Lord Bates: John Bird - the anti-poverty worker who sees through anti-poverty campaigners. He's needed in Downing Street.

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7.

Writing in The Times (£) recently, John Bird, founder and editor in chief of The Big Issue, expressed frustration that the current welfare debate had been reduced to whether Iain Duncan Smith could live on £53 per week, he wrote:

“For more than two decades—ever since I set up The Big Issue so that the homeless could through their own efforts earn a legal income—I have been arguing that spending more on benefits makes neither social or financial sense. Yet as society grew wealthier and healthier, the number of people we parked on benefits grew too, men and women who have never gone out to work in their lives.

What the poverty industry has done is corral them into a class outside of mainstream society. Struggling by on benefits, their children are marginalised at school, creating the next generation of poor dependents. These children are as bright as the offspring of the middle-class defenders of the poor, but few make it into university, whether ancient, red-brick or white tiled."

Lord Bates: George Carey should worry a little bit more about global poverty and a little less about David Cameron

Lord Bates is a Vice Chairman of the 'Christians in Parliament' All Party Parliamentary Group. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7. Follow Michael on Twitter.

What makes bishops so ham-fisted when they enter the political fray is that - unlike politicians - they are not used to having their every word and action challenged and scrutinised in parliament and in the media.

They float serenely down the aisles of their cathedrals in their Laura Ashley night gowns to the sounds of pipe organs whilst being followed by cherubs and choristers. They then deliver their address which is only ever interrupted by the occasionally tickly cough from their slumbering congregations.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey begins his polemic in today's Daily Mail on the persecution of Christianity in characteristic Episcopal manner with the phrase:

“I like David Cameron and believe he is genuinely sincere in his desire to make Britain a generous nation where we care for one another and where people of faith may exercise their beliefs fully.”

Then, barely a paragraph later he delivers a stunning non sequitur:

“At his pre-Easter reception for faith leaders he said that he support Christians right to practice their faith. Yet many Christians doubt his sincerity...the Prime Minister has done more than any other recent political leader to feed theses anxieties [make Christians feel they are persecuted]."

Where is John Humphrys when you need him?

Lord Bates: The North East of England shows policies are hurting - but working

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7.

As 2012 draws to a close there are reasons for hope to be found in the North East of England that suggest that in an area of traditionally high unemployment, and heavy reliance on the public sector, the policies being pursued are beginning to yield results.

Employment

In the Labour Force Survey from this month, we can see that there are now more people in employment in the North East of England than in 2010 and unemployment has fallen over the past year by 17.9% in the North East of England.

KPMG's Report on Jobs from earlier this month suggested that many of those entering jobs are being able to find sustainable employment - as the growth in permanent job placements in the North of England is at a 29 month high. Apprenticeships have also increased: a parliamentary question answered on the 4th December revealed that the number of apprenticeships in the North East of England has more than doubled since 2009/10 from 18,510 to 37,760 in 2011/12.

Infrastructure

New homes construction in the North East during the first three quarters of 2012 was 25% up (3,048) on the same period in 2011 (2,427) and 47% up on the same period in 2009 (2,073), according the NHBC Quarterly New Homes Statistics for 2012.

Lord Bates: Time to give the licence fee payer a say at "their BBC"

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7. He will introduce his BBC Trust Chairman (Election) Bill into the House of Lords today.

The BBC Trust describes itself as “the guardian of the licence payer and the public interest of the BBC,” but how are they accountable to the people they serve? The BBC has immense influence on the opinions and values of the nation. How do we ensure that this power in our society is not simply a closed shop for a metropolitan, liberal elite to advance their agenda and air their prejudice all at the tax payers expense?

In 2011, 24.75 million households paid £145.50 each in a compulsory levy to fund £3.6 billion of the £5.01 billion budget of the BBC. The largest contributor to the licence fee is the Government who paid £589 million in 2011 for granting free licences for the over-75s.

The licence fee is rigorously enforced, with licence fee evasion cases making up around one tenth of all cases prosecuted in magistrate courts.

With 23,000 staff the BBC is the largest broadcaster in the world in terms of employees. Who is ensuring that the hard pressed licence payer is getting value for money and not funding a self-serving bureaucracy?

Lord Bates: The Belgian town of Ypres holds a daily act of remembrance for the fallen of Britain and the Commonwealth

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7.

From 7:30pm crowds of residents, young and old, from the small Flemish town of Ypres (Leper) in Belgium empty from homes, bars and restaurants and make their way to the striking war memorial at the Menin Gate to remember those who lost their lives in WW1.

At 8pm prompt the traffic is stopped and the town falls silent.

Out of that silence the Last Post is sounded by buglers from the local fire brigade.

The exhortation is then declared:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

A silent minute of remembrance. Wreaths are laid. Reveille is sounded. Heads are lifted. The traffic starts moving and the crowds make their way back.

What makes this act of remembrance unique is that the war memorial is not to Belgian forces but to those of the British & Commonwealth. The service is not conducted in Dutch or French but in English. That this act of remembrance is not once every year but every day.

Lord Bates: Whatever Andrew Mitchell said was wrong - but he has been punished and should be allowed to move on

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7.

During his five years in charge of the International Development brief for the Conservative Party in Opposition and two in government, Andrew Mitchell did more than anyone before to change the approach to development aid. He brought to an often over-sentimental development world of jargon and waffle a direct and rigorous approach for testing and enhancing the effectiveness of aid. It is a role which was and is internationally acknowledged.

Mr Mitchell’s tenure in charge of this brief was characterised by a hands on approach - when a humanitarian crisis would emerge he would not rely on second-hand news reports and diplomatic telegrams, he would instead go out there in person - Syria/Jordan, Pakistan, Libya, Haiti, Afghanistan and Somalia. Often he would put himself in positions of great personal risk in order to understand the exact needs of the people he was seeking to help. This is characteristic of a man who began his career not as a politico but serving in Africa as a UN peacekeeper.

One of his most notable actions was to establish a social action programme in the Conservative Party called Project Umubano which delivers education, healthcare and business training in Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Hundreds of party activists and parliamentarians have travelled out to Africa to deliver high quality practical assistance to thousands of people in war-torn communities. It transformed the Conservative Party’s thinking on poverty and aid and our responsibility to those in greatest need in our world.

Lord Bates: Ministers must talk up signs of recovery because the recovery is real and confidence will sustain it

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7. Last Sunday he argued that the recovery was underway. He returns to his theme in the article below.

Sir John Major gave an excellent interview on the Andrew Marr programme yesterday, but one sentence stood out; after citing some of the economic indicators he said,

“My guess—and this is something that ministers can’t say, but I can—that in due course we will find that we have passed the bottom [of the recession].”

When I heard it I began to think why must minsters be reticent about calling the recovery?

Ever since Norman, Lord Lamont famously observed the ‘green shoots of recovery’ in October 1991 - based on a CBI Survey - there has been a collective ‘Macbeth-like’ paranoia amongst ministers from ‘calling it’ too early for recovery. This is understandable as there is a natural fear of not wanting to appear out of touch with the everyday experience of the people as did Labour Treasury minister, Baroness Vadera when she observed ‘green shoots’ in January, 2009 - remarks which were immediately disowned by Gordon Brown's No 10. But this is different. This is not wishful thinking. The recovery is underway.

Lord Bates: The economic recovery IS underway

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7.

We have a quarterly obsession with GDP as a measure of the health of the economy and its progress out of recession. GDP is a crude measure developed in the 1930s: it is the value of national output at market prices. It’s a bit like judging the health of a private corporation by its turnover alone. When we look wider than GDP we get a much different picture of economic performance.

Estimates of GDP are compiled by the ONS based on surveying 6,000 manufacturing companies, 25,000 service sector companies, 5,000 retailers and 10,000 companies in the construction sector. At the time the first data is published only 40% of the data is available. It is therefore a sample and National Accounts: Sources and Methods warns us that the margin for error is plus or minus 1 per cent.

The latest revised estimate for Q2 Output which sent the political and worlds into a spin suggested the economy had contracted by 0.5% - the equivalent of the estimated loss of output from one single day and accounted for by the extra Diamond Jubilee bank holiday.

Lord Bates: Boris is right about investing in infrastructure but it's the North where the need is greatest

Lord Bates of Langbaurgh was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Langbaurgh 1992-7, and Paymaster General 1996-7. During the last parliament he was the driving force behind Campaign North.

Boris Johnson is a formidable champion of London, the greatest city in the world, but his message to the Prime Minister yesterday to “stop pussyfooting around” and invest in a series of major new infrastructure projects for the capital reminds us of the essential difference between their two roles: Mr Johnson righty need only look to London. Mr Cameron rightly must weigh the priorities for the entire United Kingdom. London is home to 7.6 million people. The UK is home to 62.2 million.

There is life outside the M25 and from beyond it London seems to be having a pretty good share of the infrastructure cake in recent years:

• £10 billion for the Olympics (worth every penny) plus the major private sector legacy programme;
• £16 billion for Crossrail (due to complete in 2018 and currently Europe’s largest construction project);
• £6 billion for the Channel Tunnel High Speed Rail Link;
• £6 billion for the Thameslink project due to complete in 2019;
• £5.5 billion on M25 widening to be completed by 2016;
• £5 billion programme of investment at Heathrow — new Terminal 5, rebuilt Terminal 2;
• £2 billion Thames Tideway Tunnels.

Now Boris’ shopping list includes:

• £9 billion for a third runway at Heathrow; and/or
• £14 billion for a new airport in the Thames Estuary;
• £15 billion for Crossrail 2.

Lord Bates: If the US is to lead the global economy out of recession, Barack Obama would do well to heed the advice of Abraham Lincoln

By Lord Bates

Spending Christmas with family in Texas, I was concerned by the anaemic state of the local economy there. Vacant business premises, high unemployment, sluggish consumer demand and a depressed housing market speak of a very different reality to the soothing forecasts of return to 3-4% GDP growth next year being served up and cheerfully consumed along the Eastern Seaboard.

Moreover, this economic weakness is in a state whose wealth is built on oil and at $90 a barrel, and near zero interest rates, one would have thought that the ‘green shoots’ of recovery would be more evident, but they are as parched as the West Texas winter scrub. 

As we enter 2011 it is very clear that the US economy represents both the greatest potential for pulling the global economy out of recession and the greatest threat of plunging the global economy back into a ruinous double-dip recession.

The United States represents one fifth of the global economy and half the value of global equities. The dollar represents 62% of global foreign exchange reserves and is the currency in which the vast majority of global commodities are values and traded. To be more parochial, the US is by far the UK’s largest trading partner — worth more than Germany, India and China combined.