§ 9.7 p.m.
§ Lord StrathclydeMy Lords, in moving the adjournment of the House I wish to say the customary word of thanks to all those who have worked so hard to ensure the efficient running of your Lordships' House throughout this Session, and indeed throughout this Parliament. It has been only a few weeks since Christmas and this Session has been shorter than a normal Session. However, I am sure that your Lordships will agree with me that everyone has worked extremely hard, particularly in the past few weeks, to ensure the orderly completion of business in this House.
As always, I do not wish to draw particular attention to any specific individuals or groups of staff since to do so would run the risk of failing to name some key individual or group. My thanks are to all the staff of this House. Seen and unseen, they do so much to make your Lordships' lives as bearable and pleasant as possible in 1177 and around the House. I am sure that the Whole House will join with me in wishing all of the staff a peaceful and happy Prorogation and Dissolution Recess.
I also wish to use this opportunity to thank the other members of the usual channels for the spirit of co-operation which has, almost without exception, been the rule throughout this Session. It is an extraordinary tribute to this House that we can, even under conditions of great political excitement, continue to proceed by way of agreement in arranging our business. The result is that your Lordships' House is able to scrutinise legislation in a calm and efficient atmosphere—and long may that continue!
Perhaps I may say just one word which may break all sorts of conventions and refer to my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor. The House will have seen that he has announced his retirement at the general election. On behalf of the Government at this Dispatch Box I should like to thank him for the tremendous years of service and for the hours that he has sat on the Woolsack, always patient, always clear in his instructions and always kind and generous to his colleagues on the Front Bench.
Tributes have already been paid to my noble friend Lord Ferrers. However, while I am on my feet and seeing that they are in the Chamber, perhaps I may also mention my noble friends Lady Trumpington and Lord Goschen, who have also announced their retirement at the general election.
As for the Opposition, they have had plenty of practice over the course of the past 18 years to become good at it. I hope that the Whole House agrees that in the course of the past few years they have become extremely good at it. It is my wish that, when we return in May, they shall remain practising that art of Opposition while we remain in government.
§ Lord Morris of Castle MorrisMy Lords, in the unavoidable absence of my noble friend the Opposition Chief Whip, it falls to his very inadequate substitute to say that we on these Benches wish to associate ourselves most warmly with all the remarks made by the Government Chief Whip—
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyExcept the last ones!
§ Lord Morris of Castle Morris—except the last ones! Like him, I should find it invidious to name any names because I, too, know from bitter experience that, however many individuals are thanked, there is always that one who is inadvertently omitted and who will never, ever forgive the omitter for the rest of his life.
Even though I am a substitute for the Government Chief Whip—
§ Lord Morris of Castle MorrisMy Lords, I must not anticipate matters!
1178 When I received the order that I should carry out this agreeable task, I did not realise that I was in for one of the greatest comic performances I have ever heard at the Dispatch Box by that master of comic performances, the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers. I mean this quite sincerely. For a short time in my past I was a professional actor. However, I have never heard anybody time the remarks that he makes better than the noble Earl. I have sat in admiration on many occasions and wished that he could teach me how he does it.
I shall make one small change to what I just said about not mentioning anybody in particular. Perhaps I may thank and pay special tribute to all the attendants in your Lordships' Chamber, the Doorkeepers, who want your notes when you have finished with them and fail to see you waving vital communications when they are looking straight at you, and who rebuke with a terrible severity any noble Lord who trespasses unbeknown on some arcane rule, convention or practice of this House. They can be at times a terrifying group. John Donne, in one of his satires, refers to, "the great eight-foot high iron-bound serving men"—which fits nearly all of them since "Jumper" Collins retired. They all look like and resemble in so many ways regimental sergeant majors in the Brigade of Guards. However, as they get to know you, and if you behave yourself in a proper fashion and do pass their test, you become a sort of "persona grata", rather like the young second lieutenant who is looked on in a grandfatherly way by the regimental sergeant major as a young fellow who might one of these days make something of himself.
I agree with the Government Chief Whip that the usual channels have, fortunately, flowed unblocked in this Parliament. I say nothing of what has passed through those channels—but it has been of great assistance to organic farming and we should have a bumper crop next year!
Finally, and bearing in mind the verbal punch-up which seems to have taken place earlier today in another place and which surprised me, I thank all noble Lords on behalf of all of us on these Benches for the good relationships, good taste and good humour that xas almost always characterised our debates and deliberations.
§ Lord Thomson of MonifiethMy Lords, briefly, on behalf of these crowded Benches behind me, I wish to associate myself with the words of the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Castle Morris. I know nothing about the usual channels, and never have, either in another place or here. They remain a total mystery to me. However, what I do know is that, mysterious as they are, they certainly have wonders to perform, and particularly in this House. We owe a great debt to the usual channels for the way in which on all sides of the House they manage to serve the House so well.
I join also in the tributes to all the servants of the House in every possible capacity.
Perhaps I might also be allowed a personal word of admiration and respect for the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor. I have perhaps some particular personal reasons to value his very high qualities. But 1179 what has impressed me about him is that, as a senior member of the Government, he has managed to steer some major legislation through from the Woolsack—sometimes rather controversial legislation—and has always managed to do it in a serene and calm way. I can only pay him what I always regard as the great Scottish compliment: in all the troubles of the work and the duties he has had to undertake, he has continually maintained a calm sough.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleMy Lords, if my noble friend the Chief Whip can suspect himself of breaking the unwritten rules of your Lordships' House, surely I as a humble Back-Bencher can do the same. I believe that my fellow Deputy Speakers and Deputy Chairmen would, like me, wish to pay a tribute, on this last occasion when it is possible for any of us to speak in this Parliament, to my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor. Noble Lords will remember that the law is the true embodiment of everything that is excellent. He has embodied the law for a number of years, both in his distinguished position as Lord Chancellor and before that as Lord Advocate, when he will remember that he dug me out of a personal hole on an energy Bill, which I think was the first Bill that I had the honour to put before your Lordships. He has honoured us, the Deputy Speakers and Deputy Chairmen, in an extremely generous way, from whichever party, or none, from which we have emerged, and we are all extremely grateful to him personally.
§ Baroness WhartonWe on these Benches also wish to be associated with the expressions of gratitude to the staff who look after us so well, not only those whom we see on a daily basis and who are so unfailingly helpful to us, but also those behind the scenes whom we seldom see and without whom the place would probably grind to a halt. On behalf of the Cross-Benchers, we thank them all.
1180 Finally, we should like to say thank you to the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor for his courtesy to us from the Woolsack. We too wish him well in his retirement. We have an added suggestion: perhaps he would like to join us on these Benches!