LGBT Action Plan

Lord Smith of Finsbury Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank the noble Baroness for those questions and I was pleased to see her at the launch event this morning. She is absolutely right that out of this huge survey—the biggest in the world ever, I believe—there is loads to be gleaned through the analysis we can do, and I think that we have probably only just begun that process. But it must not be just a survey that is done and put on a shelf, and I am absolutely certain that it will not be. I am sure there are stakeholders all over the world who will be interested in our survey findings.

On the national adviser who will oversee the change in the NHS, I suspect—though those proposals have probably not yet been worked through definitively—it will be somebody who can see at a strategic level just where those gaps lie, given some of the feedback they will get from LGBT patients and users of the health service. I do not necessarily think a clinician will be needed, but someone who can take a strategic look at how the NHS operates and propose changes and provide advice to practices.

The noble Baroness is right to bring up conversion therapy and faith groups. Interestingly, however, it is not just faith groups who use it—I was shocked to learn that. In all this, there is a balance to be had. I strongly believe we should respect people’s right to practise their faith. Similarly, they should respect people’s right to live the authentic life they wish they lead. As I said, there is a balance to be struck, and there is an engagement to be had across the various sectors, including faith groups, and that is how we intend to proceed.

My right honourable friend Justine Greening announced that sex and relationships education would be made mandatory—I think from September, but I am not certain, so I shall leave a question mark there. If it is not September, I will write to the noble Baroness to let her know.

[Lord Smith of Finsbury (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I give a very warm welcome to the Statement from the noble Baroness regarding the survey that the Government have carried out and the action plan that will now be put in place. Embedded in it is the valuable recognition that far too much discrimination and hostility are still faced by LGBT people across the country. However, I urge the Government to take one further step, which is to ensure that full equality becomes available to LGBT people across the entirety of the United Kingdom, including in Northern Ireland.

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank the noble Lord. Clearly, we engage regularly with the devolved Administration but matters such as this are for that Administration. Looking at how far southern Ireland has moved towards equality just in the last couple of years, I have high hopes for our friends in the devolved Administration in Northern Ireland.

Economy: Culture and the Arts

Lord Smith of Finsbury Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Finsbury]

My Lords, I join in the warm congratulations to the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, on securing and introducing this debate so well and on stimulating so many excellent speeches. I remind noble Lords the range of arts organisations with which I am involved, as set out in the register of interests.

Robert Kennedy once wrote:

“The Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile”.

He was making a powerful point; the arts are part of the life-enhancing, wonder-making, intelligence-affirming, glorious life of the mind and soul for all of us. In many ways it should be enough simply to say that to justify the importance and significance of the arts. It is important constantly to reiterate this simple truth. The arts bring us joy and sorrow; they tell our stories; they help our understanding; they trouble us; they question us; they make our spirits soar. That, simply, is why they are important. But of course that is not the whole story—or indeed the only story.

When I became Secretary of State for Culture, I sensed that the arts were important together with all the allied creative activities that they generated. They were important because they mattered economically as well as aesthetically. That is why I established the creative industries task force served on brilliantly by the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam. It is why we published the mapping documents in 1999 and 2001 that set out the shape and value and significance of the creative industries. These are things that are now being copied all over the world in terms of the important stimulus for, and sustaining of, the creative sector of economies. It is hugely important for our economy, especially in these times of economic difficulty. This is a sector of the economy that is still growing, still significant, and will become even more significant as the years go on.

This leads me to four specific thoughts. First, the links between the traditional arts sector and the more creative commercial economic sector are fundamental. One of the reasons we are really good at the creative industries around the world is because we have a strong arts base, strong arts organisations and brilliant artistic activity in this country. These lead to the economic success of the creative sector; indeed, without the one you cannot have the other. It is people learning their stagecraft, and learning about stage design and lighting in regional theatres, that leads to success in film and television around the world. It is people learning their music craft in orchestras, in singing and playing, that leads to music that takes the world by storm, meaning that four out of the top five selling discs in the United States last year were from British artists. Strong, traditional arts activity is vital for the economic benefit that comes from the whole creative sector.

Secondly, DCMS matters. There are worrying rumours bubbling around about the possibility that the Government might be considering disbanding the department. This absolutely must not happen. We need a strong voice for the arts and culture in this country. It cannot come from a small offshoot of a much larger department. Indeed, I would argue for putting the whole of the creative sector—the arts, the creative economy, the whole of communications—under the DCMS umbrella and making it a real champion for this vital part of our national life and economy.

Thirdly, copyright matters. I was pleased to hear the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, take up this point. The economic value of creative activity comes from the value of the intellectual property that is created as part of it. We need to ensure that the creator can be guaranteed a return for their creativity. There have been some worrying signs that the Government seek to water down the importance and security of copyright in recent years—most notoriously, the deeply flawed Hargreaves report. This must not happen. The Government must reaffirm their commitment to strong copyright protection and, along the way, perhaps they might get on with implementing the Digital Economy Act.

Fourthly, the arts, cultural activity and the creative economy are things which, as many noble Lords have mentioned, we are outstandingly good at as a country. We should be very proud of what we have achieved and are achieving in this sector. The first 10 years of this century have been something of a golden decade for cultural and artistic activity in this country. I like to think that I may have played a small part in helping to stimulate that. Please do not put all of that at risk. We currently have warnings from the Arts Council about the possible impact of the spending review and the danger to arts organisations up and down the country. This would be disastrous. Some are already operating on the margins of viability. There is no easy cut that can be made in this sector. For the sake of our economy, our international reputation, our tourism potential and above all for the wonderful experiences that the arts bring for all of us, please do not cut deeply and savagely and destroy this precious thing that we have.

The Government are rightly talking about infrastructure investment being protected and even promoted when the spending review arrives. Investment in the arts is investment in the infrastructure of the mind and the heart. It is crucial seed corn for the future of our economy. That is what I urge the Government to do, and what I urge the Minister to go and talk with his Treasury colleagues about.

Treatment of Homosexual Men and Women in the Developing World

Lord Smith of Finsbury Excerpts

Thursday 25th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Finsbury]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Lexden, for tabling this important debate and for the compelling way in which he introduced the subject to us. During the past 15 years, we have made huge progress in the UK in securing the rights and liberties of lesbians and gay men. We have recognised, thank goodness, that the love of one man for another or one woman for another does not make them any less valid or human.

Across all Europe and some parts of the United States, the same is true. But elsewhere, especially in the developing world, it is a much sadder story. In this debate, we have already heard about the 76 countries which have criminal laws against same-sex relationships, especially that 42 of the 54 countries of the Commonwealth have such criminalised laws. The continued existence of discrimination, violence and criminalisation in so many Commonwealth countries is particularly shaming. There is a bitter irony, as we have already heard, in that most laws in these countries have been inherited from us. I believe that that gives us a special responsibility to do whatever we can to help to change things.

There is an even more perverse irony. Many of these countries justify their laws and behaviour by arguing risibly that somehow homosexuality is something imposed on them and imported from the colonial West. In fact, precisely the reverse is true. Discrimination was imposed on them by the colonial West. There are horrific stories of the treatment meted out to people simply because they are gay.

In Jamaica, Brian Williamson and Steve Harvey were brutally murdered because they had dared to found the Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays. In Uganda, a young lesbian woman was denounced and beaten by her father, thrown into prison, and beaten and brutally raped by the police in prison. Two young women in Cameroon were attacked by a mob for being lesbian, with their arms broken by being snapped. Of course, the anti-homosexuality Bill now proposed in the Ugandan Parliament by Mr David Bahati MP would impose life imprisonment and, in some cases, a death penalty for sexual acts between men. These sorts of laws and actions shame our humanity; they mock any hopes that we might have of nurturing civilisation and decency across the world.

So what can we here in the UK do to help to bring about change? First, we can support the excellent work of organisations such as the Human Dignity Trust, the Kaleidoscope Trust and Human Rights Watch, which are challenging what is happening. Secondly, as individuals and Governments, we can speak out about these abuses, highlight them, give international publicity to them and protest formally and informally. International pressure can work; we have already heard about the Malawi case of the two gay men who were convicted of unnatural acts and gross indecency for holding an engagement ceremony. They were sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour in prison. Because of international pressure, the president pardoned the couple in question—but even more, the president who then took over from him, Joyce Banda, has announced that her Government will repeal the ban on homosexual acts. She has since indicated that progress may not be very fast in doing this, but the principle has been established as a result of international pressure.

Thirdly, we can ensure that when desperate people flee to our shores seeking asylum because of their fear or experience of discrimination and violence arising from their sexual orientation, we do not turn them away. Fourthly, we can and should support as strongly as we can those brave people who are standing up for their human rights and dignity in their own countries. Last week, I met a young man called David Kuria Mbote, who is the first openly gay black person to run for national office in Africa. He is a candidate for the Kenyan senate in next year’s elections; he is a remarkable person, and very brave. Part of his argument to his electors is that he is an outsider; he is different—he is not part of the establishment. That gives him a real advantage when it comes to rooting out corruption and reforming the political system. People are responding well to his message, although I fear that there are tough times for him ahead.

Ultimately, this is about winning the world for diversity and a welcoming of difference. Some 28 years ago, the leaders of the then group of seven major countries said:

“We believe in a rule of law which respects and protects without fear or favour the rights and liberties of every citizen, and provides the setting in which the human spirit can develop in freedom and diversity”.

That is what it is all about—recognising, accepting, welcoming and enjoying diversity, seeing it as an essential ingredient of freedom and making sure that that message is spread right around the world.