The House of Lords is not always the place to go to for polite and well-informed debate. There was an occasion recently when Lord McNally from the Liberal Democrat benches accused Lord Pearson of Rannoch of being a ranter with militant tendencies and that he was using tactics drawn from a Trotskyite handbook. Lord McNally is a Europhile and Lord Pearson a member of UKIP, and it has to be said that Lord Pearson’s frequent exposures of the goings-on in Brussels often give great offence to the apologists for the EU who seem to form a majority of members of the House. I do not know how it has happened but peers of a Europhile persuasion dominate the committees dealing with European business and have often shown little respect for the views of others who do not feel as they do. I witnessed the proceedings in the committee which heard evidence from Marta Andreasen, the brave woman sacked for criticising the EU’s accounting system and the way in which it was exposed to fraud. She was listened to with scant respect. Neil Kinnock, who had had a hand in her dismissal, then gave evidence and was treated like a conquering hero.

All this has caused me much irritation, but I still view it as a great privilege to be a member of the place and be able, when the spirit moves me, to take part in debate.

A few years ago Miles, the late Duke of Norfolk, was attending a ceremony with me for members of the Royal Victoria Order. ‘Tell me, old boy,’ he said, ‘have you had your first stroke yet?’ With some surprise at such a delicate subject being raised so early in our conversation I answered in the negative. But not long afterwards my first stroke did arrive, and it has slowed me down a bit. But I still attend the House from time to time, and I am then greatly rewarded by being able to travel home and be greeted by a wife ready to listen patiently to my account of what is going on in the Palace of Westminster. I am a lucky man and am often reminded of those lines of Dryden: