Borough Freedom (Family Succession) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to those friends in the House who have spoken in support and given the Bill a general welcome. We are like a repertory company—we perform the same Bill every two or three years and are very well received. Parliamentary procedures caused the second and third attempts to fail. I do not know what will happen in the other place; I have a colleague there who was very happy to take the Bill forward six months ago, and will be happy to do so again. The procedures and the opportunities for mischief, as I would call it, are probably greater in the other place than they are here. But I shall have to wait and see. The noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, teased me a little bit about heredity and the difference between hereditary Peers and the issue dealt with in the Bill. There is a world of difference between succeeding by right of heredity to act with others in managing the assets of the freemen of a town and being given the gift—as we all have in this place—of being here, and participating in the government of the country. I do not resile for a moment from my stand against the hereditary principle. Today we shall move the Bill on to the next stage. Sadly, it will not have left this House by the time that the House rises in July, but when we come back I shall be very pleased to continue any discussion that might arise. On Question, Bill read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.