§ 3.21 p.m.
Baroness WARD of NORTH TYNESIDEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask the Leader of the House why the arrangement in operation for many years of selling stamps in the Library, where a convenient post box is available, has been discontinued to the inconvenience of those who have used this helpful service.
§ Lord SHEPHERDMy Lords, fortunately this is a matter for the Library Sub-Committee, who will no doubt take into account the views of the noble Baroness. I understand that following the representations from the noble Baroness this service has been reinstated.
Baroness WARD of NORTH TYNESIDEMy Lords, may I thank the noble Lord for that very satisfactory reply and also the Committee concerned? May I also ask that the official who, for some time, I think, has been dealing with this matter be thanked for the helpful and courteous way in which he has assisted noble Lords in this matter of postage stamps? May I also ask the noble Lord if he will accept that in general we in this House feel that nowhere in the world have we such first-class servants looking after our interests and that we wish the world to know how lucky we think we are?
§ Lord SHEPHERDMy Lords, I am very happy to agree with the noble Baroness on this occasion. We are indeed indebted to the Librarian and his staff. I think that some of us who have been here for a few years and have seen the way in which our membership has grown can express, perhaps with greater knowledge, our sense of satisfaction at the way in which the service has been maintained for many more Members but with very few increases in staff. This is very much due to our staff. I shall see that what the noble Baroness has said and the sense of this House is conveyed to the Librarian and the staff.
§ Viscount ECCLESMy Lords, may I as Chairman of the Library Sub-Committee put it to the noble Lord the Leader of the House that, while we are glad to try to meet the request of my noble friend Lady Ward of North Tyneside, it really is a fact that twice a year your Lordships' numbers go up and our staff remains the same? It is becoming quite a question which of the services your Lordships prefer. I am myself in some doubt whether the sale of stamps one by one is really a task that we should put on to a trained librarian.
§ Lord SHEPHERDMy Lords, I hope that this will not be the occasion for a debate about the sale of stamps between the Chairman of the Library Sub-Committee and the noble Baroness. This is something I hope they will conduct somewhere else.