Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I put my name down to speak today in the mistaken belief that there would be a transport Bill, on to which I could tag some remarks about small-scale energy generation and, indeed, a few comments on the state of Scottish democracy. I accept that those last comments might have been more appropriate to yesterday’s debate, and I know that I can speak only once. Lastly, I will stick to the eight-minute time limit. Expecting to take an interest in the air and marine security Bill, I discover that the former area will become part of the police Bill and the latter no longer to be legislated for. Airport and airline security are already major issues; most passengers know that because of the queues at check-in, security and at the gate. As a regular rail passenger to this House, I know that while the rail journey time from central Scotland has remained static at around four-and-a-half hours, the air journey has become longer as the result of airport problems. The journey time by air and rail from central Edinburgh or Glasgow is now probably about even. This is a welcome but perverse way of encouraging modal shift from air to rail, but it does deliver rail-for-air substitution. Next week, Virgin Trains on the west coast main line will deliver an almost hourly service between Glasgow and London, thus approaching comparability with National Express East Coast’s Edinburgh to London timetable. It will be interesting to see whether a modal shift takes place from Glasgow as has happened from Edinburgh, at least to a degree. Virgin Trains needs one more Pendolino set to achieve an hourly schedule, which is part of the 1,300 carriages eventually to be delivered by 2014 and thus would be too late. On marine security and piracy, I listened with interest to the Radio 4 interview yesterday with the new admiral who has taken command of the multinational force brought together to combat piracy off the Somali and Yemen coasts. His problem is what to do with the pirates once they have been caught. The requirement to land them in a local state with a suitable justice system is a difficult one, and I am not surprised that there is reluctance among such states to clutter their court systems and prisons with someone’s else’s criminals. I am therefore not surprised that marine security legislation will not be brought forward until, presumably, there is a viable strategy. In the mean time, I wish the Royal Navy well in its anti-piracy mission. I am disappointed that there is no high-speed rail Bill or any precursor to one. Everyone knows that such a line is necessary and that it will be built, so my complaint is that when it takes so long for a major infrastructure project to be built, why are we not starting the process now, given that we need a high-speed network? On the motoring front, I am pleased to see that 50 car models are now in bands A and B for emissions. Several are medium-sized family cars, not just super-minis. This shows what engineers can be made to achieve. Are the Government doing enough to encourage the purchase of bands A and B cars? Perhaps vehicle excise duty should be reduced from the £35 being charged for band B vehicles. Moreover, to set a good example, perhaps the fleet of ministerial cars ought to be drawn only from bands A and B models. On the small-scale and microgeneration front, I hope that the Government will bring forward the proposed general permitted development order which will enable the equipment needed for the domestic generation of electricity to be installed quickly because such projects will not have to go through the planning process. Domestic electricity generation would be allowed to expand in the way it ought to. However, I accept reluctantly that householders need to be grant-aided—I was about to say ““bribed”” as they are in Germany, but that would be inappropriate—but confusion about planning permission is an unnecessary barrier to a development that everyone wants to see take place, but wants everyone else to do. There also appears to be another unnecessary barrier to domestic generation in the need for the Met Office to sell data about wind conditions in specific areas. I know that research and development must be paid for, but perhaps the information could be discounted because we need microgeneration plant to be installed quickly. Finally, I turn to Scottish democracy. While it is good that Scottish politics now have an outlet again—at Holyrood—it is unfortunate that it can be only domestic and inward-looking in focus. The present settlement appears to enable only a teenage or young adolescent democracy when Scotland ought to be a grown-up democracy facing the world. For example, it is not possible to develop a Scottish foreign policy or defence policy, as it is for any other state of 5 million people. Even a devolutionist will agree that there are already problems of interference by the United Kingdom Government thwarting Scottish democracy. First, Treasury Ministers refuse to fund policies which they do not like—I refer to the withholding of attendance allowance and the future withholding of council tax benefit. Secondly, there is no ban in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act on political party donations from outwith Scotland in the run-up to Scottish parliamentary elections. This favours unionist parties and has no reverse opportunity. Thirdly, there is a need for a ban on the Scottish Parliament’s lack of borrowing powers so that the infrastructure policies can be effected without resorting to obscure Scottish futures trusts or other devices. This is an undemocratic restraint on the people of Scotland. Ultimately, the real issue for the people of Scotland is whether they ought to resume responsibility for sovereignty and a place in the world, or whether they want to continue to be submerged within Britain as a peripheral semi-autonomous region. This is a moral question and the issue of economics cannot be significant in it. No movement towards national identity has been so founded, with the possible exception of Singapore. It is a question of belief on a come-what-may-basis. That rant over, those are a few thoughts on a thin but gracious Speech.