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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Martin of Springburn, on his excellent maiden speech. He has given over 30 years of his life to serving the British people in Parliament, and that long experience will be incredibly valuable to this House. In his maiden speech in the other place in 1979, he powerfully championed the need for more council housing in his constituency of Glasgow Springburn, as it then was. That was the first of the many interventions he would make, where he would fight tirelessly for the underprivileged in our society. The noble Lord's rise from modest beginnings to one of the great offices of state demonstrates a determination of spirit that few possess. It has been said, and we noticed, that the noble Lord is a softly spoken man, but that when he needs to make a noise, he is more than capable of doing so, particularly with his bagpipes. I trust that the noble Lord will bring a harmonious tone to this House from the Cross Benches. He spoke like a true Cross-Bencher, and we look forward to hearing many contributions from him over the years to come. We also welcome our apprentice, the noble Lord, Lord Sugar, who is not in his place. I hope that he has not gone to fire somebody, that he is not being fired and that he is not firing himself. I am happy that in Her Majesty's most gracious Speech, the Government stated that their overriding priority is to create sustained economic growth. That is what the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, emphasised time and again. However, I take us back 30 years to 1979, when Britain was the sick man of Europe—a country riven and wrecked by strikes, a country in which the word "entrepreneurship" conjured up images of Del Boy. Let us not forget. What happened over the decades to follow? What transformed Britain from being down and out to being the fourth largest economy in the world? It was transformed by liberating the power of enterprise, entrepreneurship and creativity and by unleashing the genius of a country that, as a tiny nation for centuries, has created so many world-changing and life-changing innovations and inventions, be it the steam engine or the world wide web. Britain was transformed by lowering taxes and freeing up the economy, by the big bang in 1986 and opening up the City. It was transformed by promoting, encouraging and celebrating entrepreneurship, creating scores of world-class entrepreneurs creating world-class products, such as Sir Richard Branson and Sir James Dyson. I could go on. It was transformed by the creation of an attitude of meritocracy in a country in which anyone could succeed, where there was no glass ceiling, and where there was opportunity for everyone regardless of race, religion or background. Inspiration led to aspiration, and aspiration led to achievement. Where did it all go wrong? Why are we still in recession when other countries have started to grow again? Why do we have a deficit of £175 billion? Why is a high tax rate of 50 per cent coming back in? Why do we have a non-doms levy that is insulting and turning away people who have helped to make the City of London the powerhouse that it is today? Last month, I asked the noble Lord, Lord Myners, why I continue to hear from everyone in the SME sector that they are still finding it very difficult to obtain lending from banks. I asked why the Government have saved the banks but are not doing enough to save the businesses that the banks serve. It is no secret that I have come through the most challenging year in my business career. The Minister replied: ""It was quite clear … that the primary issue in terms of lending to creditworthy, well managed and solvent businesses is demand. I cannot speak to personal experiences in which those definitions of business may not necessarily apply".—[Official Report, 14/10/09; col. 221.]" I would like to ask the Minister about the creditworthy, well managed and solvent banks that the Government have bailed out with hundreds of billions of pounds. Surely this is sheer hypocrisy. Just yesterday, we heard that £62 billion was lent secretly to HBOS and the RBS. In comparison, how much have the Government done for the SMEs? The Government help the banks and not the companies; yet these are the companies that will lead this country in the charge out of recession. SMEs employ 13 million people in this country. We have lost a sense of balance. We do not need a nanny state; we need balanced regulation, transparency and an end to the wretched blame-go-round between the FSA, the Treasury and the Bank of England. This is not just about bankers’ bonuses. We have had the longest prolonged period of low interest rates in history. This has led to Wall Street flowing into main street, with unemployment rising and with great uncertainty as to what the future holds for us. Whether we have Sir Martin Sorrell’s LUV recession, a double dip, a V or a U, we are not addressing the fundamentals. We are treating the symptoms, not the disease. We need faith, respect and trust in the Government. Yet all the signals are that the Government have not got their priorities right when it comes to business. To be fair, reassuringly, some steps are being taken. It is good to see that the Prime Minister is taking notice of the Rowlands review, which recommends the creation of a £1 billion growth fund for growth-focused SMEs. This is just the sort of thing that we need. Yet what is £1 billion compared with the hundreds of billions—some say up to £1.2 trillion—to bail out the financial sector? It is encouraging that the Opposition have placed a focus on creating growth and wealth. Again, however, whether there are policies to support this aspiration remains to be seen. British business needs to look far more to countries overseas than it does. As president of the UK India Business Council, which is supported by UK Trade & Investment, I have seen the huge potential that a country such as India holds for British business. India has been growing and its economy has been forecast to grow at 6 per cent, while we are still in recession. In the UK we have large world-class, cutting edge, high-tech manufacturing. British manufacturing is by no means dead. I am privileged to take part in this sector and to see it first hand every day. Britain’s higher education system is funded at half the percentage of GDP compared with the United States, but year after year we churn out the best universities in the world—four out of the top 10. Yet, as captains of industry are now openly saying, there is a deficiency in the basic skills level of our school-leavers, which is alarming. There is much to be done and we cannot go on with this ping-pong of electoral rhetoric between the Government and the Opposition about who will and will not make spending cuts without addressing the heart of the problem. I will never forget one of my physics lessons: energy is never created or destroyed, but transferred. Energy is being wasted in the blame-go-round between the banks, the Government, the FSA and the financial institutions. We have to move forward. Then we will see this country improve and prosper once again. To conclude, we have forgotten all that we did to rebuild Britain from the sick man of Europe that it was 30 years ago. Throughout history, it was not the banks that made Britain great. World-class, world-beating higher education, entrepreneurship, enterprise and innovation have always been responsible for the great in Great Britain.