Lord Fuller (Con)

My Lords, it has been an interesting debate and I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed. It was a good job that the speaking allocation was increased by 25%, because so many noble Lords had so much to say. It was a pleasure to see my noble friend Lord Roborough back in his seat—back in harness, so to speak—and fighting the good fight. The Government have painted themselves into a corner on the countryside, but I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, on her spirited defence. However, she invites me to make a further declaration of interest, because I am a long-standing, and lately long-suffering, shareholder of Adnams, the brewery at Southwold. Its beers are as good as ever, even though its shares are not quite as plump. There were so many contributions in the debate, including seasonal agricultural workers, education and rural crime, raised by my noble friend Lord Howard of Rising. We had the tension between alignment and mutual recognition, which is something we will return to in future weeks, with tourism and hospitality. The greatest pleasure I took from the debate was that the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, raised flooding before my noble friend Lady McIntosh, and then the greatest surprise was that the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, did not mention it although it is a hobby horse of hers. We covered housing and transport, from potholes to mopeds. I was very taken by the comments from my noble friend Lady Coffey, who echoed a previous Secretary of State for Agriculture—it was probably MAFF at that time of day—when she made the important contribution that people in the countryside are not rich. There is poverty, but because it is diffuse it cannot obviously be seen. However, that does not hide the fact that there is poverty none the less. It is harder to see but more difficult to deal with, and I do not think that has always been grasped by urban politicians who can see it right before their eyes. We have seen the interplay between business, councils, investment and the APR point. Let us not relitigate that, save to say that it particularly benights agricultural businesses because it includes the value of machinery, livestock and cultivations that are a work in progress, in a way that does not otherwise happen. To summarise, I think we have shown today that the countryside has an empathy, and a love of landscape. There is the commitment to service that the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, raised, and the importance of hard work. The people in the countryside do not want to be classed as second-class citizens because they love our green and pleasant land. I beg to move.