Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

I would like to imply that I have remained here through curiosity born of sharing the blood of four Liberal forebears in the House of Commons between the Great Reform Bill and the Great War. My motivation has been curiosity, born of that blood, to see what the continuous flow of a dozen groups of Liberal Democrat amendments would be like. We are now almost half way through that group. Of the four who served in the House of Commons, I suspect that I am closest to the third, my great grand-uncle, who was elected as Liberal MP for Wakefield, but on arrival in the House of Commons decided that he preferred Disraeli to Gladstone. He was honourable enough not to cross the Floor, but did not stand a second time. My reason for having lingered, however, is different. At the time of the 2002 legislation and in 2006 the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, asked me to support him in his efforts to secure the substance of the clause. My part was modest, but I warmly congratulate him on his constancy and his achievement. I should perhaps add that in the words of Lycidas, the noble Lord and I were, ""nursed upon the self-same hill,"" and attended an Oxford college that is almost three-quarters of the way to its millennium. It is a tribute to our mutual college that we were coached in stamina and taught to take a long view. It is happy to find our goal at last achieved, even if it is in a somewhat complicated mode. I am happy to have served as a foot soldier in the platoon of the noble Lord, Lord Avebury.