Inside The Lords: sectarianism, sex categories and the silent treatment
Claire Fox reports from a week inside the House of Lords.
It was such sad news to hear about the death of Frank Field. In the first weeks I joined the House of Lords, I bumped into Frank as we were both getting lost as new peers. I didn’t recognise him (it was the height of Lockdown and masks indoors were mandatory). He unmasked and we did a social distance hug. With a twinkle in his eye, he said ‘I look forward to us both being the bad boys on the back bench’. He got seriously ill shortly after that, but I try and honour his maverick spirit of political independence. And yes, I literally sit on the back bench…
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the only thing happening in the Lords at the moment is the Rwanda Bill - which is now passed, despite antidemocratic delays from the Lords. Not so, but before I move on to what I’ve been up to this week I just want to say that it is a small, nasty, performative bill - but the opposition to it was performative as we all knew it would get through in the end and I performatively abstained until someone said Claire you can go home now. So I’m glad it’s over.
Despite Rwanda dominating the headlines, there has actually been a lot happening in the Lords in the last two weeks. I’m still banging the drum for single-sex provision for women, not anyone who calls themself a woman, in the Victims bill. I had two amendments, on accurate data collection based on sex not gender, and also to ensure that ‘woman’ really means woman:
Sadly, bucking their usual heckling form, both Labour and Lib Dems refused to speak - effectively giving me the silent treatment. This refusal to debate what I and many others consider to be a very serious and pressing issue is disgraceful. I now know what the real meaning of being ‘stonewalled’ is. This is despite the fact that I was hopeful after hearing Labour’s Shabana Mahmood’s great speech defending the fact that sex is immutable - and that many Labour politicians had filled out a packed room when the wonderful Dr Hilary Cass came for a special visit to parliament.
In fact, one Labour Lord, Lord Bach, had an amendment to simplify record keeping in relation to crime victims; widely supported and is definitely worth considering if it makes data collection more accurate and consistent. I backed that amendment, but, guess what, when I used similar arguments on the need to use sex across all statistics in criminal justice, it fell on deaf ears. This proves the objection to my proposals is more an ideological hostility than a policy one:
Later on in the week I snatched about 40 seconds to take my second bite at securing accurate crime data, based on sex not gender. This time Lib Dems and Labour did speak. Sadly, in the former case, it was to say that it would be a waste of resources; in the latter, to say that other data issues like parentage of sperms donors (what?) were more important. The government position is not satisfactory, but, to be fair to them, it was detailed:
The other issue I continue to work on is leaseholds - there are 5million leaseholders and the government doesn’t seem to grasp how many people are being stung by the current system. I put in an amendment arguing for a sunset clause on leasehold which, to my absolute shock, both Labour and Lib Dems declared support for - Lord Kennedy even got up in the House and said so. So there you go, sectarianism can sometimes be put to one side. Watch this space.
Sometimes you have to laugh. Only in the Lords would an Earl complain that using the word 'feudal' when discussing leasehold is pejorative and an insult. In a short clarification, I declared my interest as a liberated serf - and made a more serious point arguing that this debate on leasehold doesn’t have to hamper a very necessary drive to build more houses:
After a Bishop tried to suggest some freeholders (ie the Church of England) are saint-like builders of community life, I pointed out that leasehold scamming is systemic. It doesn’t matter how nice patrician overlords are, it still undermines ordinary leaseholders’ autonomy and the ability to have control over their own homes.
Later on in the week I hadn’t planned to speak in a discussion on housing until mass ranks of the landed gentry and friends tried to present big freeholders as victims, treated with limitless expropriation by rich(!) leaseholders. Give over. Inevitably they forgot to mention the extortion of limitless service charges and other issues. So, I had a bit of an unstructured but passionate rant.
The last thing to say is that, during a question on safety for UK Jews, I alerted the Lords that Columbia University encampment is coming to UCL (announced as starting on Friday). This is surely grim for Jewish students if it brings the kind of anti-Semitic bile and threats we have seen in US. And yet, calls to shut down free speech on campus - including the arrest of a professor - should not be supported, no matter how disgusted we might be with some of the behaviour. We need freedom of speech to fight anti-Semitism, to challenge these students - and staff - and win the argument. See you next week.
UPCOMING EVENTS…
Dido Powell’s London Gallery Tours 2024: The Ideal Turns Sour
When: 11am, Sunday 28 April, Tate Britain
Tickets: each tour costs £12 or you can book the whole series for £45. You can book by contacting Wendy Earle: wendyearle@talktalk.net
Future Cities Project. Housing: where will we all live?
When: 7-8:30pm, Tuesday 30 April, via zoom
Speakers include: Shaun Bailey, Simon Cooke, Helen MacNeil, Calvin Po and Austin Williams (chair)
Tickets: free and reservable via Eventbrite.
The Academy 2024: Civilisation Under Siege?
Barbarism and terror abroad seem to have reared their head at the same time that civilisation seems to face fundamental challenges at home. Activists and academics question the very essence of Western civilisation, and politicians seem clueless to respond beyond empty invocations of “extremism”. Can anyone stand up for the legacy of Western civilisation today?
When: Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 August, Wyboston Lakes Resort
Tickets: available here.
Sessions and speakers include: Frank Furedi on From Decolonisation to Islamism: Civilisation under siege?; Tim Black on The Clash of Civilisations Revisited and Jacob Reynolds on Can you rebuild civilisation? Dystopia in fiction.
Battle of Ideas Festival 2024
When: Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 October, Church House, Great Smith St, Westminster, London, SW1P 3BN
Tickets: Early–Bird ticket offer available here