My Lords, I am delighted to follow the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Craig, and I do so with a degree of envy: I long to have my vaccine so that I can come back and be in the Chamber with those who are there now. I spent most of the time when we sat from July almost until Christmas in the Chamber and I miss it. I disagree, gently but firmly, with my noble friends Lord Randall and Lady Wheatcroft: we need an effective Parliament, and that means we need Members in the Chamber. It is essential. Even as we have a hybrid Parliament, which is only a one-dimensional Parliament, there must be Members in the Chamber.
These are dark and difficult times for the House, but I also want to refer to something else. Before he said Prayers today, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Rochester said that our thoughts were with those of our parliamentary colleagues in Washington at the moment. Indeed they should be, and we have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate how democracy really can work, by working together across party. I make an appeal through my noble friend the Minister—and I beg him to pass this on to the Prime Minister—to bring the leader of the Opposition on board. I am not advocating a national Government, much as I would personally like one, but I believe that the leader of the Opposition, who has demonstrated real statesmanship, should be at the table. There should be daily meetings between him and the Prime Minister, and he should be involved in committees such as COBRA. We are fighting this as a society, and it must be a united society—a united nation—and this would do much to achieve that.
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