburdening of the company was a major cause of its problems. She has heard me call many a time for the new regulator to have the proper understanding of financial engineering, which the current Ofwat team simply did not have. That enabled the …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"While the Minister may have handed this off to the Department for Transport, can he comment on the likely fate of the crews of the ships that are being detained and on the future expectation of what will happen to the oil and to the ships themselves, many of which …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech
"My Lords, yesterday I asked the Minister how long it takes to build a reservoir, but I am not sure I got an answer. I am told by a bit of internet research that it will take roughly 10 years to get through planning and then a further five to …..." Lord Cromwell - View Speech