Viscount Eccles (Con)

My Lords, this is not an easy debate to reply to. I thank noble Lords who have spoken but will not attempt to sum up what they said. Many things were said about what has happened so far, why we should have a memorial and what the dangers will be, but that is not my purpose, which is a narrow one. I was 14 when the British Army went into Bergen-Belsen. I remember that circumstance very clearly: I remember what we thought about it, what we said to each other about it, and how we were held to think about it very carefully by our schoolmasters, one of whom was an Anglican priest. I have thought about that circumstance very carefully ever since; it comes back to me often. My problem is that I do not think the memorial and the learning centre should be in one building. I have made a technical argument that simply says that if we were implement the commission’s recommendation, they would not be in one building—they would be in two buildings. I think that technical argument runs, but I do not want to make too much of it. What I want to see is a national memorial, and we have nearly all come to agree that it can be in Victoria Tower Gardens without wrecking and so altering the gardens so that they are not gardens any more. If we were to construct an unmanned, conventional memorial in accordance with the commission’s recommendations, we would have done that and, of course, we would still have needed the learning centre. To my mind, going to the memorial to remember is very different from the research, the understanding and the learning of lessons. The commission was absolutely right when it recommended that the memorial and the learning centre should be two separate matters. In addition—and I totally support my noble friend Lord King—there are huge problems with what is on the table at the moment, and it needs to be simplified. There is a will to construct a conventional, appropriate and, I hope, brilliantly designed national memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. We should be getting on with getting that constructed. The foundation said it needed two years—if anyone thinks the present plans will be completed in two years, they need to think again. My noble friend Lord Sassoon talked about public money. Of course I am conscious about public money; we all are in today’s circumstances. There is no doubt that £75 million would be sufficient to build a really impressive national memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. Should I ask the House to decide? It is not really very easy to be confident, given the position of the two main parties, but this is Report: there is time for noble Lords to think, change their minds and go for a perfectly conforming and satisfactory solution to the situation we are in, so I withdraw my amendment.