Inside The Lords: a Labour government revealed

The battle for free speech doesn't go on recess - Claire Fox reports on a short few weeks in parliament.

It is one of parliament’s maddest eccentricities that we were only back for two weeks after Summer Recess before being suspended again for three weeks for Conference Recess. Despite this, I think we can already get a measure of the new Labour government - and it’s not good for those who value freedom and democracy.  

I have decided to use my time in the Lords to focus on raising the now daily assaults on free speech as often as I can, alongside double standards and examples of Keir Starmer’s two-tier governance. There are plenty of examples - as some of my speeches in the Lords over the past fortnight illustrate. 

It’s very hard to listen to Labour minsters lecturing us on the need for a new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre (to be placed in the wrong place, with an insultingly crude view of education) while effectively giving rising anti-Semitism a free pass by announcing an arms embargo against Israel within days of the cruel butchery of six hostages. Of course, the arms trade with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar is all fine.

It’s hard to stomach lectures on law and order when it comes to the riots, while prisoners are being let out on early release. What is perhaps even worse is that those overlooked for release included IPP prisoners - who remain incarcerated because, according to the minister, they are too risky to public safety. Yet this is despite the fact that IPPers have - in many instances - committed far less serious crimes (and have long since served their time) than those let out early to solve a policy crisis. Where’s the logic or the justice?

Ministers also dodged my question on a one-sided, partisan approach to criminalising misinformation – I fear they are turning Ofcom into their version of a Ministry of Truth. 

Meanwhile, the massed ranks of vice chancellors, college heads and research council leaders who sit in the House of Lords, used a debate on university funding to lobby for more money - and were assured by government they would be looked after. I pointed out that this same government and lobbying Lords have effectively blocked an Act of Parliament that was passed last year to protect free speech. What’s the point in defending universities if they sacrifice academic freedom to stay open as businesses? 

Finally – it was good to be part of a cross-house rebellion against the government’s winter-fuel allowance ‘poll tax’ debacle. No amount of gaslighting could quell the fury in the chamber. I voted for both the backbench Conservative peer Baroness Altman’s fatal amendment, as well as the Lib Dem’s regret motion. I abstained from the Tories’ amendment (that did land the first parliamentary defeat against the government) because they insisted on linking it to an attack on wage rises for public-sector workers, which I thought was unnecessarily sectarian.

To be even-handed, I was equally hard on Labour’s attempt at blaming the attack on pensioners wholly on the previous Conservative administration – and argued as such when I appeared on Any Questions (and even got a cheer from the audience). You can listen to that here.

I am especially incensed that, at every opportunity, ministers in the Lords lecture us on our tone. This, they argue, is to avoid polarising offensive speech - yet their policy on the winter-fuel allowance and the framing of it as correcting the unfairness of rich oldies raking it in is fuelling a divisive attitude to older people and giving a green light to Boomer-bashing. As I say - free speech and double standards are going to be my calling card over the parliamentary months ahead. 

I won’t miss the hypocrisy on display in the Lords over the next three weeks. But there’s no recess for me. At the Academy of Ideas, we are finalising the programme for this year’s Battle of Ideas festival. We start officially with a FREE online satellite discussion Bookshop Barnie with Yair Zivan on The Centre Must Hold: Why Centrism is the answer to extremism and polarisation on Thursday 19 September at 7pm. You can register your attendance to get the link here.

Yair is a great speaker and makes the best case for centrism I have ever heard - and I am hardly a centrist! Some say the discussion of the ‘far right’ and ‘far left’ in recent months has pushed them to take a more moderate, centrist, political position. Others think that now is exactly the right time to take sides - even at the risk of being labelled an extremist. The Jewish News said that Zivan’s book offers ‘an enticing solution to angry politics the world over’, while the Daily Telegraph has called it the ‘politics of zombies’ and angrily proclaimed that ‘it’s difficult to forgive the damage that centrism has wreaked over the last generation’. In other words, there’s a debate to be had…

Finally, I hope you will attend the Battle of Ideas festival in person. Tell your friends, your family, your opponents – everyone. All are welcome, regardless of politics. All we ask is that you turn up open-minded and prepared to talk and argue. We have a variety of ticket prices and discounts - especially if you’re a paid subscriber to this Substack.

And if you’ve got no cash to spare, why not volunteer with us in exchange for free tickets to the festival? Click here to sign up as a volunteer - otherwise, click on any of the images below to book your tickets and we’ll see you there.

FREE TICKETS FOR SCHOOL PUPILS
We are delighted to make the following special offer to school pupils: a free day-ticket to the Battle of Ideas festival, for either Saturday 19 or Sunday 20 October. And if you want to attend the whole weekend you can do so for just £10 for the other day!

Just email schoolschampion@academyofideas.org.uk stating which day you would like to attend free, the name of your school and an email address to send your free ticket to.

ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT BATTLE TICKETS?

For any enquiries, please contact Geoff Kidder:
T: +44 (0) 20 7269 9220
E: geoffkidder@academyofideas.org.uk