King’s Speech

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (LD)]

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, on her appointment. I am so glad that we have a new Government full of energy and with a series of ambitious Bills and policies, many of which I look forward to supporting. Domestically in the UK, it is a time of optimism. Globally, it is a fearful time. Of course, it is good news that the Government have prioritised climate change, practical solutions and climate change negotiations, and that Ed Miliband will lead the UK delegation to the COP talks. I think that this Government, unlike the last, get why top-level, consistent leadership is so important.

In mentioning climate change, I must also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, who has led Peers for the Planet, providing us with so many briefings over the last several years. Her initiative really deserves wide recognition and I am very glad she was speaking today. I look forward to Bills that address what we can do in our own patch here in the UK, in cleaning up rivers and supporting regenerative agriculture that protects both food production and biodiversity, because swinging wildly from encouraging food production to just rewilding is not helpful. We need to strike a balance and give farmers certainty. We need to see that solar panels are the new normal on roofs, and there are many other practical steps that we can take.

Of course, our role as Liberal Democrats, with a much stronger voice in the Commons and a crucial voting mass here in the Lords, will be to play the constructive part of a good opposition. As the Government roll out their housing Bills, it is essential that housing and planning include a standard for associated green space for those new communities and for existing communities. The heritage lottery report Space to Thrive drew on a decade of research and 365 studies, and shows just how important public green space is for so many things, including for physical and mental health, something that was emphasised during the pandemic; for mitigating inequalities, so that people who do not have their own gardens can mix with those who do and it becomes a space that children can play in and improve their physical health; for connecting with nature; and indeed for supporting local economies.

As housing plans are developed, they absolutely must respect the need for green space. More housing does not have to negatively affect biodiversity either. As this country addresses the great need for housing, we can do it in a win-win way that enhances biodiversity. I have been much cheered by the emphasis on clean water today. Noble Lords may have seen the report from Singapore recently, where lots of otters actually thrive in the city. They returned to the city simply because the rivers were cleaned up. I look forward to having trouble crossing to Millbank because of the otters. We need to pass on a sense of wonder in nature to our children and grandchildren, encouraging school trips and family opportunities to experience wilder places, national parks, local woodlands, mountains and coasts, because what people cannot see is hard for them to value. That is why the Countryside and Rights of Way Act brought in by the Labour Government in 2000 was so important. We had the pleasure, in this House, of many Committee days spent making that Act practical and workable. I note that an update to the right to roam is no longer in the Government’s programme. I regret that and I hope that they will remember the crucial importance of enabling more people to stay in touch with nature.

Perhaps if there is one other lesson from the Labour years of the 2000s, it is that when the going gets tough they must resist the temptation to get repressive. The 2005 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act meant that you could not even stand on your own in Parliament Square in a T-shirt with a slogan on it. The repression was so laughably extreme that the comedian Mark Thomas made a show out of it, but it was serious.

Talking of repression, I hope that this Government will review the Conservatives’ crushing Public Order Act. That has a bearing on the climate change issue, because young people want to express their fears about climate change, and the last nine years have seen a really Orwellian situation with the then Government saying that freedom of speech and the right to protest are important, then enacting laws that have made protest very difficult and have increasingly criminalised those who are bona fide protesters—not extremists but concerned citizens. In cleaning up our environment and addressing climate change, the Government should renew faith in democracy by coming down on the side of the concerned citizen. I look forward to working with this Government towards that future.