Contribution
My Lords, my amendments in this group relate to security, and I appreciate the support of noble Lords who have signed these amendments. I start by emphasising to your Lordships that I want to see the erection of a Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens as soon as possible.
I have something personal to say. Nine days ago, I had the sadness and privilege of speaking at the funeral of a child Holocaust survivor called Renata Calverley. Renata was my beloved sister, literally my half-sister, her mother having died in Auschwitz. She was born in 1937, in Poland. How she survived was a miracle. Alas, in her survival, she lost her early childhood to five years of being hunted, hungry and hidden just because she was a Jewish child. She was, to be fair, a formidable memorial of the Holocaust herself, as I told her from time to time, but, unfortunately, she was ephemeral. What Renata and other survivors, and of course the dead, deserve is to be remembered in perpetuity in a memorial that is devoted solely to the Holocaust, the most horrific massacre of innocent people in human history. The reason for this amendment is partly based on my sister; that memorial must be a safe space, as free as can be managed from the threat of terrorism and other violence, and in as peaceful and accessible a setting as is possible in this city.
That is why I cannot support the erection of the planned learning centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, and for two reasons. The first has already been referred to frequently: it is not the right place for a proper learning centre. My noble friend Lord Russell and the noble Lord, Lord King of Bridgwater, made that point. We heard a reference or two to the POLIN Museum. Yes, some of the POLIN Museum is underground, but the building of the POLIN Museum stands out as the most significant modern building above ground in Poland and in Warsaw. It is a competitor for style with the recreated buildings of the 18th century. It is not an underground museum. It is so big because it accommodates people who can do their PhDs and otherwise research the Holocaust properly, in a true learning centre.
My second reason is more pertinent to these amendments. I fear, and I warn, that placing a learning centre, whether small or large, so close to Parliament, that is expected to be visited by thousands of people each week and hundreds of thousands of people each year—perhaps millions—is a lure to terrorists. There are other potential sites for a much more complete learning centre elsewhere in this great city, more secure from the threat and risk of terrorism.
Our lamented friend Lord Etherton chaired the special Select Committee on the Bill, and I am delighted that there are other members of that committee here, including my noble and learned friend Lord Hope, who is in his place next to me. I welcome their presence; they all played a valuable part. Security was dealt with by the committee. It determined that it is imperative to recognise that the threat of terrorist activity here and abroad is much greater than when a planning inspector wrote his report on this proposal several years ago, and that much of what was said about security to the planning inspector in the early inquiries will now be out of date. I thank Lord Etherton and his committee for that view. None of the carefully organised flurry of letters supporting this Bill in recent days contradicts that a larger learning centre could provide for more, and more effective, learning, and that recent events have contributed to the substantial security risk that the Government’s proposal offers.
The Minister, who has always been extremely courteous and accessible to all of us—I thank him for that—has said publicly and in meetings that security can simply be dealt with by the planning process which would follow the passing of this Bill, if that occurs. I disagree with him that what is described as the planning process is adequate to deal with issues of security.
Before I come to that, I need to explain why I am so concerned about security. The proposed site is cheek by jowl with the Palace of Westminster. I and others—some of us over many years—have used Victoria Tower Gardens as a restful annexe to Parliament; we have sat there, eaten our sandwiches there, and sometimes been interviewed by the media there. It is very much part of the environment of this place, and any reconnaissance by an ill-wisher would reveal a stream of parliamentarians and journalists using the gardens, and children playing from estates with little open space near them in this part of Westminster.