Lord Howard of Rising (Con)

My Lords, I am not sure if one has to declare an interest now, if you are an old man, but anyway. I am told that the reason for wishing to get rid of Members of this House who are over 80 is that there are too many Peers. I cannot think why this opinion is held, when there is absolutely no evidence to support it. We are trying to solve a problem that does not exist. Except for the rarest occasions, there is always a seat in this Chamber. When not in the Chamber, there is always space in the Library, the Salisbury Room or the Peers’ Writing Room. The maximum number of Peers going through the voting Lobby on any one occasion in the last year was, as my noble friend Lord True pointed out, 475. If we want to spread our net a bit wider, we see that the average number voting in Divisions in the last two years was 319, and these numbers of course include hereditary Peers, who have been got rid of, so the numbers in practice would be smaller. At the last State Opening of Parliament, Peers had to be moved around by the doorkeepers to stop the place looking empty. They were all too embarrassed at what it might look like in front of the TV cameras. When the Labour Government under Tony Blair made the timetabling of Bills normal practice, it prevented the other place having sufficient time to properly examine new legislation. This resulted in an even greater revising duty being placed on this House. For this House to do its job properly in Committee on a Bill, a sufficient number of Peers is required who know the subject well enough to make sensible, constructive comments—Peers who are prepared to sit from after Questions until 10 pm with just a short dinner break; I will not upset you all by commenting on the food. We need a large pool to find enough Peers meeting these criteria for the many and diverse subjects which go through this House. How do we find them without a large number of Peers to call on? In my view, there is something even more important than the practical difficulty I have just outlined. I am shocked by this discrimination against a group of Peers—of which I am one, by the way. First, it was hereditary Peers; now it is the over-80s. What will be next? What would this Government next like to get rid of? Is it the Liberal Democrats?