Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest (Con)

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions to this debate, particularly the quartet of maiden speakers. Briefly, I will run through a few comments. The noble Lord, Lord Hannett, is right, and I agree that history will judge the impact of raising the minimum wage. I thank my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe for talking about drink-driving in rural communities. One of our local pubs repurposed an ambulance—they called it the “paralytic unit”—and drove people home, so perhaps there is a business opportunity there for some people. I thank my noble friend Lord Smith of Hindhead for his passionate support of members’ clubs. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Forbes of Newcastle, on his maiden speech. I thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle for telling us about what is happening in Newcastle—I think one of the establishments that closed was called the Pickled Toad, and it is such a shame to lose something with that name. I also thank my noble friend Lord Borwick for giving us such a vivid description of his birth and for recognising the importance of entrepreneurs. To the noble Lord, Lord Empey, I say that all those issues on town centres and retail are so important. I thank my noble friend Lord Hannan for talking about public spending and the importance of taking ownership of that money. I particularly single out as a maiden speech that of the noble Baroness, Lady Shah, for expressing what we all think in this House—it is a surreal experience when you join, and I still have not quite got over it myself—and for so bravely sharing her own personal journey and that of her family, with all its sadnesses and challenges. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Rook, who, despite being teetotal, still raised his glass of lemonade in celebration of pubs, and my noble friend Lord Harlech for raising the issue of historic houses and the challenges that they face, which are so often forgotten. The noble Lord, Lord John of Southwark, took us on a journey from Weston-super-Mare to the House of Lords, and recognised the challenges that this sector faces. I appreciated that. If, as the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, says, the Labour employment laws increase employment in the hospitality sector, I shall apologise. If she is not right, it will not be people in this House who suffer. I thank my noble friend Lord Kempsell for recognising that publicans are very often social workers. I have seen that already in our pub. I thank my noble friend Lord Young for raising indirect harassment. That worries me about my cohort of people with learning disabilities who work in pubs; they have absolutely no social filter whatever—I can imagine we will have some very interesting conversations. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Fox, for recognising the effect of the national insurance changes and the rates, and for his suggestion of reducing VAT from 20p to 15p, which would make a huge difference to pubs. I thank the Minister for recognising what needs to happen and giving a shout out to the North Star. I end by saying that you are all welcome to come to Brighton and have a drink.