Queen’s Speech

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Wednesday 21st June 2017 Lords Chamber

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[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty as follows:

“Most Gracious Sovereign—We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament”.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

My Lords, may I begin by thanking the Leader of the House and the Chief Whip for inviting me to move this Motion for the Humble Address? It is a singular and unexpected honour, and I confess that I feel like I did the other day when a very attractive young lady offered me her seat on the Tube. However, I imagine that my noble friend Lady Bertin—who will second the Motion—and I are part of the campaign by the Chief Whip to woo the youth vote after the result of the general election.

My first task is to express our thanks to Her Majesty the Queen for honouring our House with her presence to deliver the gracious Speech from the Throne. The whole House will also want to send our best wishes to His Royal Highness Prince Philip, who, sadly, was unable to attend this morning. We are grateful for the outstanding support which he has given to her Majesty, for his service in defence of our country, and for his contribution to countless charities and good causes. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme is but one example. It is now celebrating 60 years of offering young people the chance to shine, to serve others and to embrace new challenges and activities in more than 140 countries. There are 2.4 million recipients of the award in the United Kingdom alone, and even your Lordships may be among them. We are also grateful to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for his presence today. The work of the Prince’s Trust is but one of the many initiatives he has taken to the benefit of our country.

I understand that Her Majesty the Queen has never missed a day at Royal Ascot since her coronation. I hope that there was sufficient time today for her to maintain that tradition and that she will be rewarded for her outstanding devotion to duty by her horse Dartmouth repeating last year’s success and bringing her total up to an impressive 24 Royal Ascot winners. I know little about racing, and bet on horses if I like the name, so my tips for Ascot this week are: Queen’s Trust, Top Beak and Queen of Time.

At church on Sunday, our rector informed us that we were entering ordinary time in the Church’s calendar. Well, it might feel like that on the Bishops’ Benches but it certainly does not feel like that on these Benches, for it is a pretty extraordinary period in politics. Our Prime Minister, it seemed, could walk on water a few months ago and is now subject to vile attacks on all sides. She does not deserve this; nor is it in our country’s interest to trash our Prime Minister at a time of great uncertainty. She is a good, competent, Christian woman, who served for a record period as Home Secretary in a department traditionally seen as an elephants’ graveyard. She may not be a flashy PR campaigner but she has the skills and experience needed to govern and navigate the Scylla and Charybdis that is Brexit. Our national security is threatened by fanatical terrorists and the negotiations began this week to secure our future as an independent country. Alea iacta est—the die has been cast. We are, by law, leaving the European Union in March 2019, and the months ahead should be devoted to getting the best deal for jobs and prosperity for our United Kingdom. Surely we can all agree on that. I believe that we have a duty to unite behind the Prime Minister at this time in the wider interests of our country.

While fighting the election campaign, the Prime Minister had to deal with the atrocities in Manchester and Southwark, and now the appalling attack on Muslim worshippers in Finsbury Park and the unspeakable horror of the fire in Kensington. The unimaginable trauma of the men, women and children trapped in that inferno and the loss to their families has, as Her Majesty pointed out, shocked and saddened the whole country. I recall the same sickening feeling as a new Minister in the Scottish Office in 1988 when 228 oil- workers were trapped on the burning offshore platform Piper Alpha and 167 people were drowned or burned to death. The public inquiry, conducted by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Cullen of Whitekirk, reported in 13 months with 100 expert-led recommendations, which fundamentally changed the safety culture of the whole oil and gas industry—not just in the North Sea but across the world. This example of effective action is what is promised in the gracious Speech following the Grenfell Tower catastrophe. In addition, immediate measures are required to ensure that people living in high-rise buildings and social housing can be assured of their safety and that the survivors and families of the victims of this tragic fire are housed and supported in every way possible. That is what the Prime Minister has ordered should be done.

Now, let us face it: the election campaign was not the Tory party’s finest hour. There were some unexpected highlights, however. Alex Salmond—

[Noble Lords]

Oh!

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

I knew I could unite this House. Alex Salmond, in the words of his beloved “Flower of Scotland”, was sent “homeward tae think again”. He left quoting Walter Scott’s poem about my noble friend Lord Dundee’s famous Jacobite relative:

“You have not seen the last of my bonnet and me!”.


The Jacobite cry “Down with the Elector” might have been more appropriate, as the SNP lost 21, or 40%, of its seats. The Scottish Tories, led by the outstanding Ruth Davidson—who, incidentally, was first spotted by my noble friend Lady Fall—won 12 more seats and the other unionist parties a further nine. Fundraising by the SNP for a new independence referendum is reported as having been cancelled. Nicola Sturgeon says that she is considering her position on Indyref2 and our United Kingdom has been saved from further nationalist-inspired instability. The Prime Minister, by facing down their demands for a second referendum, has set back the cause of separatists—to coin a phrase—for a generation.

It looked like a good election for Labour. Indeed, it is behaving as if it won it, despite being 56 seats behind the Tories. And the new, rapturous enthusiasm on the Benches opposite for Jeremy Corbyn, is matched only by their relief that he is not running the country—go on, smile. Oh yes, Labour now certainly has momentum, but sadly for them, Momentum now has Labour. This was not in the plan. As Robert Burns explained to an 18th-century mouse:

“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men


Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promis’d joy!”.

In my party’s case there is little joy, as 33 good colleagues were defeated and we have lost our overall majority, despite a record number of votes. We got 318 seats and I expected 375—375 turns out to be the number of seats in which the Liberals lost their deposits campaigning for a rerun of the referendum.

This brings me to the most important commitment in the gracious Speech for this new, long Parliament: ensuring that our country takes full advantage of the opportunities open to us as we leave the European Union. There is serious work to do, and this House knows its duty and can—and I am sure will—continue to make a constructive contribution to delivering Brexit and building a new partnership with our European friends.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has rightly emphasised the importance of securing jobs and prosperity as we leave the European Union. Free trade is central to achieving that economic objective. One thing Donald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker have in common is their hostility to free trade. Yet the case for it is not just economic, it is a moral case. It is estimated that more than a billion lives have been lifted out of extreme poverty by trade since 1981. Encouraging free trade brings prosperity, social stability and ultimately global security.

One in 12 of the world’s population under the age of 28 is living in India, where the EU has no trade deal. Scotch whisky is subject to a massive tariff in a market a fraction of which could keep distilleries going to the crack of doom. Coffee is the second most-traded commodity after oil in the world. The entire continent of Africa exports coffee to the European Union amounting to $2.4 billion, while Germany alone earns far more at $3.8 billion on exports of coffee. How can this be? The EU customs union has no tariff on raw beans, but any added-value product is penalised. This ensures that added value is retained inside the Union and denied to poorer African countries, which results in higher prices in our shops. The EU tariff on decaffeinated coffee from a third country is subject to a duty of 9%. A similar story applies to cocoa and the duty on chocolate is even more egregious.

I welcome the commitment in the gracious Speech on mental health services. This is something the Prime Minister has championed, together with my right honourable friend Dr Liam Fox, who is particularly concerned as Secretary of State for Defence with those service men and women suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Norman Lamb too—I hope my mentioning him will not damage his leadership chances—has been a tireless campaigner as a Liberal Minister in the coalition Government and as a Back-Bencher. More recently, Prince William and Prince Harry have spoken out to encourage people to see mental illness like any other health issue. In this context, I urge the Government to focus on one area of great concern: the number one killer of young men in Britain today is suicide, accounting for about one-quarter of all deaths in men aged between 20 and 34. Men are three times more likely to take their own lives than women. We need to reach out to men suffering from depression and find ways to neutralise any sense of stigma or shame which may prevent them from seeking the help they need.

As a Minister of State many years ago responsible for prisons in the Home Office, and later as Secretary of State more than 20 years ago, I was acutely conscious of the number of people who end up behind bars who suffer from bipolar disorders, depression and other conditions. I recall with great sadness visiting Cornton Vale in my constituency in Stirling—which I am delighted to say has been returned to Conservative representation—on Christmas Day when another young woman had taken her life. Mental illness has been the poor relation for far too long and I am sure the whole House will support reform.

I conclude by turning to the substance of the Motion. We are surely blessed that we do not have a presidential system of government in our country, and we have been doubly blessed by the wonderful service and inspiration which Her Majesty the Queen has given to our country and the Commonwealth. Long may she reign over us. I beg to move the Motion for an Humble Address to Her Majesty.