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Lord Jenkins of Hillhead: My Lords, I have seen many Clerks of the House of Commons come and go but I have seen the full term of only one Clerk of the Parliaments in your Lordships' House. The contrast which is imprinted on my mind is that, particularly in my younger days in the other place, Clerks always seemed to be immensely venerable figures, bowed down with Victorian tradition and precedent, while Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth always seemed to me to be a figure of youth, gaiety and flair. That is so partly, I suppose, for the very good reason that he is probably the first in the series to have actually been a good deal younger than me. Thinking that Clerks of the Parliaments have come to look young is a serious advance on thinking that policemen look young, but it also owes a good deal to the fact that he has essentially been a buoyant as well as an efficient and devoted servant of your Lordships' House. I think he will go down as a Clerk of the Parliaments whose style will not quickly or easily be forgotten. I hope he will have a long and productive retirement.

It has been suggested that a combination of our modern demography and our early retirement habits means that there is a lot to look forward to at the end of a first career. If Sir Michael were a Member of your Lordships' House, he would be regarded as distinctly on the junior side. We wish him very well in the future, just as we welcome his successor to his new responsibilities.

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Lord Weatherill: My Lords, the noble Viscount, Lord Tonypandy, recounts in his memoirs that one day a former Cabinet colleague came to him in the Chair and said, "Mr. Speaker, may I have a word with you please after this debate as an old friend?", to which the noble Viscount, Lord Tonypandy, replied, "Mr. Speaker has no old friends". It is one of the glories of parliamentary traditions that, like the Speaker in the other place, the Clerks in both Houses of Parliament are totally impartial, giving guidance and advice to Members, irrespective of party political allegiance. We on these Benches do not have splendid and reliable Whips to ensure that we do not stray from the paths of righteousness. I suspect that from time to time all 309 of us have sought the advice of Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth as individuals. We hold him in the highest regard and affection and we will always be grateful to him for his wisdom, kindness and courtesy to us.

It was Edmund Burke who once said darkly of a Clerk of his day, "There are persons in this world whose whole soul is a previous question and whose whole life is an adjournment". It is to the new Clerk of the Parliaments, Mr. Michael Davies, who we welcome very warmly, that we shall in future be bringing our previous questions. For Sir Michael, after 36 years of dedicated service to Parliament, it is the adjournment. In my experience he was the most assiduous of the Clerks in keeping in touch with the other place. More than many in this House, I am able to say how absolutely essential and important it is that Parliament should operate as a whole. We on these Benches wish him and Lady Wheeler-Booth a long and a very, very happy retirement and we shall all look upon him henceforth as a very, very good friend.

The Lord Bishop of Norwich: My Lords, because diversity is one of the glories or perhaps features of the Church of England, when a Bishop speaks, one cannot always be sure that what he says will be endorsed by all his brother Bishops. However, there is a unity deeper than that diversity which surfaces when it really matters. I know that what I say now most genuinely expresses the feelings of all my brother Prelates in this House. I am their sole representative today because they are assembled in Liverpool this week to conduct essential ecclesiastical business from which one of their number must absent himself to be on duty in this place. I have to say that my offer to spend the week here instead of in Liverpool was not a painful sacrifice.

The turnover of Bishops in this House is regular and even during the time since he became Clerk of the Parliaments Sir Michael has supervised the introduction of two Archbishops and 15 diocesan Bishops. My own experience is mirrored by others. Entering this place for the first time is for all the world like entering a new school or university--an ancient institution, awesome and bewildering, and unless one is supremely self-confident, which few of us are, the cause of much anxiety about geography, forms and customs. It is difficult to describe the relief at one's first interview with Sir Michael; the new boy reassured by a kind housemaster and gently introduced into the ways of this

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strange and wonderful institution. Like the best of housemasters or tutors, he always made one feel welcome to return to him for advice. I think the wise Bishops did just that because Sir Michael has a perceptive and profound understanding of the Church of England and especially, of course, a long and varied experience of Bishops in this place.

I am personally deeply grateful to Sir Michael for his wise guidance, encouragement and friendship during the past six years. I speak for all my brethren in wishing him fulfilment and every blessing in the future when no doubt he will continue to be, as he has been here, a good servant not only of the nation but of the Church.

The Earl of Longford: My Lords, the noble Viscount the Leader of the House, in his fine tribute, echoed by other speakers, mentioned the fact that Sir Michael was Private Secretary to myself and to the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd. Therefore, it seems right and proper that I should say just a few words.

We are told in the Scriptures--the previous speaker is a better authority on this than I am--that no man can serve two masters. The present--and perhaps future--Leader of the House will be aware that he has to serve two masters; namely, the interests of this House and those of the nation. Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth served both sublimely. In my case, and I believe it is also true today, he had to serve two masters: the Leader of the House and the Government Chief Whip. He had to deal with my old, gentle, self-effacing self and the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, who is a very efficient person, with superhuman energy and drive. He had to reconcile our requirements and he did that sublimely.

I am sure that everyone in the House will agree with me that Sir Michael is a man of extraordinary skill and integrity. He has an inscrutable smile which leaves one uncertain as to what is really going on in his mind. But whatever he was thinking, he was doing what was right and proper. If the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, were here I am sure that he would join me and everyone else in paying tribute to him.

We are also told in the Scriptures by the founder of our religion that he said to his disciples, "I shall call you henceforth not only servants but friends". Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth was a great public servant. He has made innumerable friends in this House.

Earl Jellicoe: My Lords, following all the top brass, may I very timidly add a few words. I have benefited enormously from Michael Wheeler-Booth's interest and advice in a number of capacities, going back to years ago when I was a humble member of the Council of Europe. I have almost forgotten what that body was, but he was involved with it at the time; and I was a junior member of the inter-party conference on Lords' reform, where he played so notable a part, as he did also when I was Leader of your Lordships' House.

I would like to say how much in particular I owe to Michael Wheeler-Booth for his extraordinary wisdom in terms of knowledge of people and institutions when, for some unknown reason, I was chairman of a Select

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Committee on the committee work of your Lordships' House. It was quite wrongly nicknamed by my noble friend the Leader of the House the "Jellicoe Committee".

In those and in many other ways I benefited enormously from the advice, wisdom and experience of Michael Wheeler-Booth. His advice was willingly given and always with great humour. It was enormous fun to be involved with him.

I join with those who have already spoken in wishing Michael and his wife a very happy retirement. Perhaps I may also say how glad I am to welcome his successor, Michael Davies, who was once, and will always remain in my mind, a very esteemed secretary of mine.

Lord Bethell: My Lords, I would like to add a few words to those spoken by my noble friend the Leader of the House and others, including the Leader of the Opposition, about Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth's work in the European section of the deliberations of your Lordships' House. I was one of the members of the ad hoc committee in 1972 which decided to establish the Select Committee on the European Communities. It was very much Sir Michael's guidance which enabled us to reach what I hope was a right decision that there should be a Select Committee continuing year after year to look at this very important matter in your Lordships' debates.

It was Lord Maybray-King who chaired that committee. His inheritance remains with us as the years pass. Later, after he was promoted, Sir Michael kept a close eye on that committee from a vantage point above. I believe that the work done by the committee is unsurpassed by any House in any Parliament of the 15 member states. I hope that those of us who served in the European Parliament and who are now in your Lordships' House have happy memories of that committee and of the red books which arrived month after month. They were seen not only by members of the European Parliament but, dare I say it, by Commissioners not only from the United Kingdom but who spoke tongues other than our own. There was even talk at one time in the Commission of translating those documents into many different European languages. No doubt there would have been a certain amount of criticism of the expense if that had have been done. That was a measure of the value placed on your Lordships' reports, to which Sir Michael contributed so much. I join other noble Lords in wishing him and his family happiness in his retirement.

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