Queen’s Speech

Earl of Caithness Excerpts

Wednesday 25th May 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Caithness (Con)]

My Lords, I would like to pay a very big tribute to Her Majesty. For many of us, she is the only monarch we have ever known and, in her 90th year, she yet again came to this Chamber to make her gracious Speech. What a lucky country we are to have such a person in that role.

I turn to the economy first. We have had three days of speeches—and today is no exception—from people wanting to spend more money on some very good and worthy areas: defence, education, welfare and the National Health Service. But not one of those speakers, to my knowledge, has told the House what projects they are going to cut in order to spend that extra money or where the money is going to come from. Such is the luxury of not being in government.

Ministers have to be accountable, and that is right and proper. I pay tribute to our Ministers. We are hugely fortunate in this country. Of course, we complain a lot. We whinge well, as Brits. But I would rather be in this country than any other country in Europe. We have better employment, less unemployment, more job security and we have created more jobs. The doomsayers said that that was impossible, so I say a big thank you to our Ministers for putting us in this position. It does not mean that everything is right and that there are not problems ahead. There are. There are huge economic problems ahead of us whether we are in or outside the EU. But I would rather be in the position we are in this country than in any other country in the EU.

Whether we are in or outside the EU, there is economic regulation. I have taken part in the EU Sub-Committee looking at financial matters. We interviewed a Treasury Minister about banking union. He was very proud that the British banks were not allowed to take part in parts of the banking union into which they wanted to opt. That will cause extra regulation and extra cost for British bankers, and most likely cost British jobs. I have since heard that our penchant for overregulating is known as “la source anglaise”. For the Brexiteers who reckon that all will be wonderful if and when we leave, it will not. We will have the problem of overregulation.

Turning to transport, I am not yet convinced on HS2. My noble friend Lord Ahmad has tried, but he has not yet convinced me that there is an adequate case for it. I would have been much more excited if the gracious Speech had talked about Crossrail 2 or, perhaps even more important to me, the trans-Pennine crossing. That is where a huge economic hub could open up. My noble friend talked about the northern powerhouse. Well, that would really get it going. We looked at this issue when I was in the Transport department. That was a few blue moons ago, and it is terribly sad that it has not progressed further.

The Government are also bringing forward reform of compulsory purchase orders. There is a nice little hotspot for us to get into. They say that the process should be fairer and quicker, but fairer to whom? There is great concern among we surveyors that the landowners will not get full value for their money and will get a reduced sum. Therefore, the developers will receive the extra profit from the increase in land values. We will need to study that with great care.

Turning to the question of a wildlife Bill, we are due a Law Commission report but the commission cannot recommend the species protection level. It has asked Defra and the Welsh Government to look at this issue so that the law can be made more uniform. What progress has been made on this issue, which is hugely important to farmers? In the north of Scotland—and it will come to Northumbria, about which the right reverend Prelate made such a good speech—we have had success, in that the number of ravens has increased hugely. But ravens are killers of healthy young lambs. There is nothing more heart-breaking for a farmer than to produce good lambs and find that your week-old lambs are being attacked by ravens. They are doing it for fun. It has been watched very carefully. It involves only a small number of ravens, and if farmers could be licensed to exterminate those, the problem would solve itself. But it is not just ravens. We have read recently about ducks on a watercress farm in Hampshire. People have to realise that in the countryside, farming is your business. If we as politicians do not allow farmers to do their job properly and try to maximise their livelihoods—which has been extremely difficult to do in past years—we will need to look at the whole of farming in a different light and say, “We want you there in the country and we will pay you to farm not very well because we want green hedges and we do not want you to do what you are doing”.

Lastly, the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, mentioned GM crops. I hope that that is one area the Government will push the EU on.