Speeches

Source Hansard My Lords, I speak today with a tremendous sense of delight at the arrival of this Bill, and its reception so far. I declare an interest as one of those who helped early on to establish the groundwork for what became the Challenge Network charity, before the 2010 election, to create one of the original pilots of the National Citizen Service programme, where I was involved from as early as 2008 - and as part of the team who helped write the policy into the 2010 Conservative manifesto, and I subsequently advised on it from within the Cabinet ...

              Source: Hansard I, too, want to thank my noble friend Lady O’Cathain for instigating this debate. I declare an interest as a recently signed-up member of the present EU sub-committee, as well as having various commercial interests, as can be found in the Lords’ register, in relation to cutting-edge technologies and insurance respectively. The publication of this report and today’s debate on its findings and recommendations are extremely timely, given the huge growth in the use of drones for commercial and leisure uses, and the potential benefits and risks that this growth poses ...

              Source: Hansard My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Williams, for tabling this very timely debate. I wish to declare an interest as the youngest Member of, and a relative newcomer to, your Lordships’ House. In my brief four or so years as a toddler here, it has occurred to me that any discussion of how this place should be reformed ought always to start on the basis of what it is for rather than primarily the process by which its Members are chosen or how long they stay. As ...

              Source: Hansard My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, for taking a lead and introducing this debate. I congratulate the noble Lords, Lord Goddard and Lord Scriven, and the noble Baroness, Lady Janke, and on their fine maiden speeches. I declare an interest as a non-executive director of the Manchester-China Forum. In the limited time we all have, I want to echo other speakers today in setting out and agreeing with the historic case for city regions to have greater leadership and responsibility in running their own economic affairs. Indeed, ...

              Source: Hansard My Lords, I am most grateful to the most reverend Primate for tabling this debate and commend him and the Church of England worldwide for the strenuous efforts it makes to advance reconciliation between conflicting groups, both here in the UK and abroad. I declare my various interests as laid out in the Lords register. When I first reflected on the notion of soft power after coming into this House, it led me to a curious starting place: trade. We often think of soft power in terms of non-profit, diplomatic and ...

              Source: Hansard Question for Short Debate asked by Lord Wei: "To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations of the report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on East Asian Business on foreign investment from China into the United Kingdom." My Lords, I am most grateful to have been granted time for us to debate what I believe is a crucial inflection point both in the UK’s relationship with China and in China’s own outward investment story. I declare an interest as the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for ...

              Source Hansard My Lords, I too want to thank my noble friend Lord Dobbs for tabling this very timely debate, and also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Whitby, and the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, on their outstanding maiden contributions today. A happy birthday, too, to the noble Lord, Lord Green, who will be sorely missed in his role as trade Minister. I declare an interest both as someone with Chinese ancestry and as one who was born and grew up in Britain. This led me quite naturally upon entering your Lordships' House a ...

              Source: Hansard My Lords, it is a great honour and pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Livingston of Parkhead’s insightful, witty and passionate maiden speech. We all welcome his contribution to the House, and indeed to the whole country and beyond. As a businessman, he distinguished himself when running BT, not merely by driving it forward to growth commercially inside and especially outside the UK, but also in helping to spearhead many corporate social initiatives, including those that have helped to create suitable employment for those in later life, initiatives which I know ...

              I want to join my fellow peers in congratulating my noble friend Lord Bates for securing this debate. Amidst a summer of sporting success it is only right that we turn to football, a sport whose Premier League become truly world class over the last two decades - even though as a nation we still eagerly look forward to a World Cup breakthrough in future to add to our recent tally. I want to focus my remarks today on the question of how we balance between the interests of increasingly international club shareholders ...