Ofcom: Impartiality

Lord Dobbs Excerpts

Monday 29th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Dobbs (Con)]

My Lords, last week this House with one voice condemned an attack on a public servant, Olly Robbins. It is extraordinary, and extraordinarily sad, that we should have to go through this sort of thing again. This debate should never have happened. Since when did we in this country judge a man or a woman not by their character or their conduct but solely by the colour of their political conscience? Our fathers and grandfathers fought for better than that.

The noble Lord, Lord Adonis, stands second to no one in his passion for the European Union, but passion can sometimes mislead and make blind, and I believe he has been misled. My mind keeps returning to the words of another European—born in Dublin, lived in London, buried in France—Oscar Wilde. He wrote:

“Yet each man kills the thing he loves


By each let this be heard.

Some do it with a bitter look,

Some with a flattering word”.

I have always had the most cordial relationship with the noble Lord and I fear that what I am saying may break those bonds. But I have listened to his words and I am appalled by them, frankly. They leave any fair-minded person far behind. He is, I believe, killing the thing he loves.

The House has shown its disdain for this debate: it has preferred its dinner. I say this with immense sorrow but I believe that the noble Lord owes this House an apology for sponsoring this debate—and a far more profound apology to those whose integrity he has attacked.