Equality Bill [Lords]

No, I will not. I cannot be responsible for my hon. Friends, let alone for Labour Members, but we will all do our best. Let us be straight about this; let us find out what is involved and let us understand that if the commission encourages or condones such attitudes, it will devalue its own work. That is not something that I want it to do. I believe that the great majority of people in this country want to see fairness of treatment and respect for the rights of others as well as of themselves. I also believe that the moral centre of this country is somewhere above the lowest level of the comment in the tabloid newspapers, which consistently underestimate people’s decency. They are wrong to do that. It has been observed that there is unfinished business in other parts of the Bill. There is much more work to be done on producing a single concept, as a result of the gradual, incremental way in which the law on disability and other discrimination has come together. That is why I welcome the review, and the Minister’s readiness to open it to outside engagement. There will undoubtedly be a need for a new, single equality Act, but it is better to take a little more time to get that right. I emphasise to the Minister the importance not only of legal form but of equality of redress, so that all the different parts of the Bill work to ensure that people who have a problem can get it raised. The commission will have a role to play in that regard. The relationship with human rights was mentioned in relation to publicly financed private institutions and service providers such as care homes. Many other detailed points were raised, but I do not have time to rehearse them now. As for the effects of the Bill, the worst possible scenario would be for the Government to believe that the establishment of the commission were an end in itself—I am not saying that they do—or some kind of sophisticated displacement activity, rather than the means to address real inequality of opportunity in society. I very much welcome the review under Trevor Phillips. Members on both sides of the House have rightly referred to the continuing gender pay gap, and to the engagement of disabled people and ethnic minorities in employment. These issues will not go away, and we should talk about them. We should not blame the equality bodies because perfection has not been achieved; we should continue to work towards reducing the gaps. France was mentioned earlier, and all these issues should be viewed without complacency or schadenfreude by Labour Members. A good Parliament should be alert to changing social conditions and should try to steer them in the right direction. That is why it is important that the commission should have a role involving monitoring and speaking out. It is, incidentally, possible to cut the costs of monitoring by outsourcing some of those tasks to academia, for example. They do not all have to be done in- house. When Trevor Phillips gets up and expresses his extremely important and challenging views on ethnic inclusion in the United Kingdom, it is right that such people, who take the lead on these issues, should be able to speak out and open up the debate, even if we do not agree with their every last word. That forms part of the national debate. It is not necessarily an expensive activity and I hope that the commission will be able to play a part in it. Today’s debate has shown that we all have a duty to have regard to the condition of the people, and a special duty towards those who are less well placed to voice their concerns. Frankly, most of us will get our own way, one way or another, but there are plenty of people who will not. In our own interests as much as those of anyone else, we need to open our society to the potential of all our citizens, and to remove any roadblocks to their progress and welfare, both as individuals and as groups of individuals. The Bill and the commission will stand or fall on whether they really help to achieve those shared objectives. I support the Bill because I expect and hope that it will help—not on its own, but over time and with the good will of the people—to achieve some of those goals for us.