Schools: World War II Anniversary

Lord Vaizey of Didcot Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I pay tribute to the noble Earl’s father’s role and to all those in your Lordships’ House who have served or are serving in various capacities in our Armed Forces. I am happy to agree with the noble Earl about the cadet forces. The Combined Cadet Force programme will continue to receive £3.6 million in government funding through the Ministry of Defence for this academic year. This funding supports the ambition for it to grow to 600,000 cadets in 500 school cadet units across the UK. It is in addition to the annual cost to the MoD of the Combined Cadet Force, which is estimated at over £42 million per year. I ought to note that my nephew benefits hugely from being a member of one of the cadet forces.

[Lord Vaizey of Didcot (Con)]

My Lords, as the Culture Minister who was responsible for the World War I commemorations, I first utterly reject the notion that Ministers were reluctant to commemorate the contribution of Commonwealth soldiers. I felt very strongly that their contribution was very much to the fore.

The Minister mentioned the Imperial War Museum. I urge her to include all our cultural institutions in the 80th anniversary commemorations, in particular our regimental museums, which are central to the services and their identity. They are funded by the Ministry of Defence and—this is not a criticism—I always feel that they are a bit of an orphan when it comes to thinking about our cultural strategy. So this will be an opportunity to really recognise the cultural contribution that our regimental museums make.

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

At DCMS, we are really keen for all museums with a relevant interest and those with a broader social role in telling the story of the people of Britain to take part. I had an initial conversation about the celebrations yesterday with my noble friend Lord Coaker and I will be happy to pick up the point the noble Lord raised.