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Lord Weatherill: My Lords, it is a privilege on this occasion to express our condolences to the noble Baroness, Lady Hogg, and members of Lord Hailsham's family. I shall not repeat the long catalogue of his formidable achievements, which were fully and eloquently expressed by others. My memories of him are more personal.
Lord Hailsham was Lord Chancellor when I was first chosen as Speaker in 1983. Thereafter, we travelled together to numerous Commonwealth and European Speakers' conferences. At the time he was a widower, and my wife became his unofficial minder and sought to ensure that he was on time and dressed in the correct garb. It was a formidable task but also great fun.
I shall never forget the after-dinner speech that Lord Hailsham made in Athens at a European Speakers' Conference. No one who was present will ever forget it. He delivered his speech in Greek. Unfortunately, he did so in Ancient Greek and nobody understood a word, but his speech deservedly achieved a standing ovation.
Lord Hailsham was indeed a legend in his lifetime, and his service was very distinguished both in war and peace. He served under seven Prime Ministers in a number of distinguished ministerial offices and, as has already been mentioned, he was the longest-serving Lord Chancellor.
Just before the Recess, I ran into his son, Douglas, who is a Member of the other place, and said, "How is your father?", to which he replied, "Gone, I am afraid". I fear that Quintin's last days were not happy ones for him or for his family. As I said, our hearts go out to them today. He is gone, certainly, but he will always be remembered by those who were privileged to know him with great affection and esteem.
The Lord Bishop of London: My Lords, I add the tribute of these Benches to what has already been very eloquently said about the life and career of Lord Hailsham and I offer our own condolences to the noble Baroness.
Lord Hailsham was a person who gave enormous service to London, as had many members of his family. I remember also his enormous contributions to many institutions within London. He once said that every
politician worth his salt, no matter how devoted--we have heard of his extraordinary parliamentary service and loyalty to the traditions of Parliament--must have interests outside politics. He continued, "For the more intelligent of my friends, it is religion; for the less intelligent, it tends to be hunting".As we recall the memory of Lord Longford, we also remember Lord Hailsham's conversion, as a very strenuous intellectual, to Christianity and his life as a reader in the Church of England. We acknowledge and are grateful for his insistence as a great parliamentarian that wherever the Church of England might be, it is a Church of apostolic foundation and certainly not merely a creature of Parliament. It was good to have the great parliamentarian underlining that fact.
That is not to suggest that Lord Hailsham was never critical of bishops. I remember him saying, "The trouble with bishops is that they tend to blow in, blow off and blow out". Nevertheless, despite that occasional asperity, we, like other noble Lords, remember a parliamentarian of dignity, magnanimity and greatness of soul. I have no doubt that the trumpets--in his case, probably the bells as well--are ringing for him on the other side.
Baroness Hogg: My Lords, I hesitate to delay the House. But even as a mere adjunct of the Hogg family, may I express appreciation of what has been said this afternoon and convey the regret that my husband Douglas could not take his place at the Bar of the House to hear what noble Lords said? He was detained not by business in another place but by something that I know his father would consider equally important: representing his clients' interests in court. I am very happy that so many of Lord Hailsham's family who looked after him so devotedly in his declining years were in the Gallery to hear what noble Lords had to say.
With the indulgence of the House, I should like to end with a brief quotation from his last great book, A Sparrow's Flight, which I feel may be tremendously appropriate in view of the dangerous and difficult times in which we currently live. He wrote:
- "Despite all the destruction and malevolence of the world, I do not believe in a malevolent deity or an irrational universe. I believe in goodness, truthfulness, loving kindness, beauty, generosity and loyalty. They all exist and are qualities which demand just as much explanation as malevolence, mendaciousness, cruelty, ugliness, meanness and treachery".
Lord Mackay of Clashfern: My Lords, I strongly associate myself with all that has been said. As noble Lords know, I had the great honour of succeeding Lord Hailsham as Lord Chancellor after the sadly short period in which Lord Havers served in that position.
I pay public testimony, since I have the opportunity to do so, to the warm and affectionate support he gave to my wife and myself during my term of office. He did
not always agree with what I was doing. As some noble Lords may remember, he had views about where some ideas were coming from--from which part of one's anatomy. Notwithstanding that, he was a firm and affectionate friend; that warm communication of affection continued until very near the end of his life. We had the privilege of having him with us in Edinburgh in our home on one occasion. Our children have never experienced such an erudite conversation at breakfast!
The Earl of Listowel: My Lords, as we speak of these two great men I hope that I may pay tribute to the continuing work of Lord Longford. Many years ago he established the New Horizons youth centre in King's Cross. That continues today to provide help for homeless people in that area, including young prostitutes working in King's Cross and young men coming out of prison. All of the sorts of people whom he used to help continue to be helped thanks to his foundation of the centre.
Hepatitis C
3.28 p.m.
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What further consideration they are giving to the Haemophilia Society's call for a public inquiry into the infection of haemophilia patients with hepatitis C by contaminated National Health Service blood products.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My Lords, the Government have great sympathy with haemophilia patients who were infected with hepatitis C before the means existed to remove the virus from blood products. We have given careful consideration to the call for a public inquiry but do not believe that that is the way forward. The facts have been set out clearly on many occasions in debates in both Houses, in meetings with Ministers from the Department of Health and in correspondence.
Lord Morris of Manchester: My Lords, is it not grossly damaging to the reputation of the National Health Service that we still await a public inquiry into its worst-ever treatment disaster--one that has already taken more than 100 lives among the now more than 1,000 haemophilia patients who have died from contaminated NHS blood products? And will my noble friend respond to the deeply disquieting recent disclosure made by my former ministerial colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Owen, to the BBC's "Face the Facts" programme, when he said that money laid aside, when he was health Minister, to protect haemophilia patients from infection from blood-borne infection was diverted to other purposes? Is this not still further evidence that an in-house departmental inquiry is no substitute for the public inquiry the Haemophilia Society is seeking?
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My Lords, I believe that all the facts have been produced in various debates in your Lordships' House and in the other place. There can be no doubt that any Minister who had a decision to make on the issue cannot but deeply regret that so many people with haemophilia were infected with hepatitis C through blood products. As soon as the technology became available to make blood products free from hepatitis C, it was introduced by the National Health Service.
I have asked officials to look into statements made by the noble Lord, Lord Owen. We shall respond to those statements in due course. My understanding is that the resources promised by the noble Lord when he was Minister of Health were allocated to the then regional transfusion centres to increase production of plasma for the bioproducts laboratory. That resource was used and, as a result, production was increased considerably. However, because of the rapid growth in demand for those products we did not achieve self-sufficiency in this country. Even if that was achieved in the late 1970s, the fact that heat treatment did not take place until the mid-1980s meant that self-sufficiency would not have prevented haemophiliacs being infected with hepatitis C.
Lord Clement-Jones: My Lords, can the Minister tell the House what moral distinction the Government make between their decision to set up a £60 million compensation fund for those who contracted new variant CJD and their adamant refusal to do the same for those who contracted hepatitis C through contaminated blood products? Is that not a case of double standards?
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