Member

Much as I love “The Burghers of Calais”, which I think is one of the finest sculptures in the whole of London, visited by people from all over the world, because it is one of three casts of that sculpture and the one in Calais is uncomfortably near to a roundabout and not very easy to look at, if you create such a place, people will come to it because of what it is. I suggest to the Committee that it is a complete falsity to say that we must put it in Victoria Tower Gardens because it stands cheek by jowl with Parliament. I will speak later and not now, grateful as I am to my noble and learned friend Lord Etherton’s Select Committee, on the subject of security, but on this point, I think we should focus on what we are really considering. For those reasons in particular, I support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, and later I shall speak on the important amendments tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone.