Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill

Baroness Seccombe Excerpts

Report stage
Thursday 13th July 2023 Lords Chamber

With those few introductory remarks, I beg to move.

[Baroness Seccombe (Con)]

My Lords, I disagree wholeheartedly with my noble friend. In the lockdown period, I thought it was awful when people had to vote remotely and were charged with being on a beach somewhere. I believe that, in politics, we need each other; we need debate and discussion and to hear other points of view. I believe that doing that in person is right for a healthy democracy.

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, I make clear that this amendment, to which I have added my name, is about local authorities having the option to make some of their meetings virtual or hybrid. It is not about going back to having all meetings held virtually; it is about having the option to do so where that makes sense in local circumstances.

During the Covid pandemic, we learned that virtual meetings could be conducted and worked well, in accordance with local authority conduct of meetings. There is no problem with the legality of how they were conducted. I accept the noble Baroness’s point about how we need to be together in a democracy but that is difficult on some occasions, and some people will be excluded if we do not provide an option for local authorities to make meetings accessible by making them virtual.

For example, people with disabilities find it more difficult to travel to a meeting in person—and then there are those with caring responsibilities and those with demanding work schedules. In many parts of the country now, people have long commutes to work. That option of a virtual meeting means that they can fulfil the responsibilities of being a local elected councillor as well as being in work. We do not want to revert to a situation in which local councils attract only people who are retired, because they are the only ones who have time or are able to go to meetings. We want as broad a selection as we can of people from our communities to become councillors, including the young and old, people with disabilities and people with caring responsibilities. We need them on our councils so that those voices are heard. That is one reason why the option—and it is an option—of holding meetings virtually is important.

The second is the huge size of some of the councils that the Government have now created. The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, used the example of North Yorkshire, which is now a unitary council. People know where Selby is now, so I will use the example of Selby, which is in the south of the southern tip of North Yorkshire. To travel to a meeting in Northallerton, where the county headquarters is, means covering a distance of about 53 miles, which would take probably an hour and a half—so it is a three-hour round trip to go to a council meeting. Think of how many people that will exclude: those who cannot drive would not be able to get there, as there are no buses and no trains, or very few. This is not like London. In the winter North Yorkshire has snow, which makes it even more difficult to get physically to meetings, which is when a virtual option makes really good sense. There is also the example of this House, which has managed perfectly well holding its Select Committees virtually. If we can do it here, surely local authorities should be allowed to do it.

My last point is that this amendment is to a part of the Bill on devolution. If devolution means anything, it means that local authorities and local councils should be able to make the decisions that matter to them—to have the flexibility to make decisions appropriate to their situation. We know that the Local Government Association, as the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, said, is fully supportive of this amendment and this approach. We will obviously listen very carefully to the response by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, but if the noble Baroness is not satisfied with the response and wishes to test the opinion of the House, we on these Benches, for the reasons I have given, will fully support her.

International Women’s Day

Baroness Seccombe Excerpts

Friday 10th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Seccombe (Con)]

My Lords, my husband had just been elected as a ward councillor in 1960 when I began my political life as a member of the women’s committee of the branch of a ward committee of the Yardley Conservative Association in Birmingham. At that time, the treasurer took instalments from members for the payment of such items as the area women’s conference. Therefore, I was somewhat surprised when she informed me that, if anything happened to her, we would find the money she had buried in the garden with a stick beside it. We were active in all aspects of political life, and even submitted a paper on the future policy with regard to the enforced leisure time we expected and the harm it posed. Today, I believe that, surprisingly, our paper is still relevant, and I could say that it was especially relevant during Covid as a result of the enforced lockdown.

Since that time, I have always been involved in the fight for equality for women, so in my short contribution I will talk about the new world of “woke” and the misery it is bringing to the world. It seems to have invaded every sphere of society; indeed, even some in the Church of England appear to be embracing the ideology. I have two great-grandchildren—Sophie, aged four, and Freddie, aged three—and I fear for their future if we do not come to our senses. I believe that children thrive best when they live at home with two parents. I do understand that is not always possible for many reasons, including those in my own experience. I lost my father when I was 11 years old, during the winter of 1942, a difficult time in the war. Our house had been bombed and so we were temporarily living with my grandmother. My poor mother had a more than gruelling time as she coped with the loss of my father, two children and no home. I missed my father terribly and life was never quite the same again.

Today, we have a system where teachers think that they have the right to ignore parents and indulge children about their gender identity. Surely this is exactly when loving parents should be involved in what is a very personal matter, where the needs of children require sensitive and caring management. They are, however, often not informed by the schools. Puberty can be an anxious time for some and bring its own challenges. Many children ease through the change to becoming adults without trouble, while others may look for support at this time and need special guidance.

When I was growing up, it was not controversial to accept that we were all born male or female. Babies are not assessed at birth; they are observed and recorded. I still strongly believe this and have been horrified by the treatment of JK Rowling and other brave people by activists, including those whom she helped to make rich and reach their famous status. I have yet to hear or see anything that JK Rowling has said or written that is transphobic. Like her, I believe it is not transphobic to support women’s rights. I also believe that adults, after much thought, should be free to choose and live their lives in an alternative way and I support their decision if they wish to do so.

I fear for the future of women’s sport. I am always in awe of the success of British women in so many disciplines and admire the parents who, for years, travel the country in support of their child and the training needed to succeed. It is ridiculous and unfair to allow trans women to enter the same race as a woman who is biologically female. I believe that a woman’s physical strength can never equal that of a person who is male at birth, despite the reduction of testosterone in their bodies.

We as women are different. Our life experiences are different. Our contributions are different, very often adding a different perspective. Long may that be the case—but, for goodness’ sake, let us allow our little children to have an age of innocence before they have to cope with the harshness and brutality of what some would call this Brave New World.