Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

My Lords, I shall speak in favour of Amendment 13. As was mentioned on Monday and has been mentio...

I shall speak to Amendment 17. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, for adding her name to ...

My Lords, I declare an interest because I, too, was a member of the Joint Committee on Human Righ...

My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 17 and 18, which are in my name. Although they have both ...

I just want to ask my noble friend to look at history and recall the number of times—as I made cl...

I am grateful to my noble friend for her intervention and I will look back—I am afraid as a newer...

I am a little confused again. Is the noble Baroness saying that the quadruple lock is not secure?...

I thank the noble Lord for that helpful intervention. That has been the Government’s position loo...

I apologise again to the noble Baroness. I am trying to get to the core of the mischief here and ...

If you attend a Catholic church, the authorised person is the registrar. No one comes from the lo...

I want to try to bring two sides together on this issue. I hope people will recognise that I am e...

I agree very much with my noble friend, whom I thank for giving way, but I hope that he was not s...

I listened to the whole debate almost without exception, and there were one or two sentences that...

I apologise to the noble Baroness for taking more than my usual length of time to understand the ...

I will respond to the noble Lord, Lord Alli. I am not seeking a cast-iron guarantee. I have previ...

My Lords, I entirely understand the concerns that have been expressed by the noble Baronesses, La...

My Lords, I courteously recognise the forensic skills and deep legal knowledge of the noble Lord,...

I hope I am not interrupting at the wrong moment, but will my noble friend agree that we have to ...

Of course, but it is not unknown for a wise, enlightened, independent judiciary, which I strongly...

My Lords, although this has been an immensely courteous debate, I would start by wholeheartedly a...

My Lords, for the sake of clarification, I did not speak on behalf of the committee but declared ...

I beg the noble Baroness’s pardon. It is interesting that both noble Baronesses, and the noble Lo...

My Lords, I will start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, my noble friend Lady Berridge...

On that very point, why is it that registrars who from conscience, from their heart and beliefs, ...

My Lords, obviously they cannot yet have been sacked because of this legislation, because it is n...

Does my noble and learned friend also agree that the Human Rights Act compels this legislation to...

Indeed, my noble friend is right. Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights gives that...

Perhaps I could remind my noble and learned friend of my other suggestion: that detailed conversa...

If my noble friend had allowed me to finish the sentence that I had started when he intervened, I...

My Lords, I do not wish to be consulted, but I suggest that the document or letter is put into th...

May I suggest that all those who have taken part in the debate should have a copy sent directly? ...

My noble friend has taken part in the debate and I usually make it a matter of practice to send a...

My Lords, I thank noble Lords who took part in this debate. The noble Lords, Lord Lester and Lord...

Moved by

Lord Carey of Clifton

15: Clause 2, page 4, line 20, at end insert—

“(...

My Lords, before I address the amendment, perhaps I may refer to an earlier speech by the noble B...

I thank the noble and right reverend Lord for giving way. I know that he will know the Church of ...

Yes. I thank the noble Lord for that intervention but I am referring to nonconformist churches wh...

That would not be possible in the Church of England, for example, where there can be no blessing ...

The noble Lord is exactly right but I am not talking about the Church of England because there ar...

My Lords, this is entirely misconceived. This Bill is not about blessings. The church has a right...

My Lords, this amendment is concerned with Section 29 which is related to the exercise of public ...

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Deben, used the word “courtesy”. I wish to make a plea for clarity...

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Deben, that, as legislators working on the Bill, our ...

My Lords, I thank the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Carey, for flagging this issue so that ...

My noble friend referred to Clause 2(2) which states that:

“A person may not be compelled”....

I am not sure if my noble friend was in his place for the earlier debate, but we had quite an ext...

My Lords—

I was here for a substantial part of that debate, but not all of it. I ask a simple question: is ...

Yes, I can confirm that.

My Lords—

My noble friend is able to offer free advice on this.

Yes, it comes free. When the noble Baroness replied to the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, she may have ...

I find it amazing that my noble friend Lord Lester knows what is inside my head when I myself do ...

My Lords, I am grateful for this brief debate and I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Deben, that c...

Moved by

Lord Harrison

19A: Clause 3, page 4, line 38, at end insert—

“(cc) a m...

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 22A and 27A. I am so sorry that the noble and right re...

My Lords, I rise to speak briefly in support of my noble friend’s amendments and of this Bill. Th...

My Lords, I support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, and the new schedule pr...

On the question of religions falling out of step with civil society, religions are there to give ...

With the greatest respect, I agree except that I would put it the other way around. The danger th...

I apologise, but the noble Lord refers to religions—he has clarified the issue now—and gives the ...

As I say, I am not the best person to be advising churches on how to handle the like. However, re...

My Lords, I greatly appreciate both the humour of the noble Lord, Lord Garel-Jones, and the court...

I thank the right reverend Prelate for allowing me to interject on the subject of the celebrant-b...

I am grateful for that point of information and I accept that clarification.

The other issu...

My Lords, I would like up to pick up on the right reverend Prelate’s last point about the curious...

The noble Baroness is very persuasive and I am not at all against what is proposed. But perhaps I...

My Lords, as I said at Second Reading, I am a secularist, but I accept that many people are relig...

My Lords, I am a lapsed humanist. When I was at Cambridge I was a member of the most privileged c...

My Lords, I am not a humanist; I am afraid I am a closet believer in God. But I wanted to add my ...

My Lords, before the Minister replies to the debate, I would like to follow up the observations m...

Does the noble Lord think that the humanists need to wait another 19 years for another Bill to co...

I am afraid that that is not the immediate problem. The problem is the impact on this legislation...

My Lords, I have no specific expertise on humanism and am not a humanist myself. Indeed, I am gra...

My Lords, this has been an excellent debate. I say to the noble Lords, Lord Lester and Lord Eden,...

I wonder if the noble Baroness can explain the position on Long Titles, because it may well be th...

The point that I was making at the outset of my remarks—the noble Lord is an expert at getting le...

My Lords, I think that I am right in saying that it is not without precedent for a Long Title to ...

I thank the noble and learned Lord for that remark. That is indeed the case.

I conclude my ...

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, for introducing the amendment and for e...

The noble Baroness needs to acknowledge that humanism is a system of belief. It is quite wrong to...

I accept that point. Forgive me if I was suggesting anything that was not respectful of what huma...

The amendment sets out the conditions whereby it would be permissible in the particular case of t...

I understand the point that the noble Lord is making. As I said when I began, there is quite a lo...

We are proposing this under the existing requirement in Section 27 of the Marriage Act 1949. We d...

I will cover that point in the course of my response.

The point still stands—I will explain...

I am sorry to interrupt and I hope I am not being a nuisance by doing so. Is not one reason in fa...

I was trying to make the simple point that the concern that the Attorney-General raised at that t...

I am very puzzled by what the noble Baroness is saying. She is now saying that there are other gr...

I do not have the copy of Hansard in front of me for the debates that took place in the other pla...

Are these implications deal breakers or are they administrative and technical details that could ...

The responsibility I have as the Minister responding to this debate is to make clear that somethi...

There is huge respect for the Minister in this House and for the way in which she has conducted t...

Before my noble friend replies to that, she will, I am sure, have observed that not a single voic...

I was about to conclude my remarks in any case. I am grateful to my noble friend. The noble Lord ...

I am trying to helpful. Why can the Government not adopt the same approach as the previous Govern...

I am not in a position to offer to noble Lords today the kind of specific response that my noble ...

I have sat listening to this for an extremely long time. I do not have any views at all about whe...

Very briefly, before I finally sit down, of course everybody would support humanist marriages. Th...

My Lords, I am in severe danger of letting the nice side of my character come to the fore at this...