Budget Statement

Baroness Knight of Collingtree Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd March 2016 Grand Committee

[Baroness Knight of Collingtree (Con) (Valedictory Speech)]

My Lords, I know that some kind friends have made their way into this Room for this debate and I thank them. I apologise to noble Lords that I did not know that this Committee did not start at 12.30 pm—that was the information I received when I telephoned yesterday. I came here as quickly as I could.

This is my farewell speech. I am conscious of the time as I know that some noble Lords are keen to get away and start the Easter holidays—I do not blame them—and do not want the speeches to go on too long. I also know that some noble Lords want to make their points in a very important debate. I am well aware that time is important and noble Lords have only a few minutes to talk about the facts of the Budget and their opinion of them.

If I may, I want to recall a day that will never go out of my mind, and I think there are some here who feel as I do. That day was 15 March 1979. It followed what we came to call the Winter of Discontent. Some people may remember that. It was pretty much a winter when we were all discontented, but that day will be in my mind for ever. Many will remember the details of the awful Winter of Discontent. Everyone was on strike. Buses and trains ran very slowly indeed, or not at all. There was no rubbish collection—the streets were piled with rubbish, as people remember. Schools were on strike and so were gravediggers. If someone died you had to realise that you had better go out and dig the grave yourself, which was not a pleasant thing

I also remember a man called Red Robbo, who managed to just about finish the car industry in Birmingham. I represented part of Birmingham myself. I knew all about what was going on in Birmingham and some pretty tremendous stories were told. Others will remember them. Car making was really the major industry in Birmingham—although jewellery was a good one—and whether a factory was working or not the council imposed a high charge. We had a terrible time at that time because of trouble in the car industry. Birmingham Council decided that whether you were working or not a tax would be levied and you had better jolly well pay it. Well, they decided that the best idea to keep going was to take the roofs off, so they took the roofs off. I well remember, too, the business of driving around Birmingham, which as a Member I was always doing, even though the sky shone right through those awful missing roofs. They were all gone, and when it rained, it poured in. It was a ghastly sight and it upset a lot of us.

I remember how those roofless ruins upset all of us, but there was not much we could do about that, except Margaret Thatcher, who was on the scene at that time and decided that maybe there was something that could be done. She planned a change of Government. If we could get a general election, and it came out right, we thought that we could change all of this. But the only way for the change to come about was to win a vote in Parliament.

Of course, there was no confidence at that time in the Government. All day there were rumours about what would happen. They were not pleasant rumours. So and so was definitely going to vote against the Government if there were to be a general election. Somebody else who was hardly ever in anyway—he came from Ireland—stood up on the very day of the vote and said, “I’m not voting”, but he turned up on the day and said, “I’m here to show my obvious objection to what’s happened”. He was on the other side, so we were a bit surprised. Although we knew that the Labour Government had a majority of four, there was a good chance of winning any election that happened then because the people were so fed up. He told everybody that he had decided to vote for the other side. Time went on and rumours were all over the place—“I’ve just heard so and so is not coming in”, and “I don’t believe so and so is voting for us, you know”. This went on. Rumours and suggestions came hot and fast.

Anyway, finally the day came when the vote was to be taken. We all rushed to our seats—both sides. It was, as usual at that time, at 10 pm—that was when we voted in those days, more often than at any other time. The vote was soon over. I am glad to say that I managed to get my name down and spoke in that very important debate. When 10 pm came, we rushed to vote and then rushed back to our seats. Our hearts were beating far faster than they normally did as the vote ended. Both sides were so impatient to know what had happened. The minutes crawled by. As we were all watching keenly, Labour’s Chief Whip came into the Chamber with a very happy smile on his face. Margaret, who was on the Front Bench, turned as pale as a piece of paper. We were all thinking, “Now what?”.

About a minute later one of our senior Whips, Anthony Berry, came in. Some noble Lords will remember him very well. Anthony was later killed by the IRA in that terrible trouble at the conference—I know that no one will have forgotten that. As he walked in, we could see that he was holding up the fourth finger of his right hand. We had won by one vote. That was a day that no one who was there will ever forget. The Speaker announced the result: 311 votes to 310. You can imagine what feelings that brought about in the Chamber.

I want to talk about just one more thing. We shall soon have another vote about the European question. What is going to happen we do not yet know, but there is something that I would like to say to my colleagues. Every politician knows perfectly well that when a party quarrels internally, the electorate hates it. It does not put electors in a very good mind. I would ask my colleagues to remember that, because there is no doubt that experience has taught us this. Whatever we think about Brexit, we ought to be together. I hope that everyone will.

If I was not quite together with everyone at the beginning of my speech, it was because I was quite nervous, having called the House on Sunday. I was informed that we would be meeting not at half past 12 as I thought, but at noon. I am sorry that I was a little late. I am sorry to leave all my noble friends because I love you all. Many of my friends are not from the same party as me, but we are good friends. That, too, we should remember. Goodbye to you all.

[Noble Lords]

Hear, hear!