"My Lords, there are many dimensions in which participation can be measured. We have two problems. As the noble Lord, Lord Swire, said, we do not know the quality of the participation but we know the quantity. These different dimensions are sort of related.
"My Lords, I have many things to declare. One is that I came here not as a hereditary Peer but was appointed by John Major, who conspired with Neil Kinnock—the noble Lord, Lord Kinnock—to get me here. Secondly, I have been here for 34 years, so I obviously do not …..." Lord Desai - View Speech
"My Lords, there seems to be uniformity, in that everybody has to have breakfast. Why cannot some schools have breakfast and others have lunch? I always went to school in the morning and always had lunch at home, so I did not have breakfast. I do not think my concentration …..." Lord Desai - View Speech
"My Lords, let me first say congratulations to the two maiden speakers. Let us hope that they enjoy being in your Lordships’ House.
I start by saying that we have a very distorted housing market. Among all the countries of Europe, we have the highest amount of home ownership—two-thirds of …..." Lord Desai - View Speech
"My Lords, does the noble Lord not agree that, because we had a debate on growth very recently, and because the question has been raised again, what we really need is an expert committee—perhaps your Lordships’ Economic Affairs Committee—to inquire into why we have not had growth for the last …..." Lord Desai - View Speech
"My Lords, we have not had any economic growth in the UK for about 15 years. The last time that we had growth was during the years of new Labour, between 1997 and 2008. Then there was the financial crash in 2008 and, between then and 2024, our growth rate—so …..." Lord Desai - View Speech
"My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that it is not fair to blame the present growth rate on the Labour Government? There are long and variable lags in economics, so whatever investment we make now will take some time to be reflected in the growth statistics. We all ought …..." Lord Desai - View Speech
"Could the noble Baroness make sure that, for villages where there is no post office, there will be a mobile service at least twice a week? That would help residents to have some access to postal services...." Lord Desai - View Speech
"My Lords, I welcome the Bill, which is long-needed. It is possible to say that there are some fantastic examples of home education. My education started when I was two years old and continued at least until I was six, by which time I had been taught almost everything I …..." Lord Desai - View Speech
"My Lords, as the 50th speaker in this debate, I have to say something different from everybody else—I will try.
There are two problems here. First, people think it is an anomalous thing that we are an appointed Chamber. I do not think it is anomalous at all because the …..." Lord Desai - View Speech