Queen’s Speech

Lord Campbell of Alloway Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Campbell of Alloway]

My Lords, I apologise to the House and to my noble friend Lord Howell because I had to attend to a puncture on my car while he was addressing the House.

This will not be a very long speech. I am really concerned with the position that was taken on the origins of the gracious Speech, the debate on which is being concluded today. It created a torrent of dissent, not only in my party, but also among the loyal Opposition and the Cross Benches. It concerned imposing a Government who would abolish this House, curtail the primacy of the other place and assuredly destroy the relationship established between our two Houses. Inevitably, that will cause dissent.

I am not criticising any particular person and certainly not the Leader of the House. By mentioning it today, I am seeking to ask the other place to consider retracking this coalition. At the moment it is not effective.

The voices and votes of people who support the coalition were not heard at all—certainly not the other day in the council elections. If one looks carefully, one realises that the coalition does not reflect anything that the electorate particularly want. In fact, they rather object to it. I take that as my theme today. I know that it will be thought that I am criticising the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, but I am not. I have to make this clear because it may be taken that way, but that is not my intention.

One could go a little further because this is a debate on defence. My question relates to this. Defence of the realm is not something that just happens today; it happens for quite a time ahead. Foreign affairs are the same. They should both take fair precedence on government expenditure. However, they are both dependent on the state of the economy—and the state of the economy is and has been for some time a stalemate. This is relevant to adequate provision for defence and foreign affairs, which all relate to government expenditure.

There is not much that I wish to say beyond that. An amendment to the Motion was tabled yesterday by the Opposition. It made some points that I would like to make today. One is that there are no settled means of providing growth for the economy—none. There is no reference to them in the gracious Speech—none at all. If there is any reference to encouraging growth, there is no mention of effective means. Not only that, but there are no settled means of easing our mammoth debt. Every month we have to borrow more to pay interest on it. We are doing what we can—up to a point—but we must try to do a little more and ease the economy up. Then we will have a chance to deal with all these things.

This is the last day of debate on the gracious Speech. The Statement on the second day was something of a shock. I have made my points and I hope that the other place will help the coalition reset itself to reflect the voice of the people.