Lord Haskel Visits the Ladies at the Marist
18 March 2010
Lord Haskel, deputy speaker of the House of Lords visited the Marist Senior School on Friday 5th March, and gave a talk on the work of the House to our students in Years 10, 12 and 13. He was then subjected to questioning from the girls. Questions from the girls included Iono Hampson asking, “Are there many women in the House of Lords?” He responded, “Women were once not part of the House of Lords but now about 20% of the House of Lords is made up of women. Even though this is a small proportion many of these women are important figures and over the future more women will be appearing.”
Katy Eynon, Year 13, asked, “With the election coming up, it’s very important for you to receive the votes of the younger generation. But there doesn’t seem to be that many easy use resources for us to look at. Could you please outline what Labour stands for in this election and more importantly, why we should vote Labour?” His response was: “Nearer to the election, we will have a formal announcement of what we stand for and in the mean time you can go on labour party.com to see our brief legislation.”
Lord Haskel answered all the girls questions and congratulated the Marist girls for their conduct, the quality of their welcome, their levels of attention and their perceptive questions. Mr McCloskey added, “it was a delight to invite a member of the House of Lords to the Marist, giving our girls a firsthand insight into the world of politics. They asked many interesting questions and we were particularly proud of our Head Girl, Rosin Kirby, who gave a fantastic closing speech thanking Lord Haskel for his time.”
Other intriguing questions from our students to Lord Haskel included:
Saskia Moss, Year 10
Q: Do you think the abolition of the hereditary peers is a good idea?
A: Yes.
Sophie Alder, Year 12
Q: Do you think that there should be a reform in the House of Commons and cut down the number of MPs like in Europe
A: No, less personal for MPs to their constituents as there is already around 70,000 to each and in Europe there is 1 million.
Victoria Green, Year 13
Q: Do you think the House of Lords has a place in future politics, seeing as their responsibilities are being cut down e.g. they are no longer the head of the judiciary?
A: Yes they do still have a place, but their place will evolve as 80% will be elected and 20% will be appointed and they will develop a ‘half way house’ for elected members. They still need a second house.
Josie Teale, Year 12
Q: What advice do you give to students such as myself, hoping to secure a place at university next year in the face of huge university funding cuts? What effect do you feel they will have on places offered?
Lord Haskel replied that he could not offer any advice, but expected that the number of places available at universities would be only slightly reduced by the funding cuts, and that press hype has been responsible for much of the discussion of reductions in places.
Q: What right do you feel so-called ‘non dom’ peers, such as Lord Ashcroft and Lord Paul, have to hold a seat & vote in the House of Lords?
A: Quite simply, I don’t think they should be there.
Lord Haskel went on to say that the House of Lords relied in part on trust of personal honour, and that it was only in recent years that people have begun to abuse this. He also said that he believed there was a case to be made for making people’s tax dealings, particularly those of members of the Houses of Parliament, less private, as everyone is still bound by the same tax requirements.
Q:What is your opinion on Geert Wilder’s invitation to the House of Lords today in order to show his anti-Islamic film ‘Fitna’?
Lord Haskel was unaware that the film was being shown in the House of Lords today, but explained that it is a tolerant environment in which many different beliefs and opinions may be aired. He said that any film can be shown or speech made in the House providing it is “legal, decent and honest”.
Francesca Simcox, Year 10
Q: The Tory recently made a statement saying that if Brown is re-elected in the forth coming elections, he will send the country into a further financial crisis. Do you feel that this is a fair statement or simply due to the fact that they are an opposing party?
A: Whoever is elected next term will have trouble healing the country’s economy.
Shaleese Crozier, Year 10
Q: What’s your view on people accusing Gordon Brown of taking shortcuts in Iraq, e.g. military expenses?
A: Gordon Brown will answer this today, but I think that no Party has enough money and the sacrifice we make is the loss of lives for not having this. It is no one’s fault but I think that we should support the troops out there, and that unfortunately Gordon Brown has not gone out of his way to make himself popular in the public eye, so it has been blamed on him by the media.
Ellie Singer, Year 10
Q: What does the term ‘Government whip’ mean?
A: They are a group of people who decide who plays a part in political parties.... the ‘whips’ also control formal decision making.... My wife always says to me you are a political whip because I will have my job for life... The government whips are not allowed to fire anyone in the Houses Of Parliament.
Hannah Wilson, Year 10
Q: Are the general public allowed to come and watch a House of Lords meeting?
A: Yes... If you wanted to come, I’m sure your teachers could sort that out for you.
Jordan Short, Year 13
Q: Regarding a module we are doing in Upper Sixth Form (Year 13) on politics and religion an issue that has arisen is whether or not religious leaders/people should hold a place in politics and whether or not that is problematic or advantageous.
He replied something to the effect that peoples’ religious views should not be held against them but in voting obviously if it was problematic they may prove to be unsuccessful. He also stated that all religions are reflected in the House of Lords and there are people from all religions and backgrounds that are represented there and indeed many religious issues are debated. He said there were about 37 Bishops in the House too.
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