A privilege amendment was made.
(Lab)
My Lords, we are coming to the end of a marathon—and for those of
us who were here the first time the Bill went through, a double
marathon. All the issues were thoroughly debated once and then
thoroughly debated again. It is marvellous to think that now, at
last, we are gift-wrapping this and sending it to the other end
of the corridor for the other place to look at.
I believe that we have tidied up the Bill: the key points have
been clearly made and the unresolved matters identified. We have
spoken of accessibility, sustainability and legacy; financial
sticking points have been identified; workers’ rights have been
adumbrated; regular reports have been required; and the
bifurcatory principle, with India now coming into the scheme, has
been established, perhaps modelling good practice for the future.
Inclusivity has been a repeated word, and the inner secrets of
Birmingham New Street station have been revealed once and for
all. Those matters must now be taken further in the other House,
and we look forward to that.
I understand that we are not allowed to say thanks—so I will, but
not to Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. I just want to say what a
privilege it has been to be involved in a Bill that has been
formulated by the whole House consensually across the Chamber. I
look forward to many more such occasions in future—and I hope
that tomorrow, in the debate on the BBC, we shall do exactly the
same thing. I also want to say one word of courtesy to the
Minister, who cut her teeth on the Bill. I am certain that we are
going to dance together into the future.
(LD)
My Lords, I thank the Minister and her predecessor, who have gone
through the rather odd process of having to do most of the work
on the Bill twice. We have tried to engage to ensure that people
know how this will work, and give them an idea of what to expect
from it. The Government, the whole House and the political
structure have done a good thing in dealing with something that
might not have happened unless Birmingham had taken it on. Durban
could not do it, so Birmingham has taken it on, which means that
the Commonwealth Games will go ahead. The Commonwealth is an
institution that may well become more important in our lives, and
it will have its big sporting festival. Sporting festivals are
good things; thus endeth the lesson. We have brought something
through, and the House has tried to achieve a degree of agreement
and consensus on a common aim. I do not know whether we shall
manage to go down that path very often, but when we can we should
celebrate it, and I thank the Minister and my noble friend Lord
Foster, who managed to make sure that we were still represented
when I could not be here. I thank them both for their help; I
enjoyed working through most of this process.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport () (Con)
As we are not allowed to say thank you, it would be remiss of me
not to break the rules, along with the noble Lords opposite. I
echo the thanks of the noble Lords, Lord Griffiths and , for being so
constructive and helpful on the Bill, and I acknowledge the
extraordinary expertise of the noble Lords who contributed to our
proceedings. I learnt an enormous amount about many things that I
never even knew existed, including, obviously, the signage at
Birmingham New Street station.
3.43 pm
Bill passed and sent to the Commons.
