Lord Spellar (Lab)

But first I thank not only the noble Lord but many other noble Lords from all sides of this House, many of whom I knew as Members of Parliament, for their very warm welcome to your Lordships’ House. I add to that my thanks to the clerks, Black Rod, the attendants and all the staff for their very willing and cheerful assistance in establishing new Peers in this House. I speak on behalf of many other new noble Lords—it is much appreciated. I am constrained by time and have to compress a 50-year political career and a 10-year war into six minutes. I will attempt to do my best. First, mine is the classic route of the baby boomer generation—pass the 11-plus, go to the direct grant school, study PPE at Oxford. Then there were 23 years working for the electricians’ union, which merged into the AEEU, where the noble Lord, Lord Jordan, who was one of my sponsors, was president of that combined union. That union had been controlled by the Communist Party and I was working for those who had fought it and taken back the union into the members’ control. We were at the heart of the Cold War both here and internationally, defending free trade unionism around the world, most notably Solidarność, the Polish trade union movement, which we assisted—supporting it in Poland and in its campaigns here. It is a part of my life of which I am extremely proud. I firmly believe that trade unionism is essential not only for the dignity of people at work but as a backbone of democracy. At that same time I was also active in Labour politics. I was elected to council in December 1970. I was the youngest councillor in London at that time and defeated the Liberals on a 28% swing. It has been downhill ever since.