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17 Jun 2009 : Column 105WH—continued
“The UK has special obligations towards our Overseas Territories. The people of the Overseas Territories are British citizens. The UK remains committed to meeting their reasonable assistance needs and to helping them move towards economic self-sufficiency”.
Moreover, article 73 of the UN Charter states:
“Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of self-government recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present Charter, the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories”.
It is clear that the needs of the third world, however worthy, should be secondary to the obligation to our own citizens.
Deciding not to build the airport and commissioning another ship—option B in the consultation—would represent an enormous waste of taxpayers’ money on the access project, which has amounted to some £8 million to date. During the past 20 years, the UK taxpayer has spent more than £330 million at today’s prices in subsidies to St. Helena. That is more than the cost of building the airport. The Minister stated on 27 March, as I am sure he remembers, that it will cost up to £75 million to build a replacement for RMS St. Helena. That is almost a third of the cost of the airport and would be in addition to the continued and increasing annual subsidy to the island, which would still be required.
Building a new ship will not provide sufficient capacity for St. Helena to develop a tourism industry, nor will it arrest the continued, irreversible decline, and it makes no financial sense for the British taxpayer. Building a new ship also makes no logistical sense. RMS St. Helena currently travels to the island only 33 times a year, and only twice a year from the UK. When the ship is dry-docked, there is no access to the island. That can be a matter of life and death for inhabitants who require urgent medical treatment. There is also considerable anxiety on the island that should the ship be disabled for any reason, the island would be cut off for an indefinite period. The option of continuing sea-only access and the risks that that brings will prolong indefinitely reliance on such a tenuous lifeline.
Deferring a decision on the airport for another five years—option C in the consultation document—is without question the worst option of all. Financially, a five-year delay will benefit nobody, least of all the British taxpayer. The additional cost of the delay could be as much as £100 million. The consultation document concedes on page 17 that the cost of building the airport and its essential support facilities, including roads, a new bulk fuel farm and water supplies, a wharf at Rupert’s bay and inshore sea rescue services, will increase in the event of such a delay.
The consultation document also accepts that a delay would mean a loss of confidence in the bid process, which was at an advanced stage. Potential investors would understandably lose interest and the prospect for economic sustainability would be further set back as skilled workers continued to leave the island. Postponing a decision for five years would leave St. Helena in limbo, with no direction for the future, and condemn the island to depending on more and more subsidies just to maintain the status quo. Meanwhile, as the cost of building the airport increased, investors would lose interest and the British Government would be tempted to abandon the scheme.
If option C were taken, the need for an airport would increase, but the prospect of building it would recede, thus condemning the island and its population to terminal decline. St. Helena simply cannot afford to wait five more years with no guarantee that an airport will be built. With prolonged uncertainty over access and disillusion over economic prospects at home, outward migration is liable to resume, with serious adverse consequences for maintaining a viable society and economy.
The Government argue for delay on the grounds of the global recession and the resulting state of public finances in the UK, but that is a short-sighted approach. Building an airport now is the best solution for everyone. For the United Kingdom taxpayer, it would provide a tangible return on investment and reduce, if not end, the need for subsidies. Saints do not want to live on handouts from the British people. They do not want charity. They want desperately to stand on their own two feet, and it is up to this country to help them do so. Building an airport now is the only option that would give them the chance to manage their own affairs. Surely, that is a “reasonable assistance need”, as stated in page 2 of the consultation document.
All parties including the Government agree that building an airport is the only answer to the problem of long-term financial dependency. Even the certainty of building it will stimulate the economy and encourage significant investment. The Minister said on 13 March that
“without an airport, St. Helena will remain dependent on UK budgetary aid indefinitely...with the introduction of air access and development of the island’s tourism industry, the need for financial support would reduce progressively with the increasing potential for St. Helena to become self sufficient in the long term.”—[Official Report, 13 March 2009; Vol. 492, c. 856W.]
I could not have put it better myself.
2.51 pm
Mr. Andrew Smith (Oxford, East) (Lab): I congratulate the hon. Member for Congleton (Ann Winterton) on securing this important and timely debate. She is right to say that the House and the Government must listen to the views of, and address the needs of the people of, St. Helena. The arguments are simple, and she ably set out the relevant points.
Like the hon. Lady, I was stimulated to take an interest in St. Helena by my constituents. I am fortunate to have in my constituency a community of Saints and many families with origins and connections in St. Helena. When we had a Labour club in Headington, it was the base for the St. Helena community and their social activity, and I got to know many of the families, building ties of friendship that have spanned more than 30 years. They are hard-working and loyal British citizens who understandably want to be able more easily to visit their island of origin and to see its economy—and thus its cultural and community viability—secured for the future. Although, against the backdrop of all that we need to do to combat change, it is right that any development of airports be closely scrutinised, the location of St. Helena, 1,200 miles from south-west Africa, surely makes a strong case. Indeed, that case has been considered, thoroughly evaluated and approved, and a promise has been made.
As my constituents, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks of Rose Hill, wrote to me earlier this year:
“The airport is vital to reduce the isolation of over 4,000 inhabitants who are loyal British citizens and give them and thousands of other ‘Saints’ who have been forced to seek work abroad hope for a better future. In December the Government announced a ‘pause’ in its negotiations over the contract. The announcement effectively brings the project to a halt. It appears that the Treasury refused to grant the money. The decision came as a huge shock to islanders, who had voted in support of the scheme. Many ‘Saints’ had plans to return to the island and find employment during the construction of the airport and develop business opportunities as a result of it. It would also enable many of us to return home to visit our family within a reasonable period of time, since we currently have to be away from the UK for three weeks to spend one week on the island.”
In response to the representations that I made on behalf of our St. Helena community, and after I received a petition, my hon. Friend the Minister told me in a letter of 11 April what had already been announced:
“Negotiations for a contract to build an airport in St. Helena were paused in December 2008 in the light of the changed economic climate.”
We should reflect on the phrase “the changed economic climate”. It puzzled me and seemed to contradict the
Government’s sensible policy of tackling the recession by accelerating, not deferring, infrastructural investment. As we have heard, the consultation has now been published. It covers the same ground as previous consultations and the 2002 referendum. Incidentally, I hope that this debate will be accepted and considered as part of the response to the consultation.
What we need from the Minister is a Government commitment to get on and resolve the situation. If there are alternatives to the airport that offer St. Helena a future—as we have heard, nobody who has considered the issue has come up with one so far—we would need to know what they are, how they would work and, especially, how they would address the point explored so effectively by the hon. Lady: the island’s continued acute dependency and the decline of its social fabric due to an ageing population. Otherwise, that dependency will stretch on, at a cost of £25 million and rising. What is more, hope will be drained from the islanders.
As the hon. Lady said, the people of St. Helena want to stand on their own two feet. It must be right to help them do so. I hope that in replying, my hon. Friend the Minister will give us firm assurances that the acid test for the Government’s decision and future policy will be the economic, cultural and social viability of St. Helena and the welfare of its citizens. They are loyal to us, and we must be loyal to them and their future.
2.56 pm
Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab/Co-op): I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Congleton (Ann Winterton) on securing this debate and demonstrating again that, despite St. Helena’s distance and its relatively small number of inhabitants, as well as those Saints living in the UK, many parliamentarians take seriously the responsibilities that this country owes to our overseas territories. I will not make a long speech, as I had my own Westminster Hall debate on this subject a few months ago, but some of the issues bear repeating and considering in greater depth.
Overseas territories that receive budgetary aid from the UK Government do so through the Department for International Development. That creates a number of problems. In our previous debate, the Minister compared the support given to the people of St. Helena to support given to people in developing countries. I hope sincerely that he will not do so today. Although we have a moral responsibility to help people in developing countries—a responsibility that this Government have taken more seriously than any previous Government—we have legal responsibilities to the people who live in our overseas territories. To counterpose the two is most unhelpful and does not take us further forward. Development aid to people in developing countries is given for all sorts of good reasons, but just as we have had to consider how to develop the regions of our country—our policies to close the gap between the poorer regions of the UK and the south-east have been important to economic policy here in Britain—we must take seriously closing the enormous gap between the situation of British citizens in our overseas territories and British citizens who live here.
I will concentrate briefly on the social issues. The hon. Lady covered the wide range of issues important to the debate, but I want to focus a bit more on the
social fabric. Successful societies have a diverse range of people of all ages. One issue facing western Europe generally is an ageing population, so we must consider how to get more people in to support the economy and so forth.
Like a number of our overseas territories, St. Helena has a small society. It needs people of all ages if it is to be successful, not just economically, but socially. If the economy does not enable people of working age to stay on St. Helena, the social side will suffer. These are not short-term problems. If children are not brought up by their parents because one or both of them have to work away from the island, that will impact on their long-term emotional well-being. If children have to stay with other people, all sorts of issues can arise.
I do not want to suggest that the people of St. Helena are different from any other society. However, we know that when children grow up with other families, whether through fostering or informal care, problems arise. My background is in social work, which I did for many years. I have seen the kinds of problems that children face in such situations. We know that those can be exacerbated in smaller societies because there are fewer people with the resources to provide support. If, in addition, the time that it takes for people to return to their families is exacerbated by poor transport links, that will affect children who, for example, become ill and need to see their parents. Those things can be damaging and we must take them seriously.
Elderly people do not face only the issue of whether they can get the right medical care and support. People thrive more if they have regular contact with their families. We often worry in the UK that people move away from where they grew up—for all sorts of reasons, such as jobs—and do not support their elderly parents. How much more difficult must that be for people who live thousands of miles away from their elderly parents, and for whom it would take several days to return?
I believe that if we invest in the island by creating an airport and opening up access, this society has real potential. That is not just a wish that comes out of the air. It is based on the experience of another of our overseas territories. The Falkland Islands had a population that was in decline and had relatively few elderly people because the resources for them were so poor that many had left. As a result of an event that none of us would have wished on the Falkland Islanders—the war of the early ’80s—the UK Government invested hugely in that territory.
The Government built roads. When I had the privilege to visit the Falklands, I was surprised to learn that there were few roads there before the conflict. The Government gave hospital support. A whole range of support is now available. The Falklands can sell fishing licences, and the economy is doing well. It has fewer residents than St. Helena. Elderly people who grew up on the Falkland Islands and then left because of the lack of support have returned. The hospital can undertake a wide range of medical procedures because of its links to other hospitals through technology and advice. Surgeons from the UK can also fly out there to undertake operations in a relatively short time.
The future for the people of St. Helena could be so much brighter. I will not go into the economic case because it is blindingly obvious. To delay at a time when we have the support of the private sector, which has
invested hugely, is sheer madness. We should move ahead with the airport and give a real future to the people of St. Helena. Without doing so, can this Government say in all conscience that they are meeting their responsibilities to this overseas territory?
3.4 pm
Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs. Dean. I congratulate the hon. Member for Congleton (Ann Winterton) on securing the debate and the measured way she put her compelling case for the airport, which is necessary for the economic future of the island. I congratulate the hon. Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Meg Munn) on her contribution, which follows on from the debate that she secured earlier this year. I also congratulate the right hon. Member for Oxford, East (Mr. Smith) on his contribution.
I also congratulate the hon. Member for North-East Milton Keynes (Mr. Lancaster), although he has not spoken yet. As a member of Her Majesty’s Opposition, he has done something that no Minister has ever done: visited the island of St. Helena to see it first hand. What a pity that no Minister has ever bothered to do so. Royalty have managed to visit more than once and it is a shame that Her Majesty’s Government have never sent a Minister there. The Government have come up with schemes and then dashed hopes. It was a shameful act that, having taken the island so near to the commencement of work, the Government pulled the plug.
I must declare an interest as chairman of the all-party island of St. Helena group. The patron saint of Colchester is St. Helena, although it is pronounced differently. My wife, our three children and I were all taught at St. Helena school, although that is not why I ended up as chairman of the all-party group. It is because, like other hon. Members, a constituent contacted me. In 1996, one of the first letters I received explained that a previous Government had withdrawn British citizenship. It is to the credit of this Government that they restored full British citizenship to the overseas territories.
St. Helena’s pedigree predates the Union of England and Scotland. It was under the Crown of England before Great Britain existed. That is how strong its pedigree is. The islanders feel British; they are British. Why can they not be treated like British subjects, rather than as if they live in a country that has no connection with Britain and that we have no responsibility for? Quite rightly, the Department for International Development provides funds. That is to the credit of successive Governments and all political parties agree that it should happen, but the people who live on St. Helena should not be in receipt of international development aid. They are British citizens and should be treated as such.
It is worth pointing out the fact that residents of St. Helena serve in Her Majesty’s armed forces. I do not know what the statistics are now, but a few years ago I came up with a great pub question: which country has the most people per head of population serving in Her Majesty’s armed forces? Of course, the answer was St. Helena. More than 50 were serving then, which is a high percentage of a population of little more than 4,000.
As hon. Members have said, there is now just an ageing population at one end and a young population at the other because the economic generators have had to leave the island in large numbers to secure economic benefits for themselves and their families. Interestingly, some of those people find work on the Falkland Islands. I have said in jocular fashion in the past what a pity it is that the Argentineans did not invade St. Helena as well, because invasion was the saving grace for the Falkland Islanders.
I accuse the Government of economic apartheid. The vast majority of people, if not the entire population, on the Falklands are white. Overwhelmingly, the population of St. Helena is not white. The Government are treating two island communities in the south Atlantic totally differently. Hundreds of millions of pounds have been pumped into the Falkland Islands while the Government treat the people of St. Helena as second-class citizens. That extends even to the people from St. Helena who helped to liberate the Falkland Islands on the RMS St. Helena, all of whom have been denied the South Atlantic medal.
It is not the fault of those people that they were not in the exclusion zone long enough. They went down there, but were kept out until they were required to go in. It is appalling that successive Governments have not even recognised the bravery of people from the island of St. Helena, who gave up their only means of communication—the RMS—only for Governments to tell them, “You can’t have a medal.” That is shameful.
As another aside, I should say that five girl guides and two guide leaders from the island will come to the UK next year as part of the centenary of girl guiding. Funds are being raised. Would it not be nice if the Government chipped in? Two years ago, the island just managed to raise sufficient money for one scout to come here for the centenary of scouting in Hylands park, Essex. That young man was away from the island for about a month because of the problems with the connection provided by the RMS and the TriStar from Ascension. Little wonder people from the island feel betrayed.
There is not a single MP here today to support the Minister, which is not surprising because he does not believe half the things he will be saying in a few minutes. He does not believe, although he may want to contradict me, that the cancellation, postponement, deferment or delay of the airport is the right thing to do—of course it is not.
Let us look just at the economics and the finance, because the Government are clearly not listening to the people of the island of St. Helena or to the arguments about their needs and welfare. Whether the issue is families, human rights, employment or tourism, the Government have not listened to any of the arguments in favour of the airport. They say, “It’s the economics. It’s the downturn in the economy. We can’t afford it.” However, the simple maths shows that providing an airport would take the island from being a net recipient of aid to self-sufficiency and surplus within 10 years.
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