Inclusive Society
Debate between Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride(3 years ago)
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Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (LD) [V]
My Lords, one of the results of the pandemic is that an already very poor literacy rate in schools will have worsened further. Adults with poor literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed or in low-paid jobs and there is a link between low levels of literacy and shorter life expectancy, depression and obesity. Nine million adults in the UK are functionally illiterate.
All my younger working life was involved with the book trade, publishing and bookselling. Books were fundamental to my world, so it came as a shock when, in my 20s, I began to realise just how many adults could not read. For some time, I volunteered for what is now the excellent National Literacy Trust. As I got to know my students, it shocked me just how excluded from normal everyday life they were. Illiteracy equals exclusion.
The underinvestment in our libraries is a national disgrace. Funding for public libraries has fallen so much in a decade, from £1 billion in 2009 to under £750 million 10 years later—so it has fallen by a quarter. Before the Minister blames local government for those cuts, let us remember that central government has cut funding for local government at a lethal rate. Let us also remember that the public libraries Act 1964 requires central government to oversee and improve public library services. The cuts have meant public libraries having a quarter less books to lend, fewer professional staff and fewer libraries.
School libraries are extremely important in getting children interested in books and reading. The Sunday Times recently revealed that 2,000 pupils are set to enter secondary school unable to read properly, so I really welcome the UK Children’s Laureate’s campaign. Cressida Cowell is the Children’s Laureate at the moment, and it was previously Michael Rosen—who is also working on this campaign and, of course, has had very severe Covid—Michael Morpurgo and Jacqueline Wilson. They are all campaigning to get the Government to commit £100 million to restore and refurbish primary school libraries, because literacy is the surest way to build the foundations our children need to develop their knowledge and imagination and to grow a brighter future.
OECD research found that childhood reading ability was a more certain predictor of future success than a family’s socioeconomic status—in other words, it is the key. Children’s literacy is the key to inclusion throughout their life. Literacy is not a cost to the economy or a luxury to be considered when times are good; it is the key to inclusion and a fundamental part of personal achievement and national economic success.
The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)
I am glad that we could make that work. I now call the noble Lord, Lord Jones.
Procedure and Privileges
Debate between Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer and Lord McNicol of West Kilbride
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (LD) [V]
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, and I certainly associate myself with his comments on the ability we have now of being a virtual House. I appreciate being able to take part virtually, and the staff certainly need congratulating on getting us to understand the technology and enabling it.
I want to speak on a narrow point this evening. This Motion talks about the revision of Standing Orders, and I want to ask about Standing Order 1(2). This defines who may sit in the Chamber, besides Peers, when Her Majesty addresses the House. They include diplomats and, as the Standing Order says at the moment, “Peeresses”. I suggest that this has escaped revision and has not kept pace with all the modern equality legislation that it should have, because “Peeresses” are defined as a woman who is the wife of a Peer. By definition, it excludes men who are husbands of Peers. It excludes men who are in marriages with a same-sex partner—although, interestingly, it possibly does not exclude the wife of a female Peer should they be in a same-sex marriage.
At the very least, this Standing Order needs to be urgently amended to be inclusive and reflect current equality legislation that should govern your Lordships’ House as well as the rest of the country. Maybe we will still have a lot of distancing when Her Majesty addresses the House for the next Session, but maybe we will have reverted to normal. I hope that, whichever way it is, this Standing Order can be amended so that our House will reflect the sort of equality we have come to expect the rest of society to follow.
The Deputy Speaker (Lord McNicol of West Kilbride) (Lab)
We have had one further scratch, from the noble Lord, Lord Mancroft, so after the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, we will hear from the noble Lord, Lord Northbrook.