Queen’s Speech

Baroness King of Bow Excerpts

Thursday 19th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness King of Bow (Lab)]

My Lords, I echo those last comments on the EU, but apart from an opening comment on adoption I will concentrate my remarks on public sector broadcasting, culture, and my perennial obsession with diversity in British media.

As the mother of three adopted children I warmly welcome the Government’s efforts to increase adoption—when it is in the best interests of the child—through the introduction of the Children and Social Work Bill. But if the Government are so intent on removing barriers to children being adopted, can both Ministers reflect on the contradiction between the Government’s stated aims in the gracious Speech yesterday and their recent legislation on the child benefit element of the welfare Act? Child benefit will be limited to two children per family except for certain exemptions, such as adopted children. I should think so, too, because otherwise, prospective parents would face a financial disincentive to adopt, which is the exact opposite of what the Government want. But it transpires that the Government will exempt adopted children only if, for example, they are in a sibling group and not if, like my adopted children, they are not genetically related to each other. This makes no sense. Given the Government’s priorities in the gracious Speech, will the Minister raise this issue with her colleagues in the other place?

On culture and broadcasting, I draw attention to my roles as Channel 4’s Diversity Executive and as a governor of the British Film Institute. I also draw attention to my debate last week on diversity in the media, and in particular to the fact that my remarks were not as well-timed as the superb speech by the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, from the Conservative Benches. The noble Lord has an extraordinary nine Paralympian gold medals. I would like to award him another gold medal in his absence for brevity and concision in a parliamentary debate. I recommend that everyone look at his remarks in Grand Committee. He said:

“For decades a lack of diversity in British broadcasting has been a stain on all broadcasters”.

He also said that broadcasting,

“is absolutely a meritocracy if you are a white, middle-class, middle-aged man”.—[Official Report, 10/5/16; cols. GC 83-84.]

I was honoured that the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, described Channel 4’s 360° Diversity Charter, which I wrote with the fantastic team at Channel 4, as “a phenomenally significant document”. I and my colleagues at Channel 4 sweated blood to put together something we hoped would be a game-changer. It is a game-changer but the game must change a whole lot more.

Now, difficult though it is, I must stop quoting the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, and move on. But I will refer to just one more of his great quotes, which is relevant to our discussion of the gracious Speech. He said that we must absolutely ensure that change is transformational. That is the ambition we all have for the BBC—it is just that the Government want it to be transformed in one direction and many of us would prefer another.

I remind noble Lords of the principles that we need if we are to have distinctive broadcasting in terms of diversity. Those principles include transparency and accountability. We must be data driven; we must implement systemic change, which for broadcasting must be genre specific; and we must bring adequate resource to bear. Underlying all those is the principle that without leadership from the top, nothing happens.

I will mention one fact that possibly trumps everything else I have said so far. Some people will say that it is not a fact but a subjective opinion, but after seven years as a diversity executive, I view it as a non-negotiable fact: “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Some of you will have heard that before; it has been quoted quite widely. I came across it in the illuminating book from Google’s head of people operations, Lazlo Bock, entitled Work Rules!. It has been generally accepted in the broadcasting industry that we have not in the past been able to live up to the ambitions in our strategies. Why is that? It is because culture eats strategy for breakfast. So I hope that the Government and the broadcasters will look to this important aspect of culture. I will be pushing that and the Creative Diversity Network is working hard on these issues.

It would be fantastic if broadcasters could learn from each other and benchmark progress. We will be able to benchmark progress through Diamond, the new diversity analysis-monitoring data tool that the broadcasters are bringing together. Essentially, Diamond will switch the lights on. Then we will be able to know whether the BBC’s diversity strategy, mentioned by other noble Lords today, is working. We will be able to know whether Channel 4’s strategy is working and those of all the other broadcasters. We can all learn from each other. For example, ITV has done some truly fabulous work in bringing on diverse writers in some of its soaps, and Sky was excellent in being the first out of the blocks to mention targets around ethnic minorities on screen.

I congratulate in particular the BBC on one area where it was incredibly bold: gender. Its statement is that by 2020, 50% of all those in on-air lead roles and across all genres, from drama to news, will be women. Thank goodness for that. That is bold, but given that we are Britain and not Saudi Arabia, it is about the least we should expect. It is simply unacceptable that women in general, and older women in particular, are always, always underrepresented on screen in relation to men. Just yesterday, another report was published showing that the mismatch we see when we switch on the screen or hear when we turn on the radio is as bad as it has ever been—sorry, that is not strictly true; there has been some progress over the last year. But the figures show that on screen we have not made enough progress. I draw the attention of the House to Channel 4’s recent gender report, which can be found on the channel’s website. It was extraordinarily illuminating in this area.

Lastly, will the Government really look at the issue of the BBC’s board? The Government are going to pack the board. That is great. I say, “Go ahead and do that, but could you pack it with a little bit of diversity while you’re at it?”. Maybe there could be two ethnic-minority members; is that too much to ask? Obviously I am not asking for anyone to be appointed because they are black, a woman, from a less advantaged background or disabled. But do not tell me that, having looked around Britain, you cannot find anyone with any of those characteristics who could contribute meaningfully to the BBC board.

If the Government honestly cannot find that diverse talent, I can give them the name of a man who can. Raj Tulsiani of Green Park Interim & Executive Search works very closely with my noble friend Lady Royall. He has just published a list of the top 100 board-ready ethnic-minority British businesspeople, who are truly extraordinary in the breadth and range of their talents. They are ready. They are waiting for their skills and talents to be included in the success story of Britain’s creative industries. If we continue to lock them out, over time we will lose our competitive edge for the same reason that the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, gave—because diversity is about a creative and competitive edge. So let us get the data; let us combine it with leadership; and let us change the culture inside our organisations so that we embrace diversity instead of eating it for breakfast and then spitting it out.