Lord Barber of Chittlehampton (Lab)

I thank my noble friend the Minister for her constructive reply. I should declare an interest as the founder of the accomplishment scholarship in history at Queen’s College, Oxford. This year is the 250th anniversary of one of the huge achievements of the Enlightenment. This anniversary does not require a party in Washington or a new ballroom at the White House, and it is British. I am talking about the publication of the first volume of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon’s masterpiece. Since then, Britain has produced a succession of brilliant, world-leading historians: Macaulay, Carlyle, Trevelyan, AJP Taylor, CV Wedgwood, Eric Hobsbawm, Simon Schama, Bettany Hughes, Antony Beevor, Peter Frankopan and our esteemed colleague on the Benches opposite, the noble Lord, Lord Roberts, to name but a few. The educational pipeline to this greatness has come under severe pressure for funding reasons in the last few years, and it is essential that we steward history as a discipline through these challenging times. Does the Minister agree that history is a foundational subject? I think she does. Does she agree that it is the cornerstone of a civilised and democratic society, and will she ensure that government actively promotes the study of history in UK universities so that it can and will stand on the sunlit uplands—I am thinking of the Malverns on a summer’s day—as a beacon to the world for decades to come?