"My Lords, following up the question of the noble Lord, Lord Birt, I ask the Minister a simple question: does she think it is fair that UK licence fee payers should have to pay so much towards the World Service?..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"My diplomatic friends tell me that, if they are up for a sensitive posting abroad, the due diligence that the FCO carries out is a brutal, intrusive and pretty degrading exercise, but a very effective one. Why is the system of due diligence for a political appointment different?..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"My Lords, is the Minister aware that one of the great transport scandals in this country is that it costs something like £20 per mile to take the smallest car from Portsmouth to Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight? There is a monopoly there that operates completely against the economic …..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"My Lords, I have had the nod to speak in what is called the gap—I hope that meets with your Lordships’ approval. As a declaration of interest, I am currently chairman of Ofcom, and I have had a long career in various bits of British public service broadcasting which would …..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"My Lords, although great strides are being made in medicine, as I understand it, to study individuals’ genetics to predict a propensity to get diseases later in life, this raises a serious question about how the insurance market is going to respond to that. I would be very dubious about …..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"My Lords, perhaps I might pose a somewhat more prosaic but urgent question. The crisis at Jaguar Land Rover had immediate and predictable consequences for the supply chain. The immediate call was for the taxpayer to stand in. Do the Government have a view about whether the banks should play …..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"What a privilege, but what a responsibility, to be a part of this debate. It is clear from every speaker that we all feel that responsibility.
If this legislation passes into law and subsequently proves, like all legislation, defective in some respects, there is no way in which subsequent revisions …..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"My Lords, I draw the attention of the House to my interest in the register. Does the Minister agree that many of the concerns expressed on all the Benches on this issue, particularly in the Question of the right reverend Prelate, can be answered by the speedy rollout of small …..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech
"My Lords, I draw attention to my interests, past and present, as listed in the register. The Minister referred to a long-term strategy for the World Service. Such a document exists. I chaired a group commissioned by the then Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. This report got lost in one of …..." Lord Grade of Yarmouth - View Speech