Member

One point of agreement I have with the noble Viscount, Lord Hailsham, is that there is a link between the rights of hereditaries and the rights of Bishops. It is precisely for that reason that I am against what he is arguing for. We should not allow temporary things to worry us so much; we should look at this sub specie aeternitatis, which, translated into politics, means “after the next election”. We also need to look at it in the light of the past 800 years. The history matters here, because what the Church of England represents in your Lordships’ House is a settlement—one that was very hard to achieve and is constantly under possible threat. It has caused great division and, in the past, murder and conflict.