I totally understand the difficulty that noble Lords have in visualising how the whole of Clause 39 might work in practice, but let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater at this stage. Surely, at this stage, we want to discuss some of the principles of activities, which are to be applauded, to integrate people into society. In a few moments, I will be moving Amendment 83 specifically concerning trade unions. I will not, therefore, make that speech now. Noble Lords who have spoken, such as the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, and the distinguished noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, are asking questions that will surely have to be clarified at some stage, but the idea that we should remove the whole thing lock, stock and barrel at this stage seems wrong.
UNISON has been mentioned. My noble friend Lord Morris of Handsworth will correct me if I am wrong, but the Transport and General Workers’ Union several years ago started a group. I do not think that it was called "Group for Illegal Immigrants"—it could hardly have been called that—but that was close to what it meant. It had a lot of activities that helped people to integrate into the community.
The principle here is very challenging. It is certainly absolutely relevant to some of the nightmares that people are always describing for the future, whether it is Islamicisation or some horror story that some people want to attach to that, or any such worries. How will they be addressed? They will be addressed by activities that integrate people into one society. That surely is not a principle that we can run away from and throw out of the window the first time that it is mentioned. More work needs to be done. I will be opposing this amendment if, as I suspect, it is designed to get rid of the whole idea.
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Lea of Crondall
(Labour)
in the House of Lords on Monday, 2 March 2009.
It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL)
and
Debate on bills on Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL].
About this proceeding contribution
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2008-09Chamber / Committee
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