Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Household Tumble Dryers) Regulations 2026
Baroness Wheeler Excerpts(2 days, 6 hours ago)
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Captain of the King’s Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard and Deputy Chief Whip (Baroness Wheeler) (Lab)
Excuse me. Will the noble Baroness sit down, please? Can the noble Baroness sit down, please?
Baroness Wheeler (Lab)
No, can the noble Baroness sit down? This debate is limited to an hour. Her time is up, please.
Baroness Hoey (Non-Afl)
What assessment have the Government made of the environmental impact of people having to start heating garages and sheds during the winter?
This is a ridiculous way of dealing with an important issue. We get one hour now on a statutory instrument and people have to put their names down in advance, which is why there are so few people speaking today. I beg to move my Motion, but it has been handled extremely badly by the Government.
King’s Speech
Baroness Wheeler Excerpts(3 weeks, 2 days ago)
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Lord Swire (Con)
My Lords, it is a singular honour to follow my noble friend Lord Blackwater’s excellent maiden speech. It was a privilege to be one of his supporters along with my noble and learned friend Lord Garnier, who seems to have attached himself permanently to my noble friend Lord Blackwater’s side. My noble friend has already revealed the length of all our friendship, if not the depth, and I, like many others here, welcome his presence on these Benches.
My noble friend is a polymath, as well as being one of the country’s foremost and respected commentators on conservative politics. His interests are extensive and varied, from French politics to ecclesiastical architecture and, of course, music—in particular, English music, his knowledge of which is matched only by his passion for it, as we have just heard.
My noble friend’s writings would enhance any library. His authoritative book on Enoch Powell, Like the Roman, which was first published in 1998, has just been reissued and is required reading for anyone seeking to understand that complex man better. Of course, his three more recent works—High Minds, on the Victorians; The Age of Decadence, on pre-World War I Edwardian Britain; and Sing As We Go, on Britain between the two world wars—are unmatched. I am currently half way through—that is saying something, as my noble friend does not do short or small books—that last book, Sing As We Go. The arguments about conscription and rearmament then are the same arguments as we are having today; indeed, they are similar to the arguments we were having in the 1930s. Sometimes, it seems, we never learn. More recently, my noble friend’s editing of the three volumes of the life of Sir Henry Channon—or Chips, as he was better known—was masterful as well as being hugely informative and entertaining. We know that political diaries can often be so, do we not?
Yesterday, it was a privilege to hear at first hand in the Chamber the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Case, and the valedictory speech of his former pupil-master—as we have just heard, he was also the pupil-master of my noble friend Lord Blackwater—the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield. They showed this House at its best, and I have every expectation that we can expect contributions of a similar quality from my noble friend; that is needed now more than ever.
My noble friend Lord Blackwater spoke briefly about the London Chorus, formerly the London Choral Society, of which he is the chairman. He and I have discussed the problem in raising funds for them, which is, unfortunately, not uncommon. As the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, said earlier in her contribution, funding for the arts has become a very real problem, if not a crisis, of late—not least because so many high-net-worth individuals have been driven out of the country or are uncertain about the way the economy is heading. These are precisely the people who fund our museums, galleries and other cultural institutions. So I ask the Minister: what assessment has he made of this flight of capital and its impact on the cultural sector? What measures is he contemplating to make up for the loss? I can see precious little about this in the gracious Speech.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hodge, has produced an excellent report on Arts Council England. It is full of good ideas, but one area it seems to shy away from is the issue of free admission to our national museums. I do not have time this afternoon to rehearse all the arguments for or against free admission, which I understand as well as anyone. I bear the scars of this as someone who, as the shadow Culture Minister, argued this in our 2005 arts manifesto:
“We will support museums that provide free access, and we will not impose entry charges. Neither will we penalise those institutions that feel it is in their best interests to charge”.
I would argue that that approach was balanced and fair then, and remains so today. However, since 2005, there has been one fundamental change: we have now left the EU. Our membership was always given as a reason why museums could not charge non-nationals, but museums are currently suffering a financial crisis. Some are closing galleries, while others are limiting opening. The current funding regime is unsustainable, forcing museums to ramp up dramatically the prices they charge for temporary exhibitions.
On 1 December 2018, there was a letter on this subject in the Daily Telegraph from a perhaps unexpected source: Sir Roy Strong. The article states:
“National museums and galleries should charge an entrance fee and subsidise discounts for millennials because high ticket prices—
for special exhibitions—
“are ‘excluding’ young people”.
It goes on to say that, although Sir Roy, when he was a director at the V&A,
“objected to his then trustees forcing him to introduce voluntary charges - which were later ‘swept away’ - he now believes that national collections have little choice because they are so strapped for cash”.
Only today, we read that the British Museum is preparing to charge up to £33 to see the Bayeux Tapestry for a 40-minute slot, although there will be the usual concessionary tickets. Our major museums are being forced into these sensational blockbusters to make the money they desperately need simply to keep the lights on. Meanwhile, in Europe, the Louvre now discriminates against non-EU members, charging €32. The Prado charges €15, the Uffizi up to €29, and the Rijksmuseum €25. Why cannot we do the same?
There has, unfortunately, been this obsession about the number of people who visit our museums, but there is a fundamental difference between visitors and visits. As Nicholas Penny—once the director of the National Gallery, where I was the first sponsorship secretary and then the first development director—wrote:
“Attendance figures … make no deductions for the protestors and celebrators in Trafalgar Square who enter the National Gallery to use its facilities, for teenagers attending rock concerts in the garden court of the V&A, and for the coachloads of tourists decanted into the British Museum while their hotel rooms in Bloomsbury are being prepared”.
Captain of the King’s Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard and Deputy Chief Whip (Baroness Wheeler) (Lab)
I am sorry—could the noble Lord wind up, please? He is well over his time.
Lord Swire (Con)
There are many ways of slicing the cake, such as concessions for pensioners, student days or even free admission off season. The problem is that this argument has become politically hijacked, and it should not be. Let us build on the report by the noble Baroness, Lady Hodge, and re-examine all aspects of our funding, including allowing our national institutions to raise much-needed funds by introducing charges if that is what the trustees and directors choose to do.
Internet Activity: Energy Use
Baroness Wheeler Excerpts(1 year, 4 months ago)
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Captain of the King’s Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard and Deputy Chief Whip (Baroness Wheeler) (Lab)
We will hear from the Green Party.
Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)
My Lords, the Minister has already acknowledged the energy demands and pressures. The noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, raised the issue of mining and the resource use going into data centres. I would add a further one to that: water use. A typical data centre uses the same amount of water as 100,000 homes. We have a situation where seven out of 17 regions in England are expected to have water stress by 2030, rising to 12 by 2040. Are the Government considering ensuring that all new data centres use closed systems for water, so that we do not put more pressure on this vital resource?