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Lord Alton of Liverpool: My Lords, as we come to commemorate next year the important Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen, would it not be a suitable initiative for the Government, perhaps in partnership with private sponsors, also to commemorate next year’s bicentenary of Charles Dickens and this year’s 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible by making presentations of those books to children in our secondary schools? That would be a way not only of marking the Jubilee year but of increasing the holding of books by children in our country today.
Baroness Rawlings: The noble Lord, Lord Alton, raises a very interesting question. It would be an extremely good idea, come the Jubilee, to have partnerships like that. The Government announced just this week that the possibility of extra philanthropic funding for schemes such as partnerships for the Jubilee is being looked into. Speaking of the Jubilee, I commend Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall for all the work that she does in this area to encourage young children to read.
Forty year campaign demanding justice for British servicemen used as guinea pigs in atomic tests in the 50s – with one Commons debate in the 80s taking place in the middle of the night, at 3.50 am. Today just 1500 of the 20,000 servicemen put in harms way are still alive. The Defence Minister, Earl Minto, deserves thanks for his straightforward reply in the Lords yesterday. However long it takes, injustices must be put right.
Throughout the 80s I campaigned for justice for...