Queen's Speech Debate Continued

The House met at 11.00, the first matter of business being the introduction of the The Lord Bishop of Carlisle—(Geoffrey Graham). More bills were given their first Reading - Lord Darzi introduced the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL] and Lord Bach was welcomed back as a whip with a loud 'hear,hear' as he introduced the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL].

Debate resumed on the humble address - the subjects being Health, Social Affairs and Education. Lord Darzi began the debate - There were a number of speeches from Peers with considerable experience in the relevant fields. Lord Soley made an important point when he said

-"Recently I have seen headlines, not just from the Leader of the Opposition but across the board, about how we live in a “broken society”. We really do not, and the evidence for that is very strong. I understand how, if you read the newspapers every day, particularly about what young people are doing, or indeed watch too many episodes of “EastEnders”, you might come to the conclusion that the British public generally, not just young people, could be put into two boxes: one marked “Psychopathic killers” and the other “Depressive and addictive personalities”. Actually, society is much better than that. The polling that was reported on the BBC recently, showing that about 70 per cent of people regard their family life as being high quality, is much closer to the truth. It is time that we started paying attention to the successes in this area."

On Education and training Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe pointed out "Raising the participation age to 18 is not the full story, however. From 2011, there will be a demographic downturn, whereby the number of 18 year-olds will decrease quite substantially. There is even more to be done in training and retraining the existing workforce, as highlighted by the noble Lord, Lord Leitch, in his report on skills. It is salutary to note that 70 per cent of the 2020 workforce is already working; much of the upskilling and reskilling will take place in part-time or bite-sized courses, from HND or foundation degrees to first, second or even third-degree level."

Lord Adonis wound up for the Government. Some private bills were dealt with and the House adjourned at 5.34pm.