Queen’s Speech

Baroness Cumberlege Excerpts

Wednesday 12th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cumberlege (Con)]

My Lords, we are fighting the first Covid world war and we hope that Britain is emerging victorious and ready to help liberate the rest of the world. What is so uplifting is that we are emerging bursting with ideas for our future innovation, invention and investment—and that is our future. The huge debt that we have accumulated must not crush our aspirations. We should all, with a deal of compulsion, contribute to a massive war loan: a government bond which will not be popular and which we will all hate and object to, redeemable at some time, as were other war loans, but paid by our generation, not left to the next and the next.

I declare an interest: for 50 years I, with many others, have sought and achieved sweeping changes to the delivery of healthcare to people, and I am determined to continue that progress. We have proven that, in the Covid war, we can act and achieve at an exhilarating speed. That momentum must not now be thwarted by debt, as we build a new economy for the post-Covid war era. We can infuse energy into our people and approve new products and better ways of delivering that will not just benefit Britain but reach worldwide.

It may seem a small thing, but I note that a report from a review that I chaired on the harm done to women and children has, in modern parlance, gone viral worldwide. Setting new standards for childbirth is ongoing; it is not trivial but part of a revolution sweeping the world. We must not scoff at doing these small things, leaving our world a better place for future generations: that is our mission, and no debt, unnecessary bureaucracy or lack of investment must stand in the way.

I know that many noble Lords have delivered reports to the Government. Civil servants take them in hand; their job is to be cautious and consult widely and wisely with every party that might have an interest—to give due consideration to all facets of the problem. With the vast changes and challenges of Brexit, overlaid with Covid, and a Government who promise to deliver now, for the sake of the country, we must from time to time throw caution to the wind and act decisively in order to win. This year marks the 220th anniversary of the Battle of Copenhagen, when Admiral Lord Nelson put his telescope to his blind eye. There really is a lesson for all of us there.