the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, while some of the many deleterious effects of this trade deal have been mentioned, I wish to try to be positive and make a success of our new relationship, perhaps even harbouring a faint hope that softer attitudes will prevail once the dust settles. We can regain some of the respect so casually lost in recent months by making a success of our industries. For instance, in...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, I declare my farming interest, as in the register. There are many substantive issues in this Bill and around ELMS, and I start with standards. The empty shelves which were so apparent at the start of the lockdown should focus our minds, so I welcome the belated acknowledgment of food production as an aim in the Bill, but I ask: what sort of food production? The Minister says that...
the Duke of Somerset: The Minister has spoken extensively about UK citizens needing to return from overseas, but many UK citizens here live and work abroad. Will the FCO be in a position to try to help them, bearing in mind that some of them will have no home base here in which to reside for the quarantine period?
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, I too would like to support this amendment. Erasmus has been a most successful EU scheme and benefited 800,000 people in 2017, which seems to be the last year for which statistics are available. It has existed for three decades, benefiting 9 million people in that time. In 2015, the UK received funds of €113 million to implement the scheme. As we know, it funds students and staff...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, while acknowledging the considerable majority that the Conservatives obtained in the recent general election, largely fought over Brexit, it is worth reiterating the point made last Tuesday by the noble Lord, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen: only 29% of the electorate actually voted for that party. This means that everyone else has to go along with and accept that result, but they...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, while we appreciate that few of the Bills alluded to in the Queen’s Speech will be brought forward before the next election, they indicate what the Conservative Party might do in the event that it wins a majority. However, it is also clear that, economically, the UK would be far better off under the status quo of membership rather than under any or no deal. Many parts of these...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, it is the evidence from those on the front line—the experts, whose names are published at the back of this report—that goes to the nub of the Brexit problem: the ending of free movement of people. That is particularly true in the cultural sector, as the report demonstrates very well. Quotes such as “a big risk to the country’s soft power and creative reputation” are...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, “I’m 16 … Your Vote, My Future”. That was a placard photographed on the front of the Evening Standard and published on Friday. One headline said that 1 million people “marched to stop” the Brexit “madness”; another one said that over 5.5 million people had signed the petition to revoke Article 50. I do not imagine that Mrs May even noticed these headlines, or looked...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, I draw attention to my receipt of agricultural subsidies from the EU. It seems that taking back control of our borders and migration swung the Brexit vote. The Prime Minister said that net migration had to fall below 100,000; overseas students would be unwelcome and a hostile environment towards workers from the EU and the rest of the world would be created. Now, we learn that to...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, why are so many of the electronic gates often closed? Does she agree that the installation of more of them in good working order would go a long way to alleviating the queues?
the Duke of Somerset: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons for some of the automated e-passport gates at London's airports not being available to incoming passengers.
the Duke of Somerset: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to return the waiting time for passport controls at London's airports to the official target.
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, many of the e-gates, which are meant to make things quicker and stop these delays, are often out of action at London airports. Why is that, and when will they all be back in action?
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, I will not rise to the point of the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, on the hereditary Peers, but like so many others here this afternoon, I would like to welcome this debate on the report that the excellent committee of the noble Lord, Lord Burns, has produced. I congratulate it on finding a way around many of the apparent problems. In our debate just over a year ago, there was much...
the Duke of Somerset: Does the Minister agree that the speedy rollout of truly fast broadband in the countryside, not the phantom speeds bandied about by Openreach, would lead to a much greater supply of jobs and thus an increase in prosperity?
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, I welcome these two reports to the general series of Brexit debates, and declare my interest as a farmer in receipt of EU basic payments and as a landlord of other farms. The main theme running through both reports is the economic woe that would result from a hard Brexit, where WTO rules would prevail in the absence of trade and customs deals. By way of background, UK farmers...
the Duke of Somerset: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered the longer-term advantages of selling surplus Ministry of Defence property by leasehold rather than freehold, and if so, what conclusions they have drawn.
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, this valuable report makes it quite clear that one of the most serious implications of the Brexit decision is the position of EU citizens living and working in the UK and the corresponding position of UK nationals in the European Union. I congratulate the committee on the rather hard-hitting stance it has taken. The outcome of the negotiations will impact directly and hugely on the...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, did the Council address the vile treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in European countries such as Italy, where they are not allowed to cross the border to France, it takes three years to process their applications, during which they are not allowed to work to earn money to survive, and the police deal brutally with those that they detain? These human beings live in squalor,...
the Duke of Somerset: My Lords, as we have just heard, the present law is that the cost and responsibility for removing fly-tipped rubbish occurs to the landowner. Is that fair? I declare an interest, in that this has happened to me on a number of occasions.