Member

Without betraying any confidences, and certainly without wishing to imply that the noble and learned Baroness is anything other than an excellent addition to your Lordships’ House, I can say that the process of taking soundings about potential candidates reflected the difficulties inherent in giving discretionary rather than automatic peerages. It reminded me that, just as the law is too important to be left to lawyers alone, the dark arts of politics are not practised only by politicians. So I welcome my noble friends’ efforts to set out a more formalised process in this area, but some of the valuable points they have raised through their amendments apply more widely than just to judges.