Lord Dobbs (Con)

My Lords, this debate has become very personal at times, and perhaps I might indulge in that. First, I apologise to my noble friend Lord Sandhurst for trying to get in the way of his valedictory speech. He is a friend of mine and will remain so, and I shall miss him very much. There are many other opponents of the Bill, which I so fervently support, who are dear friends of mine, for whom I have and will continue to have great respect. That includes, for instance, a previous Chief Whip who I can see, and who am I to argue with the wiles of a Chief Whip? Five years ago, when I was diagnosed with the cancer that had killed my father and my brother, one of the first people to come to me to say, “Michael, come and have a cup of tea”, and to give me a hug, support, sympathy and advice was the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff. I am very sad that she is not in her place today because I would have liked to express my affection for her and my gratitude to her in this House to her face. This has been a Bill of passions and disagreements. I will continue to respect all those of my friends who disagree with me on this, but—there is always a “but” in life, is there not?—while this has not been a filibuster, I was silly and went and looked up how a filibuster is defined, and it is “to talk something to death”. There is a certain irony in that definition, is there not? Look, it is not a filibuster, but if something looks, sounds and smells like an elephant and it is standing on your bloody foot, you can be forgiven for believing that it is indeed an elephant—but, of course, it is not a filibuster, is it? It is not the job of this House, as we have heard so many times, to bury a Bill in distractions, which is what so much of the last few weeks and months have been about. I believe that we as a House have let ourselves down by failing to come to a conclusion on this Bill. We have harmed our future by failing to do our duty. There are people out there, opponents of this House, who would bring this House down and use this debate and our failure to deal with this Bill properly as a reason for doing so. No one wants a bad law, but we already have a bad law. It is a law which is cruel. It is a law which is callous. It is the law of Dignitas, whereby people are forced—only if they can afford it—to go off to a strange land and die there. We have a law of suffering and excruciating pain. It is the law of humiliation and degradation, which far too many people have to endure, totally unnecessarily. I fail to understand how anyone can suggest that the current law in this country is acceptable. We must find an alternative. We should not be made, as individuals, to go on that longest journey we will ever take, to our deaths, racked with pain and stumbling in fear. To know that you can and may die in peace is to live in glory. This Bill will fail, but it will be resurrected. It will return and it will succeed—and I personally will rejoice.