Queen’s Speech

Baroness Jolly Excerpts

Wednesday 9th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Jolly]

My Lords, I beg to second my noble friend’s Motion for an humble Address. I thank my noble friend Lord Cope of Berkeley for all his help, support and advice, most timely, in making this speech. I am told that this is a great honour bestowed on me by my Chief Whip and my leader, and I am minded of the great privilege and responsibility that it is to second the Motion for an humble Address. Invariably, it is asked of someone new to the House. New, gullible and always willing to please, I said yes. The advice given was to aim for something like a maiden speech and to make it amusing, with topical political content—but please, no jokes. I confess that I did not know what I was letting myself in for, but on doing some research I discovered that I was not alone. Research into recent seconders suggest that many said, “Yes, fine”, to their Chief Whips, too, but that they had no clear understanding either of the import of the occasion. With the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, and the noble Lord, Lord Bragg, professional communicators both, as previous seconders, I am in rarefied company indeed—no pressure there, then.

In the gracious Speech, there was a reaffirmation of the commitment to keep aid spending at 0.7% of gross national income from 2013. Times are tough, but we should not balance our budget on the back of the world’s poorest. That is quite timely, as this week I am joining several Members of your Lordships’ House, led by the formidable duo, the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin of Kennington, and the Lord Speaker, in living on £1 a day to highlight the fact that there are 1.4 billion people around the world living on just that amount or less. So, at parties yesterday and today, the Lord Speaker and I have both been there with our glass of water and saying, “Thank you very much” to the nice nibbles that have been offered to us.

I know that on this matter the Economic Affairs Select Committee suggests that the effectiveness of the programme is more important than ensuring that the target is met. I suggest that we never take our eye off ensuring that aid programmes are effective, but neither should we lower our sights on offering structured support to the poorest in the world.

Rural Cornwall is my home, tucked under Bodmin Moor. The economy is poor—75% of the European average. We do a lovely line in holidays and splendid food: fish, baby new potatoes, cauliflowers, strawberries and dairy products, clotted cream, cheese and of course the pasty. My honourable friends in the other House have spent a lot of time telling the media what their view is on the pasty; I shall just say that I enjoy one every third Saturday.

Supermarkets want fine produce on their shelves, but they drive hard bargains and sometimes cut rough. They try to pass risk and costs from themselves to providers. Farmers’ margins are squeezed, keeping wages low, which reflects in our economy. I welcome the legislation announced today, the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill—a catchy title—which gives an arbitrator the role of making binding decisions in such cases where there are disputes between retailers and direct suppliers.

Your Lordships’ House spent many hours in the previous Session on the Health and Social Care Bill, now an Act. Throughout the Bill were woven duties about the integration of health and social care, but it was silent on key issues around social care. I welcome the promise of a White Paper on adult social care later this month, and today’s announcement of a draft Bill on adult care and support.

It seems strange to say this in this Chamber, but we all know that ageing is not easy. We must start involving people early in the planning for their old age, and that includes pensions. If you need care in London, your care needs will not change if you move to Leeds or Launceston. We need to see a national system of eligibility, with information and advice available to help navigate it. The Dilnot commission reported last summer that funding for care is a fraught subject, so built into the next spending review should be a decision about a mechanism to be used and the timescale for its implementation. These issues attract all-party support. They are difficult and not without cost, but the problem will not go away. The demographics are clear, and something has to be done.

I was introduced into the House eight months into the coalition, in the week that the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill began. I remember a discussion about the Pannick amendment in the Bishops’ Bar—I note that the noble Lord is not in his place—and I wondered exactly what level of desperation could drive a Peer to table an amendment in panic. How did one lay such an amendment? Such was the level of my ignorance. I learnt very quickly that it was not that sort of panic, and that the noble Lord in question would never let anything get to a state of desperation.

To me, the coalition was quite normal. It was an agreement entered into that met the needs of the time. It was all that I knew. There were bits that I was unhappy about and that our partners in coalition were unhappy about, but a deal had been done and we honoured it. There were days when I—and, I suspect, many others—supported some elements of, say, LASPO and welfare reform with a heavy heart, but it was an agreement and tough decisions had to be made. That is what a partnership is about.

I need to make a second confession: I knew very little of my noble friend Lord Cope of Berkeley. A quick glance in Dod’s told me about his illustrious career in the other place and then latterly as Chief Whip in your Lordships’ House—nearly 40 years of service to Parliament and a fine record—but what was really telling was that my noble friend lists his recreation as a Derby Bentley motor car, not rare stamps or the 20th century novel, or even just a Bentley, but a Derby Bentley made only between 1933 and 1939 and which is now nearly as rare as hens’ teeth. That is what I call style. I am mindful of the unwritten brief for this speech, borne out by research, that I am expected to develop the Chief Whip’s style, so is style a prerequisite for a Chief Whip? Here, I know I walk on eggshells. The Chief Whip of Her Majesty’s Opposition must get into this category. Anyone wearing crushed raspberry suede pixie shoes into the Chamber shows style, if not taste. My noble friend Lady Anelay of St Johns—nothing out of place, always stylish and taste personified—is one who can communicate volumes with the lift of an eyebrow.

Now I turn to my own Bench. My noble friend Lord Shutt of Greetland has a style of his own. He served as Lib Dem Chief Whip for seven years, the last two as government Deputy Chief Whip. He had the difficult task of exhorting a group of Lib Dem Peers to support the Government in coalition when previously they were given to guerrilla tactics to make a point. That cannot have been easy. If you believe the tweets of the Chief Whip of Her Majesty’s Opposition, he has done it with Stalinist authority. Contrary to popular belief, he is willing to poke fun at himself and tells stories of fitting his less than slender body into the uniform of the Captain of the Queen’s Bodyguard of the Yeoman of the Guard. He was the 100th person to hold that office and the first Liberal to do so in 80 years. We are proud of him and will miss his direct Yorkshire ways in our group meetings and on the Front Bench. On behalf of us all, I wish him well as he joins us on the Back Benches.

The baton—or perhaps it should be sword and spurs—has now passed to my noble friend Lord Newby. I had not realised what a green process it is as far as the uniform is concerned. Not a penny of taxpayers’ money is wasted. I understand that, thanks to excellent tailoring, it is very much a case of reduce, reuse and recycle. My noble friend Lord Newby, another Yorkshireman, is well known to your Lordships as Lib Dem Treasury spokesman and a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee, but he also has form with tricky political situations. He was chief executive of the SDP for its final five years, press officer to my noble friend Lord Ashdown and chief of staff to Charles Kennedy throughout his leadership, right to the end, which were all jobs that brought their challenges. I am sure this Session will bring him testing times, too. We welcome his appointment and will try not to cause more than a modicum of bother. I am also sure that we will determine his style.

I have never watched the State Opening of Parliament on television or been part of such a rich pageant as today, and it has been truly remarkable. The Queen, with her 60 years of experience and duty, calm and poised delivering the gracious Speech outlining our work for this Session, makes even this Liberal Democrat feel a warm glow of pride in the occasion. When we meet again after the debate on the Queen’s Speech, we will bring to this Chamber our differing backgrounds and political convictions—or none—to scrutinise what the elected Chamber and our elected leaders have proposed. We will live in interesting times, and I look forward to it.

Motion to Adjourn

Moved by